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9:21 p.m. John McCain kicked the evening off with a wild exaggeration by describing the allied invasion of Normandy as "the greatest invasion" in history. Such historical comparisons are always dangerous. In scale, the D-Day landings were far exceeded by Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, in June 1941, and the Soviet invasion of Germany at the end of World War II.

"Scuba divers searching for hidden treasures at the bottom of the English Channel got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across two massive army tanks on the ocean floor." "Divers found the massive vehicles were relatively well preserved with guns still intact even after more than 64 years under sea. And by painstakingly checking minute details on the sunken vehicles against historical records, investigators managed to identify them as rare British Centaur CS IV tanks. The historic weapons were destined for battle during the D-Day landings but never arrived. Historians discovered the tanks fell overboard when a landing...

The names “Thomas and Dorothy” were carved in the bark of one trunk. Another said “Bob and Carma”. Other trees were marked with soldiers’ home states - Iowa, Maine or Alabama - and several bore hearts and the names or initials of a wife or girlfriend. The beech trees of Saint Pierre de Varengeville-Duclair forest bore a poignant testimony to the D-Day landings for more than six decades. Thousands of American soldiers stationed there after the liberation of Normandy spent their spare hours with a knife or bayonet creating a lasting reminder of their presence.

FRIDAY EVENING, WALTER REED FRONT GATE:A sultry evening, hot and humid, typical Washington summer weather, albeit earlier then usual. But we had plenty of ice-cold water and sodas to help combat the heat. It did cool off at dusk and no one wilted. As we were setting up, VictoryNY, with only a sign, began to capture the attention of drivers and passengers. Throughout the evening we had positive participation on all four corners. RonGKirby didn’t disappoint as he continued to bring a relevant sign for the day. Tonight, of course, his message was to thank the WW II soldiers for...

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty...

D-Day, June 6, 1944Men of the 16th Infantry Regiment seek shelter from German machine-gun fire behind "Czech hedgehog" beach obstacles, Easy Red sector, Omaha Beach, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies militaryand the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Soldiers' First-Hand Accounts of D-Day Click Eisenhower speaks with U.S. paratroopers of the 502d Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division on the evening of June 5, 1944. Eisenhower's D-Day Message Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark...

Video - Memo to Mr. Obama: This is the America your preacher damns. We ARE the good guys and sometimes, when talking doesn't work, you just have to go kill the bad guys. Learn your history.

ON THE ROAD TO BERLIN OWING to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn't arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore. By the time we got there the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping and artillery fire, and the occasional startling blast of a mine geysering brown sand into the air. That plus a gigantic and pitiful litter of wreckage along miles of shore line. Submerged tanks and overturned...

Early in the morning of June 6, 1944, Americans heard on their radios that thousands of American and British soldiers had landed on the beaches of northern France. They were fighting German soldiers. This day marked the beginning of the end of one of the bloodiest wars ever: World War II. The American and British invasion of France was a top-secret mission called "Operation Overlord." When they landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, the goal of every soldier was to drive the German military back. Thousands of men died during that effort, either in the churning...

June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which "we will accept nothing less than full victory." More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.http://www.army.mil/d-day/

Southeast Texas seniors describe storming beach at Normandy as young men By: ROSE YBARRA, The Enterprise 06/06/2008 Updated 06/06/2008 09:57:18 AM CDT Arlie Horn stands by a display of medals he received while serving in the U.S. Army. On the evening of June 5, 1944, Arlie Ray Horn and his fellow soldiers from the 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division were fired up. Their adrenaline was pumping as they prepared mentally and physically to invade Omaha Beach - the code name for a spot on the shores of Normandy on the French coast. The troops were ready for immediate battle against...

Since today is the 64 Anniversary of D-Day, thought I would post Erin Pyle's 3 columns from Normandy. Even across the gap of years, his words are incredibly powerful. Column 1 A Pure Miracle NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 12, 1944 - Due to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore. By the time we got here the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping...

