Never forget these heroes. My grandfather was one of them. RIP
6-6-1944-79th Anniversary
- Thread starter HBK4life_rivals100467
- Start date
Straight into gunfire at Omaha Beach. No cover. Nowhere to go but straight ahead or in the ocean. Crazy brave sons of bitches.
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Great movie. Also, that D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan is probably the most intense battle scene ever filmed.
Back to topic, never forget. 79 years ago. I've never met a D-Day survivor. I did get a chance to meet a Pearl Harbor survivor. I listened to whatever he would tell me. Blessed to have met him. My father was probably in training with the Army Air Corps when the war ended. Wish he was here so I could talk his ear off.
As bad as it was it could have been a total massacre. If Hitler wasn't so stubborn and stupid and he had listened to Rommel it would have been a total disaster for the Allied forces.
the mechanic in the small town I grew up was on Omaha beach, the only way he’d talk about it was if he had a couple drinks and it was still difficult for him, he said a lot of good men didn’t make it and the carnage dismembered GIs bodies
When Saving Private Ryan came out the D Day Vets couldn't watch the opening beach landing scene it was so realistic. Nobody would want to relive that day.
Yet, I've walked by a scumbag with a big swastika tattoo on his chest playing with his kid at Branched Oak Lake outside Lincoln. The further away we get, the more people think they can inch that BS back into society. Cant imagine what a D Day survivor would have done to that punk had he walked by him.
I think the beginning of the end of WW2 was The Battle of Stalingrad and picking a fight with Russia. Germans lost 250k troops and couldn't fight a battle on 2 fronts. It could have been a different outcome or would have taken much longer for the Allies to win the war if Germany would have stuck with the Non-aggression pact Hitler had with Stalin.
My dad was a survivor of the beach landing. Would be 97 if he were still with us. Yes was 18 at the time, hard to imagine being in one of those landing craft and waiting for the gate to drop and hitting the beach. Yes I am on, 70 myself.
Interesting trivia: James Doohan, the guy who played Scotty on the original Star Trek was on the first wave at Juno Beach. Sounds like a badass dude
James Doohan Military Service:
In 1939 he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Artillery, 14th (Midland) Field Battery of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. From there, he was moved to the 13th Field Regiment of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division in their 22nd Field Battery. By 1940 he was a Lieutenant and was sent to train in Britain prior to Operation Overlord. He first saw combat landing in the 1st Wave in a Recce Party at Juno Beach on D-Day. The 13th Field Regiment was interspersed with the Regina Rifle Regiment landing at "Nan" Sector of Juno Beach. After shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 23:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren gun by a nervous Canadian sentry:[2] four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was stopped by a silver cigarette case given to him by his brother.[7] His right middle finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal on-screen during most of his career as an actor, sometimes with a flesh-colored glove with a "faux finger."[9]
Doohan graduated from Air Observation Pilot Course 40 with eleven other Canadian artillery officers[10] and flew Taylorcraft Auster Mark V aircraft for 666 (AOP) Squadron, RCAF as a Royal Canadian Artillery officer in support of 1st Army Group Royal Canadian Artillery. All three Canadian (AOP) RCAF squadrons were crewed by artillery officer-pilots and accompanied by non-commissioned RCA and RCAF personnel serving as observers.[11][12]Although he was never actually a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Doohan was once labelled the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force". In the late spring of 1945, on Salisbury Plain north of RAF Andover, he slalomed a plane between telegraph poles "to prove it could be done", earning himself a serious reprimand. (Various accounts cite the plane as a Hurricane or a jet trainer; however, it was an Auster Mark IV.)[13][14]
James Doohan Military Service:
In 1939 he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Artillery, 14th (Midland) Field Battery of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. From there, he was moved to the 13th Field Regiment of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division in their 22nd Field Battery. By 1940 he was a Lieutenant and was sent to train in Britain prior to Operation Overlord. He first saw combat landing in the 1st Wave in a Recce Party at Juno Beach on D-Day. The 13th Field Regiment was interspersed with the Regina Rifle Regiment landing at "Nan" Sector of Juno Beach. After shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 23:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren gun by a nervous Canadian sentry:[2] four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was stopped by a silver cigarette case given to him by his brother.[7] His right middle finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal on-screen during most of his career as an actor, sometimes with a flesh-colored glove with a "faux finger."[9]
Doohan graduated from Air Observation Pilot Course 40 with eleven other Canadian artillery officers[10] and flew Taylorcraft Auster Mark V aircraft for 666 (AOP) Squadron, RCAF as a Royal Canadian Artillery officer in support of 1st Army Group Royal Canadian Artillery. All three Canadian (AOP) RCAF squadrons were crewed by artillery officer-pilots and accompanied by non-commissioned RCA and RCAF personnel serving as observers.[11][12]Although he was never actually a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Doohan was once labelled the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force". In the late spring of 1945, on Salisbury Plain north of RAF Andover, he slalomed a plane between telegraph poles "to prove it could be done", earning himself a serious reprimand. (Various accounts cite the plane as a Hurricane or a jet trainer; however, it was an Auster Mark IV.)[13][14]
My grandpa was in WW1 he would never talk about it and as curious kids we’d really pressure him wanted to know but nothing