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D-Day - 75th Anniversary
- Thread starter PlayerRep
- Start date
Here's a terrific article. A Billings guy was given some documents of an uncle he had met but never really known. Eventually, the Billings guy looked at the materials. One thing was a diary for a year or so of his uncle's service in WW II, including flying in a C-47 crew as the Normandy battle began. No one in the younger family knew anything about the uncle's military experience. The uncle, who was injured after the war, and died long ago, is very articulate in what he writes. It is very interesting and touching.
https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/so-ends-the-great-day-billings-man-discovers-uncle-s/article_06aad518-e6a6-56e5-a756-1a93944e05b0.html
https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/so-ends-the-great-day-billings-man-discovers-uncle-s/article_06aad518-e6a6-56e5-a756-1a93944e05b0.html
IdaGriz01
Well-known member
Had a bunch of uncles who fought, European and Pacific theaters. (My dad wasn't drafted and was basically told not to enlist, because he was in a critical home front occupation.) In any case, none of them would talk about their actual combat experiences, unless they were mostly among themselves and had a few beers and shots. Then, some of the stories would curdle your hair ... and helped you understand why they wouldn't say anything when they were sober.Spanky2 said:
My dad was in for the whole nine yards, in the Pacific. He came home with a Purple Heart. No war stories. Did tell me a sniper shot him in the ass on Okinawa. I saw his DD214 at some point, and he was a company clerk/typist. A 'Klinger' or 'Radar' from M_A_S_H, only in the prior war. From the famous line from 'Full Metal Jacket': "In the rear with the gear." The sniper made it an irony. Any rat-a-tat-tat was from his typewriter. Sitting while typing must have been a bitch.
Lots of uncles in both theaters. Don't recall any war stories from, or about, any of them.
Lots of uncles in both theaters. Don't recall any war stories from, or about, any of them.
tourist said:
My dad was on Okinawa. He spent the rest of his life with PTSD although there was no name for it then. He never really came home.
IdaGriz01 said:
Curl your hair, curdle your cream. That goodness for each and every one of them. Literally six months after leaving college, my dad rolled onto Omaha Beach November 1st with 16th Armored & scrambled for a month to replace equipment that was sunk in the Atlantic. Then they spent days & nights racing to Belgium as part of Patton’s group to their first ever engagement - Battle of the Bulge. Turned down a chance @ an appointment to West Point & burned his uniform when he got home. My uncle from the Naval academy told me war looked like what was represented by the first forty-five minutes of Saving Private Ryan. These kids & everyone supporting them saved the world. Greatest generation - Absolutely.
My dad was one of five brothers in the service at the time. My grandparents had a flaglike window ornament, don't know what it was really called. Impressive to see five white stars on the red and blue back ground. All made it home, physically. Alcoholism was rampant in my family. Maybe this is how they coped. A friend of mine came back from Vietnam, mentally and physically f*cked up. Same solution. "I discovered alcohol," he said, and everything was then O.K.
I attended many funerals in later years, military honors, three volley salute. Hard to believe how loud three M-14s, or M1A1s, are, especially the first time. Not like the .22 cal. salutes of the last 40-50 years.
I attended many funerals in later years, military honors, three volley salute. Hard to believe how loud three M-14s, or M1A1s, are, especially the first time. Not like the .22 cal. salutes of the last 40-50 years.
My grandfather served in both WWI and WWII in the Army, two uncles in WWII, one in the Army and one in the Army Air Corp, both in the European Theater and, my Father who was a Marine Captain in the Pacific. All saw combat and none of them talked about it. What little I did get out of them was that their various experiences changed them forever! Thankfully they all came back without physical wounds and all went on to lead very productive lives!
The Greatest Generation Indeed!!
The Greatest Generation Indeed!!
cclarkblues said:
Hero.
krammer said:
Just Imagine you were born in 1914...
You remember WWI
You lived through Great Depression
You might have fought in WWII
We don't just owe them a lot... We owe them EVERYTHING!
IdaGriz01
Well-known member
A couple of my uncles were like that. Their bodies came home, and they (somehow) managed productive and (outwardly) comfortable lives. But horrific memories lurked just behind the facade. And give a bunch of credit to the wives. Many of them understood (however vaguely), and were supportive, when the so-called experts didn't have a clue. A cousin once told me that his mother kept his dad alive for a decade (suicide a real danger) before he could "put his demons to rest." Sadly, that did not always happen.cclarkblues said:
It's almost impossible for most of us to fathom the price they paid. For us.
1. "Nearly 1,500 U.S. soldiers were killed during the first hours at Omaha, with another 3,000 wounded or missing — so many that the surf turned red from the soldiers' blood, observers said.
Only a dozen of the 200 soldiers in a company-sized unit from Bedford, Virginia — all National Guard volunteers — survived the first minutes on Omaha Beach, according to an account by historian Stephen Ambrose.
Other units in the first waves on Omaha lost as many as 60% of their soldiers."
2. "Yet another factor in establishing D-Day’s place in history was the sheer number of journalists who converged on the invasion to chronicle the exploits of the troops.
Besides Cornelius Ryan, there was Ernie Pyle, Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, Robert Capa, A.J. Liebling, Martha Gellhorn and her husband at the time, Ernest Hemingway. "
3. Hemingway was in the 7th wave of landings at Omaha beach.
"Ernest Hemingway, a correspondent for Collier's, came in on the seventh wave, in an LCVP commanded by Lt. (jg) Robert Anderson of Roanoke, Virginia.... Anderson had a hard time finding his designated landing area, Fox Red. Hemingway tried to help him navigate. They argued about landmarks.
