D-Day Anniversary

The Royal British Legion is selling lapel badges to mark the event.  Details . here. A worthy cause.

Remembering the greatest generation, 68 years ago today!

Today marks the 70th anniversary of "the longest day"



We will remember them.

Amen...

Saw one of the "old and bold" interviewd from the landing site today, and he mentioned that his unit had done no real training for the invasion. Many of the guys had never been on a boat before; and he said the only time he'd ever been on a beach before, he'd had a bucket and spade!
Very moving to see those men gathered to pay their respects to the thousands of their comrades who never made it back.

Sword Beach, 6 June 1944. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205021914

Amazing to see Jock Hutton arrive by tandem parachute...



At 18, he joined the paratroopers prior to D-Day and jumped in to Normandy. On that 6th of June in 1944, Jock saw action fighting the Nazis near the Orn river. He was injured a few weeks later and evacuated back to the UK, later returning to again fight the Germans in Ardennes. Jock was captured by the Nazis and then escaped, again jumping into combat in 1945 in Germany.



In 1955, Jock participated in the first Selection course for the Rhodesian SAS. In 1957, Jock took the reins from another notable World War II veteran, Stan Standish, as the Squadron Sergeant Major of C-Squadron, Rhodesian SAS. Jock took part in numerous attacks, including operational parachuting. He remained in Rhodesia until the conclusion of the Bush War, and joined South Africa’s 5 Recce in 1981.
What a player!

My Ma's cousin, Jean, first husband (his name escapes me) was in the 505th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division in WWII. He was shot in the groin dropping on St. Mere-Eglise and crippled for life. I never met him but my Dad said he was an OK guy and dealt with his wound well. He didn't live long, dying in the mid-50's, before I was borne.

This is an excerpt from their official unit history...

"The largest combined military operation in history,"D-Day", was to be spearheaded by the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions. Visibility was hampered by poor weather conditions as the C-47's crossed the English Channel during the first hours of the 6th of June 1944. When the troop carriers finally did made landfall on the Cherbourg Peninsula they came under heavy German flak scattering many of the troop carrier flights. It was 0300 hours on 6 June 1944, when the 505th were given the green light to jump. Some Pathfinders were able to signal their dropzones. However, many of the troop carriers missed their dropzones and the All-Americans of the 505th began landing across a large swath of the countryside around Normandy.

Nevertheless, the 505th PIR was one of the first airborne units to hit the ground and despite the subsequent confusion surrounding the landing, were able to use it to their advantage mustering enough troops under the command of the 2nd Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort to liberate the first town in France, - St. Mere-Eglise. The paratroopers jumped prior to the actual start of the invasion "H-Hour". Because of the tradition of being the first into the fight, the 505th Regimental motto is "H-MINUS". For their performance in the invasions the 505th was awarded the Presidential unit citation, the unit equivalent of the Medal of Honor awarded to individual soldiers. In the words of author Clay Blair, the paratroopers emerged from Normandy with the reputation of being a pack of jackals; the toughest, most resourceful and bloodthirsty in Europe."

This is historic raw combat footage of the US 82nd Airborne Division during the Invasion of Normandy in the Summer of 1944, WWII (from the same site)


This was a very nice thing for the townsfolk of Sainte-Mère-Église to do...

Presentation of the municipality

Sainte-Mère-Eglise is a city of c. 1,500 inhabitants.

The origin of the name of the city (litt., St. Mother-Church, therefore the church on the coat of arms) is controversial. It could have been named after a Germanic lord called Sintmer, or after a deformation of Marie. In the XIIIth century, the city was already known as Santa Maria Ecclesia.

Sainte-Mère-Eglise became famous on 6 June 1944 at 2:30, when soldiers from General Ridgway's 82nd Airborne Division were parachuted over the city. The 82nd Division, along with the 101st Division, was expected to relieve the hinterland of Utah Beach. On the evening of 6 June, Sainte-Mère-Eglise was liberated after harsh fights, which ceased only on 7 June when the first tanks arrived from Utah Beach.

The XI-XIIIth century church of Sainte-Mère-Eglise is portrayed in Darryl F. Zanuck's movie 'The Longest Day'. Soldier Steel remained hung by his parachute to the church steeple for two hours, during which he pretended to be dead, a few centimeters from a bell which constantly sounded the tocsin.

Sainte-Mère-Eglise is the starting point of the Voie de la Liberté (Way of Freedom).12,000 symbolical milestones were placed along the road followed by the Patton Army from Normandy to Metz and Bastogne (Belgium). Those milestones were designed by François-Victor Cogné in 1947 as a tribute to the USA. The milestones bear 48 stars, a torch inspired by the Statue of Liberty, the emblem of the 3rd Army and waves symbolizing the Atlantic Ocean. Km 0 of the Voie de la Liberté is the city hall of Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

Sources: Guide Vert Michelin Normandie-Cotentin

73 Years ago today 61,715 British troops landed on the Normandy beaches to free Europe from tyranny, there cannot be many of them left, all 90 or over!

I wonder what they think of the current state of the Europe they fought, bled and died for?

I always find this anniversary deeply moving and cause for much reflection....much more so than our Memorial Day which was just a few days ago. I think of all those fine young men who didn't come back and it makes me weep.