D Day

[Texas Star]

That looks like the bayonet that came with my SMLE No. 4 MkII. The British have always loved their bayonets. They used them to good effect as recently as 2004 in Basra.

My son went to Normandy a few years ago when he was in Europe for business. He brought back a small rock from the beach. It's one of my most treasured possessions.

Go look at your No. 4 rifle and bayonet again. Your memory has dimmed!

The Lanchester bayonet is probably the same as for No. 1 rifles, of which MK III * is most common. It may use the bayonet for the P-14, if that's different.

Sten MK V SMG's could use some bayonets for No. 4 rifles. Search YouTube for news footage on Mau-Mau ops in Kenya. You'll see some. One was the knife bayonet with a folding pommel. I was surprised to see that last week while looking at that footage.

My MSN homepage had some D-Day photos up today, but most were poorly chosen and some were incorrectly labeled. I don't think the MSM has any people left who know much about this period.

 

[sheepdawg]

Yogi Berra was there. Said he stuck his head out of the landing craft to see what was going on and an officer grabbed him and pulled him back in the boat telling him he was about to get his head blown off.

My dad's best friend here in America piloted one of the gliders that landed behind German lines early on. What's odd is old enemies often become friends, in June of 44 my dad was in the Wehrmacht, not at Normandy though. In the late 80s they both went to France for the D Day remembrance and visited all the places they had been during the war. My dad said he found the very spot the Americans captured him, near Metz.

I'm sure those two pulled many a cork while there too.

 

[sheepdawg]

I looked at ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, and even Breitbart. Simply became too bored to cycle through all the other ones. CBS had a few photos. CNN has an opinion piece, but it's politically oriented. If FOX and ABC has anything, they either have it buried on the back pages, or I just missed it.

Fox actually had about 10 minutes on it just before Tucker Carlson talking to two vets that were there.

 

[amazingflapjack]

I am grateful...

Sure glad I never had to participate in something like it.

Just think of it as a human wave with us as the wave! And having to start from the water-wooooo-no thanks.

 

[shouldazagged]

As many of you know, my dad was a war correspondent, 33 years old (the troops called him "Pop") and terribly nearsighted.

He went ashore on Omaha Beach in the first wave, with one of the first units to land, an engineering outfit. He stayed with the troops through the breakout from Normandy.

He would never talk about it, but I'm glad he died without seeing "Saving Private Ryan". The opening sequence, grim as it was, would have reminded him that the reality was much more brutal.

He had a long career as a journalist, and a second as a minister. But when he was nearly ninety, if someone asked him what his job had been he would square his shoulders and say, "War correspondent." Horrible as the things he saw were, the experience was tremendously important to him. I think he felt bad about being 4F.

He is buried across a cemetery road from a section of Civil War graves. He always valued warriors who gave their all.

I think about him more than usual on this date.

 

[vigil617]

Of all the D-Day books I have read, I especially enjoyed Stephen Ambrose's and highly recommend it. One observation of his has particularly has stuck with me.

Ambrose said that D-Day represented a battle not only of opposing armies, but of opposing political systems: democracy vs. totalitarianism. Democracy triumphed overwhelmingly. And as Ambrose pointed out, Hitler boasted that the Atlantic Wall couldn't be breached in 1,000 years. The Allies did it in less than a day.

 

[Watchdog]

Fox actually had about 10 minutes on it just before Tucker Carlson talking to two vets that were there.

Well, when I talk about major media sources, 99% of the time I'm referring to Internet sites.

It's good that FOX showed it, but I don't usually have the patience to watch television news broadcasts, unless some huge and important event has happened or is happening.

I can read the news faster than some talking head can read it to me.

 

[Grayfox]

My Dad went ashore at Omaha with the 29th Infantry. He never talked much about the war. But on the rare occasion that he did, he'd get the 1000 yard stare in his eyes.
He once told me that he had personally seen a landing craft drop the ramp right in front of a german machine gun and not one man made it off the boat alive.

