hh dd mm yyyy

[NutmegCT]

As Basil reminds us, today is the 76th anniversary of the beginning of the "D-Day" landings in France.

Eisenhower speaks to troops, just before they left England for the invasion.

The troops were told only to tell Ike their name, rank, and unit.

First guy that did that, Ike said "Son, I already know all that. Tell me about your home and family."

That, gentlemen, is a leader.

Tom M.

Ike's order of the day:

The national D-Day memorial:

https://www.dday.org/

 

[DavidApp]

Trying to think of a suitable reply to the post and Basil's banner.

The world owes those guys that crossed the English Channel that day a huge debt of gratitude. Without their efforts the world would have been a different place today.

David

 

[NutmegCT]

... Without their efforts the world would have been a different place today.

David

And we're not writing "Genau! Wir danken unseren mächtigen deutschen Luftwaffepilote für diesen größte Sieg! Alles immer für Deutschland!"

Now *that* is scary.

Painting the invasion stripes, an effort to prevent damage by "friendly fire".

 

[DNK]

I know there's a "FEW" WWII history buffs here
If you have a couple of hours
Here's a few pics of D-Day+ with captions
https://www.flickr.com/photos/42642564@N02/sets/72157708769183367/

 

[NutmegCT]

Don - excellent set of photos. Thanks.
Tom M.

 

[DavidApp]

Hello Don

Thanks for the photos.

Remember reading a book by a British tank guy about their training for DD. How during exercises they had to be careful about damage to farmers property. Them they were given the word to go straight to the objective no matter what. He said they knew things were close to the off.
Landing exercises landing from the landing craft the tanks were supposed to Swim ashore. Several just sank like stones. The landing craft had not cone in close enough also the tanks were leaking like sieve so they had to spend the evening sealing them up.

David

 

[Gliderman8]

When I was 15 my dad took me to southern France to show me where he came ashore. He pointed "here" and "there" vividly describing the scene on the beach as if it were yesterday . I wish I had listened better. :blue:

 

[NutmegCT]

When I was 15 my dad took me to southern France to show me where he came ashore. He pointed "here" and "there" vividly describing the scene on the beach as if it were yesterday . I wish I had listened better. :blue:

Same here. We couldn't afford the travel, but my dad sometimes pointed to maps and showed me where he served (Fiji, Solomons, New Britain/Papua, etc.). Fortunately he took dozens of photos. What a culture clash - young men from the USA, on islands barely touched by western civilization.

 

[DrEntropy]

Same here. We couldn't afford the travel, but my dad sometimes pointed to maps and showed me where he served (Fiji, Solomons, New Britain/Papua, etc.). Fortunately he took dozens of photos. What a culture clash - young men from the USA, on islands barely touched by western civilization.

View attachment 64053

Hence the Cargo tribes.

 

[mikephillips]

Painting the invasion stripes, an effort to prevent damage by "friendly fire".

View attachment 64036

I've read that units only had 24 hours notice to paint the stripes on their aircraft. Some put everyone including pilots on it and tried to do a neat job. Others rushed through it painting with brooms and rags and whatever they had. So the results could be fairly neat to pretty sloppy due to the time and resource constraints. The guys who restore warbirds always do straight lines and careful measurements when I think they should be more reflective of the times and a little more casual in their work..