4. Gellhorn was the only woman journalist to land on D-Day They weren't allowed on the front.
"On the night of June 6, 1944, before the ships departed for Normandy, Gellhorn made her way to the waterfront on the pretext of interviewing the nurses aboard a hospital ship. Once on board, she hid herself in the bathroom. Gellhorn knew that if she got caught, she would lose her accreditation and might even get deported back to America. Still, to witness the great invasion was worth the risk. Gellhorn remained in her hideout for several hours and only emerged when the ship was well on her way to France. Later that night, after the troops had landed and the massacre on the beach was finally over, Gellhorn sneaked ashore with a couple of doctors and medics as a stretcher bearer to collect the wounded. In the chaos of the war, nobody gave a damn that Gellhorn was a woman."
5. The soldiers used condoms on the end of their rifles/guns to keep the water out during the landings.
Only a dozen of the 200 soldiers in a company-sized unit from Bedford, Virginia — all National Guard volunteers — survived the first minutes on Omaha Beach, according to an account by historian Stephen Ambrose.
Other units in the first waves on Omaha lost as many as 60% of their soldiers."
2. "Yet another factor in establishing D-Day’s place in history was the sheer number of journalists who converged on the invasion to chronicle the exploits of the troops.
Besides Cornelius Ryan, there was Ernie Pyle, Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, Robert Capa, A.J. Liebling, Martha Gellhorn and her husband at the time, Ernest Hemingway. "
3. Hemingway was in the 7th wave of landings at Omaha beach.
"Ernest Hemingway, a correspondent for Collier's, came in on the seventh wave, in an LCVP commanded by Lt. (jg) Robert Anderson of Roanoke, Virginia.... Anderson had a hard time finding his designated landing area, Fox Red. Hemingway tried to help him navigate. They argued about landmarks.
4. Gellhorn was the only woman journalist to land on D-Day They weren't allowed on the front.
"On the night of June 6, 1944, before the ships departed for Normandy, Gellhorn made her way to the waterfront on the pretext of interviewing the nurses aboard a hospital ship. Once on board, she hid herself in the bathroom. Gellhorn knew that if she got caught, she would lose her accreditation and might even get deported back to America. Still, to witness the great invasion was worth the risk. Gellhorn remained in her hideout for several hours and only emerged when the ship was well on her way to France. Later that night, after the troops had landed and the massacre on the beach was finally over, Gellhorn sneaked ashore with a couple of doctors and medics as a stretcher bearer to collect the wounded. In the chaos of the war, nobody gave a damn that Gellhorn was a woman."
5. The soldiers used condoms on the end of their rifles/guns to keep the water out during the landings.
My Grandfather was a Lieutenant in the US navy, took part in Iwo Jima and Okinawa. His ship survived a kamikaze strike. He came home and spent the rest of his life believing in and acting on understanding and cooperation between countries. I miss him, I honor him, and I think he was right.
I hope you make it there as well, the Omaha Beach is a very humbling sight in todays world. My father a retired Army SGT MJR Co. A 50th Signal Batalion, landed at midnight in rubber boats with some Rangers to establish a communications net. prior to the landings on Utah Beach. American bomber crews did a fantastic job of wipeing out German defense positions. Losses were kept to a minimum on the landings. April 27th has always been a special day for our family it was a day when dad cheated death once again.tourist said:
Operation Tiger was a training exercise off the coast of England where engineers and signal corps personal attached to the 4th Infantry Division were training at night when their LCT's were attacked by German torpedo boats. Before the night was over 2 LCT's were sunk and 1 more damaged with the loss of life estimated between 1000 and 1200. There were only five LCT's on the exercise , my fathers landing craft tank , the torpedoes missed by only feet. President Rosevelt wasn not notifed of the incident by top military officers fearing he would call off the Invasion. The mission was classified and the families of soldiers who died in the exercise didnt know how they died untill it was declassified in 1984. My dad fought in North Africa , D day, Mortain, the Battle of the Bulge, and a battle that few people recognize, Achen a very costly battle were American troops were the first to fight on German soil. Signal construction teams and Engineers were some of the most unhearelded in the war. They worked in small teams day and night providing combat service support to the armor and lead units of the infantry, with little or no regard to personal safety. My father never talked much about the war,but when he died in 2007 we were going trough his personal items and hidden in a back drawer of the gun cabnit, was a Silver Star, and 2 Bronze stars one for Valor and a photo of him being decorated by General Laughton Collins , Comander of Seventh Corps. Thanks to all the men and woman who fought, and to those who gave their lives so we can enjoy our freedom!
And still, the tide of battle didn't begin to turn in favor of the Allies until the warships moved in closer and leveled their guns at the machine gun emplacements in the cliffs at Omaha beach. At one point, Supreme Commander Eisenhower was considering a retreat until the Navy moved their ships so close to shore that they started scraping the bottom of the English Channel.
A German soldier manning a machine gun nest stopped firing and covered his face at the carnage he was causing. His commanding officer ordered him to keep firing or he would be executed on the spot.
Supposedly those allied soldiers piloting the troop landing craft were all equipped with sidearms and were under orders to shoot anyone who didn't get out of the landing craft and charge the beach.
Something that is not told about D-Day ~ Allies avenged the Omaha Beach slaughter by pursuing the German troops and killing every one of them - the Allies took no German prisoners who defended the cliffs at Omaha Beach.
A German soldier manning a machine gun nest stopped firing and covered his face at the carnage he was causing. His commanding officer ordered him to keep firing or he would be executed on the spot.
Supposedly those allied soldiers piloting the troop landing craft were all equipped with sidearms and were under orders to shoot anyone who didn't get out of the landing craft and charge the beach.
Something that is not told about D-Day ~ Allies avenged the Omaha Beach slaughter by pursuing the German troops and killing every one of them - the Allies took no German prisoners who defended the cliffs at Omaha Beach.
