61 years ago

[Masherbrum]

June 6th, 1944.  

<>> to all living and deceased from all sides.   So few gave so much, and some gave all.

Karaya

[DREDIOCK]

to the both the hero's that died and also the ones that lived

[Wolfala]

The long low dark coast of Europe looms ahead

At dusk on July 29th my convoy of ships, largest of the war since D-Day, reaches broad sandy Utah Beach on the Normandy Coast. Like Omaha Beach a few miles o the north and clearly visible below its bluffs, Utah was the scene of D-Day landings by our troops nearly two months ago. But here there are no bluffs and resistance was weak rather than strong as at Omaha. Gentle meadows spread inland. The beach swarms with men and machines. It is the chief port of entry for U.S. forces invading France. In the distance anti-aircraft shells explode n the evening sky and a dull roar of heavy artillery marks the front line. Dozens of barrage balloons, like big sausages tethered to earth by cables, float close overhead to protect the landing area from low-level air attack.

Shortly before midnight our blunt-nosed L.S.T.'s scrape their flat bottoms to a halt in shallow water three hundred yards from shore. In the morning when the tide recedes they open their bow doors and the jeeps and trucks of the 825th Tank Destroyer Battalion, followed by half-tracks towing 3-inch guns, emerge onto hard-packed sand nearly as firm as tarmac and move inland.

We're part of General George S. Patton's U.S. 3rd Army and Patton is already legendary. In Sicily he slapped the face of a combat-fatigues G.I. for speaking in a hysterical manner. but in Sicily as in North Africa he distinguished himself as a fighting leader. Now his mission is to lead the 3rd Army in a breakthrough that will reach toward Paris and beyond. The fact he comes from Los Angeles adds to my interest. Before sailing I'd read with amusement his fiery exhortations included among routine information in the mimeographs poop sheets distributed daily to all 3rd Army units: "Grab the enemy by the nose and kick him in the tail!" Or: "When in doubt, do something!" I hope to catch a glimpse of the eccentric general who reportedly wears a six-shooter at his hip in open holster and addresses poems to the God of Battles.

Our first evidence of actual battle is anything but poetic. Behind a wall-like hedgerow is a series of abandoned foxholes, each surrounded by a litter of used K-ration cartons, tin cans, empty cartridge casings, dried human feces. This has been the front line. It is eloquent of a new reality, the feces perhaps most eloquent. There'd been no time to relieve yourself leisurely, cover your deposit afterward, and no such niceties as toilet paper. Like an animal afraid for your life you jumped out of your hole, excreted, jumped back in. The dead or wounded had of course been removed to the rear long before we passed. The able-bodied had gone forward as we were going. Again the courage and blood of others paved the way.

At Sotteville not far from the Cherbourg the 825th is deployed as a security force guarding lines of communication, watching for German stragglers and French or German spies and saboteurs, while the rest of 3rd Army prepares for its historic breakout.

Meanwhile Jane is gently influencing her mother toward selling their home at 317 Burlingame Avenue and moving to Santa Barbara, as a decisive step in coping with the sorrow of her father's death. The children continue to be a source of life and hope for them both, as they crave yet dread each day's mail, newspaper, radio broadcast.

[Gh0stFT]

to the who fight the Nazis and helped to free Europe of the Tyran.

[nirvana]

To everyone who gave it they're all 61 years ago.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Memorable Quotes from
The Longest Day (1962)
Possibly the BEST movie
ever made about this day
in history






Flight Officer David Campbell: The thing that's always worried me about being one of the few is the way we keep on getting fewer.

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[Coded radio message to the French Resistance]
Radio announcer: There is fire at the travel agency.

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Brigadier General Norman Cota: I don't have to tell you the story. You all know it. Only two kinds of people are gonna stay on this beach: those that are already dead and those that are gonna die. Now get off your butts. You guys are the Fighting 29th.

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Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort: You can't give the enemy a break. Send him to hell.

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Flight Officer David Campbell: He's dead. I'm crippled. You're lost. Do you suppose it's always like that? I mean war.

