64 years ago today ..

Twenty-one years ago today, the future Mrs. Birdscribe and I went on our first date. That she is a historian and I'm a history freak did not go unnoticed that night.

And 64 years ago tomorrow (June 7 or D-plus 1), one Corporal Birdscribe Sr. came ashore on Utah Beach. He would spend that first night in Hitler's soon-to-fall Fortress Europa running around with medics, tending to wounded soldiers.

I still well up thinking about what he -- and hundreds of thousands of his brethren -- went through those days.

 

A reminder to anyone with XM -- Channel 4 is (again) airing much of the CBS radio news broadcasts from 6/6/44 today, interspersed with music. Fascinating stuff.

 

One of Charles Schultz's best series of Peanuts comic strips was the one where he shows Snoopy telling the story of the D-Day invasion, with the final strip of Snoopy as a soldier coming onto the beach. I believe Schultz did the series for the 50th anniversary, although I could be wrong.

 

What's amazing is that so much of the plan to drop in gliders and paratroopers to help take out the guns and support the troops landing on the beach was a complete bust, still they did it.

Well done, men.