 

[jag312]

That looks like the bayonet that came with my SMLE No. 4 MkII. The British have always loved their bayonets. They used them to good effect as recently as 2004 in Basra.

My son went to Normandy a few years ago when he was in Europe for business. He brought back a small rock from the beach. It's one of my most treasured possessions.

Other than some proof marks, the blade is marked with a crown, 1907, and Wilkinson. The blade measures 17 inches.

 

[rwsmith]

The training and discipline.....

I recall a quote from a vet that said "you haven't been in a war until you've fought the Germans"

I'm sure plenty would disagree, but suffice it to say they were a capable and dangerous enemy

The training and discipline of their mindset was started over 10 years before the war when many were very young.

Japan's military policies really took hold in the early thirties when opponents of military imperialism were suppressed, removed from office or assassinated. They too, had years of hardening future recruits into soldiers.

With so much revisionism going on, I'm sure that these countries will be portrayed as weak and that they were run over by the Evil Allies that provoked them into war.

People can choose to forget what is convenient for THEM to forget. I guess it's up to those that lost others in the Gulf and Afghan wars. Grandpa will be that guy with PTSD and a missing leg from an encounter with an IED sitting in the corner. Then not too long after we will be gone, leaving to the next generation. And my son's going to be in a world that I (or we, collectively) won't be in.

 

[wood714]

I watched one documentary about Omaha Beach. That said one kid was 15 years old, lied about his age to join. I'd imagine there were a lot of young men 16 and 17 years old that died that day.

Could never imagine kids now days doing something like that.

 

[Bullzaye]

My Father turned 20 the day before D-Day. He landed on Utah beach. He wasn't a foot soldier, but rather a jeep driver, "Motor Messenger". I believe he went ashore several hours after the first wave...maybe late morning or even early afternoon. Later, he was also in the Battle of the Bulge.

He had some pretty good war stories. I don't recall him talking much about them until I was in my teens. While he likely didn't have some of the very bad experiences that front-line foot soldiers had...seeing buddies killed, or unintentionally killing the innocent, as mentioned earlier...I do believe he saw some horrible things. He was around at least 2 different Nazi concentration camps that had just been liberated. He had a few stories there...which are too nasty to go into.

He passed away over 10 years ago. I always think of him, and the young guys who never came home, on D-Day.

Tim

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

There were many D-Days in that war, June 6, 1944 is the best well-known.

 

[29aholic]

You know I posted a thread on another forum (a car one) with the link I posted on this thread and didnt get one reply?

Sad

 

[Old 44 Guy]

As I was a bit too young to serve during WW2, I worked with many later on who were veterans. Most never said much about it but some opened up later to me. Some stories were funny, some sad & the wounded ones complained about their aches & pain. One guy was in the Batan Death March. You didn't want to make any loud noise around him. Another was on the tank retrievers. Tanks that had been shot up, were recovered after the battle. Miserable duty cleaning up those tanks. Another ex Marine was wounded at Saipan. My old shooting buddy was a Marine 2nd Lt. Four island campaigns & not scratched. All are gone now.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I remember Mad Magazine (an underrated satire publication) had a page or two on the differences between movies made (and by extension) the public perception of the war in movies made during the war and movies made generations later. I remember the German U boat commander in the movie made during the war was machine gunning the lifeboats and his successor was apologizing for sinking another ship in this "useless war". At one point the U.S. president was shown apologizing to Japanese pilots because exploding U.S. ships gave them headaches. Sometimes, I wonder if that is still satire.

 

[mbliss57]

We were at Normandy last summer. Its a sobering experience looking out at that beach and ocean from those German concrete bunkers overlooking Omaha Beach. Between that and the Point du Hoc cliffs it seems only a miracle that they ever made it into France. I served 4 years in the Artillery and 4 in Active Reserves but I have never had to experience what these men went through. My greatest appreciation and thanks for all those who fought and died for our country.