D-DAY, FDR, June 6 1944 FDR, PRAYER, GOD, D-DAY, TODAY No matter what we may think of FDR—and what I think is ambivalent at best—the man had a soul and seemed to love his country. Same goes for JFK, along with a comparable ambivalence. However, this speech by FDR, delivered while the invasion of Normandy was in progress, stands in stark contrast with the thinking of too many of our leaders today. That invasion didn’t take a day, of course. Dubbed “Operation Overlord,” it consisted of a great armada of some 7000 ships and landing craft, almost 200,000 allied naval...

WASHINGTON -- Sixty-four years ago this week, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came on the radio and implored Americans to "devote themselves in a continuance of prayer invoking thy help to our efforts." The "effort" of which he spoke was Operation Overlord, the D-Day landing of 150,000 American and Allied troops at Normandy. The risks were so great that Winston Churchill told the people of Britain: "The invasion has been launched. The result is with God." FDR described it as "a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity."...

THE HISTORIC INVASION ON THE BEACHES OF NORMANDY TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM THE NAZIS Encyclopædia Britannica tells the story of the Normandy Invasion through the spoken recollections of veterans who fought it, the newsreels that brought the news home, and the written words of historians who have dedicated years to studying the great campaign.

An American tank that formed part of the 1944 D-Day invasion force was discovered buried under a street in northern France. French bomb disposal experts were brought in to ensure the military vehicle posed no danger before it was dug out from its muddy grave in near perfect condition. Council workers came across the M5 tank as they carried out routine repairs to the road in Chartres, 55 miles south-west of Paris. It is thought the tank from the 31st Tank Battalion formed part of the invasion force that liberated France from the Nazis more than six decades ago. Residents...

Be Seated. Men, this stuff we hear about America wanting to stay out of the war, not wanting to fight, is a lot of bullsh*t. Americans love to fight - traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player; the fastest runner; the big league ball players; the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win - all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why...

<p>Dedicated in memory of all those who landed in Normandy June 6, 1944.</p> <p>In loving memory and with eternal gratitude. Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Uncle Ralph. At ease, fellas. Bravo Zulu.</p>

It was my privilege to know Fred Reese, a World War II veteran who passed away on December 2, 2007. Fred joined the Big One Red (E Company / 16th Infantry) as a replacement in England, following the 1st Division's campaigns in North Africa and Sicily. On D-Day, Fred landed in the first wave on Omaha beach. His squad (led by Lt John Spalding) was the first to make a breakthrough up the bluffs on the Easy Red section by destroying German gun positions and machine gun nests. Their path cleared the way for hundreds of soldiers to follow....

'As their landing craft touched down on the shoreline at 6.30am, they stumbled forward into Hell. Some 1,500 soldiers died in the bloody battle by the Americans to take Omaha Beach on D-Day - under fire from a well-disguised German gun emplacement. The onslaught memorably featured in the memorable opening scenes of the film Saving Private Ryan. But military experts remain divided over exactly where the battery that laid down such a murderous bombardment was sited. But now, a chance discovery by an amateur historian appears to have finally revealed the answer more than 63 years after the Allied invasion...

Crumpled map solves mystery of German gun behind D-Day massacreLast updated at 17:03pm on 4th January 2008A baffling mystery of the D-Day landings was solved by an amateur historian - after he found a crumpled map at a fair in Stockport.  Experts have long disputed the location of the main Nazi gun battery which caused carnage on Omaha Beach, in terrible scenes which were recreated for the Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan.  The Germans had built a decoy gun emplacement overlooking the area while the location of the real guns which blasted the beach, where 2,000 men lost their...

Here's the link to French President Nicholas Sarkozy's speech to Congress last week. Prepare to be inspired! In his speech, he gave a moving tribute to the American soldiers who fought and died to liberate France, not once but twice, during the last century. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlt2GE4EYo4

French President Nicholas Sarkozy will present the Legion of Honor to an American previously citied for his efforts to rescue wounded men during the D-Day invasion.