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[a coded message to the Resistance, spoken in French]
Radio Announcer: Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor.

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[Spoken in German]
Major General Gunther Blumentritt: This is history. We are living an historical moment. We are going to lose the war because our glorious Führer has taken a sleeping pill and is not to be awakened.

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Private John Steele: Bonjour, mademoiselle. Je suis américain.

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Destroyer Commander: You remember it. Remember every bit of it, 'cause we are on the eve of a day that people are going to talk about long after we are dead and gone.

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Field Marshal Erwin Rommel: Just look at it, gentlemen. How calm... how peaceful it is. A strip of water between England and the continent... between the Allies and us. But beyond that peaceful horizon...

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[to his generals, observing the English Channel]
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel: Just look at it, gentlemen. How calm... how peaceful it is. A strip of water between England and the continent... between the Allies and us. But beyond that peaceful horizon... a monster waits. A coiled spring of men, ships, and planes... straining to be released against us. But, gentlemen, not a single Allied soldier shall reach the shore. Whenever and wherever this invasion may come, gentlemen... I shall destroy the enemy there, at the water's edge. Believe me, gentlemen, the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive. For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day... The longest day.

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[On whether to commence the Normandy invasion in marginal weather conditions]
General Dwight D. Eisenhower: I'm quite positive we must give the order. I don't like it, but there it is. Gentlemen, I don't see how we can possibly do anything... but go.

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[upon landing on beach]
Private Flanagan: Flanagan's back.

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[a coded message to the Resistance, spoken in French]
Radio Announcer: John has a long mustache.

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Capt. Colin Maud: [pointing] The war is that way!

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Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.: Well, as near as I can figure it; the landing craft have put us ashore about a mile from where we were supposed to land.
Col. Caffey: I agree with you. Ted; but what are we going to do? Our reinforcements and equipment are coming in the second wave. What happens if they land in the right place?
Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.: Gentlemen, we start the war from right here. The reinforcements will have to find us wherever we are. Move inland.

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Mayor of Colleville: [meeting the British on the beach] Welcome; welcome, friends. I brought champagne, but I do know think it will be enough for all of you.
Lord Lovat: Quite alright. We have a pressing engagement; the war. Move inland.
[to his bagpiper]
Lord Lovat: Millen, Blue Bonnett!

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Col. Josef 'Pips' Priller: [speaking in German] Thank you, my dear Hans! You have just killed both of us!
[slams down phone]
Luftwaffe major: It is getting very difficult to get any sleep around here.
Col. Josef 'Pips' Priller: Your prospects for a long sleep have just improved. The invasion has begun at Normandy. We are to fly there and attack with our two planes.

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Capt. Colin Maud: [walking up to a stalled vehicle] My old grandmother used to say anything mechanical, give it a good bashing.
[Hits hood with his swagger stick]
Capt. Colin Maud: Try it now.
[vehicle cranks]
Private Flanagan: [to Clough] Sure, now; that did it.
[notices Maud looks at him]
Private Flanagan: Ah, now that's what I call a hell of a man!
Pvt. Clough: Aye, I like his dog too.
Capt. Colin Maud: Move inland. The war's that way.

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Maj. John Howard: [charging the Orne River Bridge] Up the Ox and Bucks! Up the Ox and Bucks!
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[Krusher]

[Maverick]

to the still living and those that gave all that day and in that conflict.

[Eagler]

just heard that on Omaha beach the destroyers put their keels in the bottom to get in close enough to pound the german positions in order to free up the trapped troops stuck on the beaches

amazing when you think about it ... almost surreal

all of the heroes of this day, not that long ago

[EagleEyes]

to all vets of all wars past, present, and future.  Lives of many have made this country what it is today!  Thanks D-day vets, did things most people would never do!

[Deertick]

Vets!

[Yeager]

I saw a recent interview of an old guy whos dad died in france on june 6 1944 helping to liberate europe from hilters sickness.  He cried talking about the dad he barely knew as a young boy, 61 years had past and still he cried.  Will the sacrifice ever end?

to all allied soldiers then and now

[GtoRA2]