Probably not hyperbole.
My now deceased father inlaw was part of this. He was in the Screaming Eagles as a glider infantryman (think it was the 317th). He did a combat landing in Operation Market Garden before D-Day They ran out of airplanes to tow the glider infantry but he and 97 other giys from their division went in to perform anti-armor duties. The reat if the division went ashore the afternoon of day 2 if I remember the story correctly. Being a BAR man and now inserted with a unit he did not belong to he got a lot of (you are short... go sneak into that hedgerow and see of there are Germans in there...why send you buddy when you got a new guy). At one point an officer peeked over something to glass out into the distance and took a round through the face. Then they got pinned down by 88 mm shelling and he went a little whacky after 10 hrs. He got up and began walking around. The fellas tackled him. He got shipped back to the field station where they gave him a sleeping pill which did nothing for him. They moved him back to the divisional medical aid station and gave him 2 more pills. He said he woke up in England and his time in the war was over for the time being. And since Truman dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese Empire....he did not have to rejoin the war effort....and it lrobably saved my paternal grandfather as well since he would have been over his malaria and jungle rot. Thanks Truman for doing the right thing and God Bless all the WW2 vets.
The guys who died that day may disagree it was the best day of the century. At least for them.
WE need to know our history. We need to always remember that the world as we know it, is here because the Allies defeated the Axis powers in World War II.
We need to remember D-Day and the major turning point it was in the war.
I also had discussions with relatives who served, and who were on the home front. Most have passed on now. But, they impressed on me that it wasn’t always clear that we were going to win World War II.
History tells us that the Axis were at their peak of conquest in November and December of 1942. Japan occupied parts of the Aleutian Islands at that time. A full year after Pearl Harbor, we were nowhere near winning the war.
It’s easy for us now to sit back and say, what a great triumph, history tells us we won World War II, and it was inevitable. The point is, no, it was not inevitable, and it was due to great men such as General Eisenhower, and key events such as D-Day, that led us to victory.
Great read. Thanks for posting.
Yes. Even FDR was great in the era of that fateful day.
FDR gave a radio address on or around D-Day, which included a prayer, and it is one of the most moving things you'll ever hear. Kind of reminiscent of Churchill's Finest Hour" speech, or that sort of thing.
Anyway, sometimes even a bad overall President will rise to the occasion...
And I’ll always remember Ronald Reagan at Normandy, on the 40th anniversary of D-Day.
Other presidents have gone to Normandy to commemorate D-Day, but none, in my opinion, had the impact of Reagan’s speech upon his visit.
Great Crusade, how politically incorrect
Visited the landing beaches at Normandy, the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, and the war museum in Caen back in 2006. It was a very moving experience, and one I’ll never forget.
Save
Watching “The Longest Day” on Amazon.com
He was XO on an LST on the way to the Pacific when the war ended.
I know this will piss off most of the folks here, but DDay was probably not the greatest day in the War.
You could look at Iwo, or Okinawa. You could make a case for the battle of Stalingrad, or the tank battles in Ukraine. DDay would not have been possible without the Battle of Britain, or the Battle in the Atlantic.
It is important to remember that it was a world war, and that the invasion of Europe created a “third” front after the east and south.
Lots of places, and lots of people did incredible things to banish fascism from Europe.
It is important to honor them all.
Thanks for noting this historic date today!
Considering the target that had to be overcome, the thousands of men, equipment and weaponry that had to be transported across the ocean to accomplish that mission, I might be biased but I view D-Day as the greatest military accomplishment in the history of warfare.........
Greater than December 26, 1991? Greater than February 2, 1943?
That's a bit much.