Photos of fresh-faced privates, wizened U.S. generals and the largest amphibious military operation in history. Dented army canteens that once dotted killing fields in France. The booming sounds of gunships echoing over the waves in Normandy — this time, on video. The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, best known for its sober rows of white grave markers honoring fallen U.S. troops in World War II, has at last gotten a visitor's center. Nearly a million visitors trek every year to the cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, one of the two landing points where U.S. troops stormed ashore on D-Day — June...

FOR Hein Severloh the ‘Longest Day’ meant nine hours constantly machine-gunning American soldiers as they attempted to land on Omaha Beach. One image still brings tears to his eyes. A young American had run from his landing craft and sought cover behind a concrete block. Severloh, then a young lance-corporal in the German army in Normandy, aimed his rifle at the GI. He fired and hit the enemy square in the forehead. The American’s helmet flew away and rolled into the sea, his chin sank to his chest and he collapsed dead on the beach. Tormented by the memory, Severloh...

America (or America, We Love Your Heroes) Sung by Kelly God From the DVD “Andre Rieu Live in Dublin” Ocean bird, I wish to tell you A story from a long time ago. Oh ocean bird, I wish to tell you That sad old song you have to know.America, so many heroes They left their homes and crossed the waves. America, you sent your young boys Oh ocean bird, how must I tell you That sad old song? They came to save us! America, so many heroes They lost their lives and filled the graves.America, we love your heroes America,...

Sixty-three years ago this week, we landed on the Normandy beaches. As on each anniversary of June 6, 1944, much has been written to commemorate the bravery and competence of the victorious Anglo-American forces. All true. But as we ponder this achievement of the Greatest Generation that helped lead to the surrender of Nazi Germany less than a year later, we should remember that the entire campaign was, as Wellington said of Waterloo, a near-run thing. Our forefathers made several mistakes. They attacked nonexistent artillery emplacements. Planes dropped paratroopers far from intended targets. Critical landing assignments on Omaha Beach were...

The USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, glistening from a full-body makeover, arrived in style at Staten Island on Wednesday to the cheers, hoots and hollers of former crew members and World War II veterans. "It's like running into an old girlfriend who had a facelift," said 82-year-old Ray Stone, a former Navy radar man who served on board the Intrepid from 1943 to 1945. "I nearly broke down in tears when I saw her," said Stone. "Her bottom has been scraped of barnacles and she looks just like she did way back when." Stone was among about 400 people who attended...

On the evening before D-Day, Eisenhower left SHAEF headquarters at 6 PM and traveled to Newbury where the 101st Airborne was boarding for the invasion. To the last moment Ike's air commander Leigh-Mallory saw only tragedy from the air assault, predicting hundreds of planes and gliders would be shot down by German artillery and aircraft. Ike remained just as committed to the idea that the risk needed to be taken. Ike arrived at 8 PM and did not leave until after 11 PM when the last C-47 was airborne. In My Three Years with Eisenhower Captain Harry C. Butcher says,...

The Combat Report put this video together to demonstrate what would happen if we saddled the greatest generation with our generation's media As an antidote, go check out Mary Katherine Ham's post for D-Day. She honors one of my personal heroes, Major Dick Winters, and others with links and videos. Speaking of Dick Winters, here's the "Band of Brothers" Day of Days video of Easy Company's Airborne Assault into France.

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. - The family of Pvt. William Bernice Clark never had a funeral for him, never got to say goodbye and never really accepted his fate among the fallen during the Normandy D-Day landings in World War II. That was until his dog tag was discovered in the sands of Omaha Beach. On Wednesday _ exactly 63 years after that tragic day _ the aged tag was returned to his native Tennessee. "This feels like an ending," said the soldier's first cousin, 79-year-old Lota Park, who along with another cousin accepted the dog tag at a ceremony in the...

