[knighthawk]

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[knighthawk]

D-Day 60th-anniversary events in Normandy

(CP) - A look at some of the events planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day on June 6.

Canadian services: The main services will be held at Juno Beach in Normandy, where Prime Minister Paul Martin is to pay tribute to Canadian soldiers who landed on the eight-kilometre stretch of sand. The Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles-Sur-Mer is the focus of the service, but other towns are also planning events. Neighbouring Bernieres-Sur-Mer is holding a ceremony at the Canadian monument at Place du Canada, and in the evening will hold a street dinner for returning veterans. On June 5, Anguerny will dedicate its square to Capt. Michel Gauvin, who was decorated for his service during the Battle of Normandy.

British services: A series of commemorative events are scheduled, including tentative plans for a reconstruction of the landings by the Royal Navy at Asnelles. In Caen, the Royal Marines will conduct a military parade at city hall square and Allied war ships will be docked in the harbour. The Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair are scheduled to attend D-Day services.

American services: The official American ceremony will be held at Pointe-du-Hoc, with President George W. Bush scheduled to attend. Among the events planned over the weekend are a reconstruction of the 4th Infantry Division's military camp, where an open-air dinner will be held.

French services: The main D-Day service to recognize all the Allied landings on June 6 will be held in Arromanches-les-Bains, where French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder are scheduled to be in attendance. Russian President Vladimir Putin will also attend the main commemoration services, a significant move because it represents a changing view in Moscow of the importance of D-Day, something the Soviet Union had played down in the past because of its emphasis on the Red army's role in defeating the Nazis. An evening fireworks display is planned,one of several that will light up the night skies across Normandy over the weekend

More details: The official commemmoration website is at www.normandiememoire.com

http://www.canada.com/winnipeg/story.asp?id=F9653D46-7E9E-4F9E-8E0B-095724986167

[Atlantic Friend]

Indeed.

I would add the French Resistance movements that had been activated through coded messages would have been wiped out by the German forces, freed from fighting in the Allied beachheads, and these movements had taken as much as 4 years to build. A second invasion on 1945 or 1946 would probably not have benefited from surprise, and the guerrilla actions Eisenhower likened to the action of 15 infantry divisions would not have taken place.

And so many good men would have been lost...

[Seydlitz]

Operation Barbarossa was pretty ambitious. Too ambitious, as it turned out...

[ProudVet77]

Have to say that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was more ambitious.
Overlord was riskier however. Had the Germans detected the invasion fleet from the air or on radar and brought up their reserve panzers we may have never gotten off the beach. The resulting disaster would have set the war effort back a year or two, giving Germany time to develop it's nuke and get more jet fighters in the air.

[facedown]

Hard to argue with the basic premise but The Inchon Invasion, September 1950 -- Overview and Selected Images was pretty impressive.