T1B

Wolfman wrote:I knew a guy at my church here--landed at Omaha Beach--fought through the hedge-rows--survived
at Bastogne--and into the heartland of Nazi Germany--
was hit last year by a dump truck running a red light--
rack Frank Hammond and all the others !!

ChargerMike wrote:...and who could ever forget the 40 year memorial D-day speech of Ronald Reagan?

http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/ ... ay_pdh.asp

First Wave at Omaha: The Ordeal of the Blue and Gray

OMAHA BEACH, D-DAY, JUNE 6, 1944

Behind them was a great invasion armada and the powerful sinews of war. But in the first wave of assault troops of the 29th (Blue and Gray) Infantry Division, it was four rifle companies landing on a hostile shore at H-hour, D-Day -- 6:30 a.m., on June 6, 1944. The long-awaited liberation of France was underway. After long months in England, National Guardsmen from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia found themselves in the vanguard of the Allied attack. In those early hours on the fire swept beach the 116th Infantry Combat Team, the old Stonewall Brigade of Virginia, clawed its way through Les Moulins draw toward its objective, Vierville-sur-Mer. It was during the movement from Les Moulins that the battered but gallant 2d Battalion broke loose from the beach, clambered over the embankment, and a small party, led by the battalion commander, fought its way to a farmhouse which became its first Command post in France. The 116th suffered more than 800 casualties this day -- a day which will long be remembered as the beginning of the Allies' "Great Crusade" to rekindle the lamp of liberty and freedom on the continent of Europe.

BSmack wrote:

ChargerMike wrote:...and who could ever forget the 40 year memorial D-day speech of Ronald Reagan?

http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/ ... ay_pdh.asp

It would have been more memorable had he been their 40 years earlier.

mvscal wrote: What unit did you serve in, by the way? I didn't catch that.

mvscal wrote:Yeah, that and the fact that they went up against Ukranian conscripts. I thought you were talking just about the first wave at Omaha, though.

Cicero wrote:Thank you to those who kicked ass and took names to help make America and the World what it is today.

mvscal wrote:Yeah, that and the fact that they went up against Ukranian conscripts. I thought you were talking just about the first wave at Omaha, though.

mvscal wrote:Hmmm. Army assigns you to make training films or Army assigns you to the infantry...tough call there.

What unit did you serve in, by the way? I didn't catch that.

Goober McTuber wrote:

Cicero wrote:Thank you to those who kicked ass and took names to help make America and the World what it is today.

I would have figured that D-Day was the day you got your grades from FSU.

.....

One incident, however, marred this well planned event.

Two German E-Boat flotillas, numbering nine (9) boats, managed to pass through the defense line set up to protect this 'invasion armada'. There had been some unanticipated last minute changes made, resulting in a weakness in the security. It was called a "calculated risk". These German E-Boats thereby 'stumbled on' the exercise taking place during the early morning hours of darkness, and they fired several torpedoes at these landing crafts.

Two Landing Craft Infantry (LCI), full of troops, and one Landing Craft Tank (LCT), loaded with heavy equipment, were sunk quickly, resulting in the death of 749 U.S. soldiers, and 197 U.S. Navy men. This was more than were actually killed on Utah Beach during the actual invasion on 6 June 1944.

Almost immediately, almost all personnel, Army & Navy, were sworn to secrecy about this incident. Some were told that they were not only sworn to secrecy for the duration, but "for the rest of your natural lives"!

The German E-Boats were aware that they had sunk some landing craft, but fortunately they did not conclude that they had stumbled upon such a "top secret" practice invasion landing, or the magnitude of it.


.......

This plaque was dedicated to all of those men who sacrificed their lives in this catastrophe, for the Liberty and Freedom of the people of Western Europe.

This is the only monument ever set up to honor the dead soldiers and sailors, who died before the battle for Europe had begun.

So ends this story of the tragic epic of "Slapton Sands", England.

BSmack wrote:

mvscal wrote:Hmmm. Army assigns you to make training films or Army assigns you to the infantry...tough call there.

What unit did you serve in, by the way? I didn't catch that.

When I start warmongering, you can ask me where I served.

Cicero wrote:

Goober McTuber wrote:

Cicero wrote:Thank you to those who kicked ass and took names to help make America and the World what it is today.

I would have figured that D-Day was the day you got your grades from FSU.

Never got a D in my life. One C for that matter. 10th Grade Spanish.

mvscal wrote:A President speaking at a D-Day Memorial service is "warmongering"?!?

mvscal wrote:In other words, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about again.

Take your fucking bullshit to another thread.