Wednesday - June 5, 2007D-DAY A/K/A OPERATION OVERLORD AND THE BATTLE OF NORMANDYSixty-three years ago on this day allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in what is still, to this day, the largest seaborne invasion in the history of the world. Just a little historical oddity, but the name for the overall operation to retake Western Europe from Hitler's Nazis was Operation Overlord. The name for the actual June 6th invasion of Normandy was Operation Neptune. Neptune began on June 6, 1944, and ended 24 days later on June 30th. The allied forces suffered about 10,000 causalities on D-Day....

Good Morning. It is June 4, 1944. Welcome to The Mullings Cable Network's continuing coverage of: "Operation Overlord: What's Taking So Long?" I'm Rich Rundling. Let's go first to MCN's White House reporter, Greg Smith for the latest. SMITH: Thank you, Rich. Hill Leaders have told MCN news that an invasion of Europe is, in their words, "very, very imminent." These sources, who have been privy to briefings by the Roosevelt War Cabinet, tell us that "the number of troops, the number of ships, and the sheer size of war materiel shipments" clearly point to an invasion, possibly within the...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56031 This is probably a John Edwards primping in the mirror-level vanity, but it really is in the news today...honest! Thanks to our U.S. troops...this is for them. Excerpt: From another era, an unwavering voice speaks slowly, its gravity punctuated by ministerial pauses: "Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. ..." It was June 6, 1944, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt first addressed a nation beset by war. While American, British and Canadian...

On this day in 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord, code-named D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. By daybreak, 18,000 British and American parachutists were already on the ground. At 6:30 a.m., American troops came ashore at Utah and Omaha beaches. At Omaha, the U.S. First Division battled high seas, mist, mines, burning vehicles-and German coastal batteries, including an elite infantry division, which spewed heavy fire. Many wounded Americans ultimately drowned in the high tide. British divisions, which landed at Gold, and Sword beaches, and...

D-DAY HISTORY AND LINKS D-Day: It is hard to conceive the epic scope of this decisive battle that foreshadowed the end of Hitler's dream of Nazi domination. Overlord was the largest air, land, and sea operation undertaken before or since June 6, 1944. The landing included over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men. After years of meticulous planning and seemingly endless training, for the Allied Forces, it all came down to this: The boat ramp goes down, then jump, swim, run, and crawl to the cliffs. Many of the first young men (most not yet 20...

On 6/6, DC-based XM Satellite Radio's 1940's channel, The 40s (XM-4), will re-create radio's coverage of the D-Day invasion of the Normandy coast of France. Beginning with the first bulletin from that morning, which aired at 12:41 AM (ET), XM will air in real-time NBC's original radio news bulletins of the invasion (currently housed in the National Archives) as heard by radio listeners nearly 63 years ago. The special will be based on the original NBC broadcast schedule, which is cataloged in the Library Of Congress, and will conclude at 5:45 PM on 6/7. The marathon will also feature music...

Next Wednesday, June 6th, XM will air a unique special that re-creates the radio coverage of D-Day, with archival reports from NBC’s original radio news bulletins of the invasion. This incredible broadcast will air, in real-time, starting at 12:41am ET (which was the time of the first airing) and will end June 7th, at 5:45pm ET on The '40s (ch 4). The special will be based on the original NBC radio news reports of the invasion (currently housed in the National Archives) exactly as it was heard almost 63 years ago. The marathon will also feature music of the era...

COLLEVILLE SUR MER, France, May 25, 2007 (AFP) - The sacrifice of thousands of US soldiers who died in the D-Day landings are honoured in a new visitors' centre opening Saturday at the Colleville sur Mer cemetery in northern France. Situated on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach, one of the landing points of the June 6, 1944 allied invasion, the centre traces the story of US soldiers who stormed the Normandy beaches to end the Nazi occupation of Europe. "We simply wanted to tell future generations what happened here," said Daniel Neese, director of the visitors' centre. The exhibits pay...

Dedication of New Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center Set for June 6, 2007 Sixty-three years after Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to turn the tide of World War II in Europe, a new visitor center at the Normandy American Cemetery in France will open in June 2007 to tell the story of the 9,387 Americans buried there and put the D-Day landings and follow-on battle in Europe in perspective as one of the greatest military achievements of all time. The $30 million visitor center will be dedicated and opened to the public on June 6, 2007 during...

I just read about this petition to get Major Winters a Medal of Honor, for his action on 6 June 1944 at Brecourt Manor, to disable a battery of German 105mm guns, that were shelling Utah beach. The award was passed by Congress in 2002(HR2790) To award the MOH. It has been stalled by an under secretary of Defence, and has not been sent to Rumsfeld's desk. Major Winters is 87 years old and in ill health with Parkinson's Disease, and a weak heart.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2007 – The additional 21,000 troops moving into Iraq will be phased in over the next several months, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today. There will not be a single major movement, or “D-Day,” for the additional troops, Gates said at a White House news conference. By June, 20 brigade combat teams or their equivalents will be in Iraq, Pentagon officials said. There are now 15. In a nationally televised address last night, President Bush announced the troop increase and said five new brigades will go to Baghdad. The city is the “center of gravity”...

In 1944, medium Helen Duncan became the last woman in Britain to be convicted of witchcraft when one of her seances exposed a government attempt to cover up the deaths of 861 sailors. Now, campaigners aim to clear her name It started much the same as her other seances. With a chilling moan and strange white substance leaking from her mouth, Helen Duncan began communicating with the dead... But suddenly, the eerie calm was pierced by a police whistle and officers piled into the house, in Portsmouth, Hants, to arrest Britain's top medium. The following morning Helen, known as Hellish...

World War II veteran Vincent DiGaetano passed away this morning on Long Island, New York. He was 82 years old.Vinny served in the 16th Infantry, 1st Division, from Normandy to Czechoslovakia. On D-Day, Vinny was a private and it was his first day in combat. He landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach. His story was included in Stephen Ambrose's D-Day and in Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day. His squad (led by Sgt. Phil Streczyk) was the first to make a breakthrough off the beach in the Easy Red section of Omaha beach.Rest in peace.

Red Buttons, the carrot-topped burlesque comedian who became a top star in early television then went dramatic to win the 1957 Oscar as supporting actor in "Sayonara," died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 87. Buttons died of vascular disease at his home in the Century City area of Los Angeles, publicist Warren Cowan said. He had been ill for some time, and was with family members when he died, Cowan said.

A Day at the Beach It’s summer, so let’s think about the sunny fun we have ahead of us. Imagine you decide it’s time to go to the beach. A good friend of yours is not too excited about the venture, so you do a little coaxing. It won’t be just you two; there will be a bunch of the boys with you. Unfortunately, the forecasts from the best meteorologists aren’t predicting very favorable weather for the next few weeks, but you are determined. You decide, after waiting for what seems way too long, your day has come. So you...

Yes, I know this song has no resemblance to the orginal, but the tune is poignant and right for this song. MIDI - CANDLE IN THE WIND It was June the sixth in a time that seems long ago Some brave men faced a horror that most men will never know The world was plunged in darkness by a man who's evil defined His domination of the world was what he had in mind How they found the courage facing death may be hard to understand But they knew what must be done protecting this great land Many died on...

I couldn't go to bed tonight without saying something about the anniversary of Normandy. There can NEVER be enough said about that incomprehensable sacrifice. So, here's my two cents. Thank you, and God bless you, to those who 62 years ago this morning, stood and fought through what is arguably the worst single assault in the history of mankind. What is not arguable is the fact that in doing so, they helped guarantee the freedom and liberty and privilege to live as we see fit without persecution, that we as Americans all enjoy, and sometimes, many times, take for granted....

One of two speeches commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, this speech was delivered at the site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where veterans of the Normandy Invasion, and others, had assembled for the ceremony. Later during the day, President Reagan spoke at Omaha Beach, France. 1,988 words. We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions...