June 6, 1944

[micropolitan guy]

I had an uncle on one of those beaches. He lived and I never found out about for years. I mean within the last decade.

I have not been to Normandy, but I have been to the American cemetery in Luxembourg. It is quite moving. Most of the men buried there are from Battle of the Bulge.

Isn't George Patton buried there? I think there was some movement to bury him at West Point but his wishes were to be buried with his soldiers.

 

[Batman]

If you ever get a chance to read Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy, I highly recommend it. Three outstanding history books, with each one focusing on a part of the European campaign. "An Army at Dawn" is North Africa, "The Day of Battle" is Italy, and "The Guns at Last Light" is France and Western Europe.
They all give a good overview of everything while also telling plenty of smaller individual stories. I learned a lot from reading them.

 

[micropolitan guy]

If you ever get a chance to read Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy, I highly recommend it. Three outstanding history books, with each one focusing on a part of the European campaign. "An Army at Dawn" is North Africa, "The Day of Battle" is Italy, and "The Guns at Last Light" is France and Western Europe.
They all give a good overview of everything while also telling plenty of smaller individual stories. I learned a lot from reading them.

Atkinson is a fantastic author. His "The Long Grey Line" book about the USMA Class of 1966 is absolutely outstanding.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

You have to wonder what the men who fought and died that day would think if they saw the clowns who are running the government today

 

[BTExpress]

Offer me Ike as my president for the next quarter-century, and I'll take it.

 

[Here me roar]

Isn't George Patton buried there? I think there was some movement to bury him at West Point but his wishes were to be buried with his soldiers.

Yes. He was critically injured in a car accident and on his deathbed requested to be buried there.

 

[Driftwood]

Imagine living in a time when people sacrificed and came together for a common good.

 

[BTExpress]

Well, I can't really begrudge people today for asking first, "OK, who's benefiting off my sacrifice?"

Because somebody always is.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Watched "Pressure" today. I'm sure some events were overly dramatized for movie purposes, but it was excellent.

 

[Huggy]

If you ever get a chance to read Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy, I highly recommend it. Three outstanding history books, with each one focusing on a part of the European campaign. "An Army at Dawn" is North Africa, "The Day of Battle" is Italy, and "The Guns at Last Light" is France and Western Europe.
They all give a good overview of everything while also telling plenty of smaller individual stories. I learned a lot from reading them.

I've read An Army at Dawn and found it really interesting given my uncle was there with the British 8th Army. Would have loved to talk to him about that experience, among others he had in the war, but he never talked about it. My old man, who was 15 years younger, said he tried to ask about it at one time not long after he got back and he just ignored him. He never asked again.

 

[tapintoamerica]

And to our current president, everybody who died there is either a sucker or a loser.

 

[Driftwood]

Told this in other threads before:
1. Old guy I knew was a D-Day vet. He was in the thick of it, apparently. The only thing he'd ever say to anyone - including his wife and children - was along the lines of "Survived D-Day. Got shot in the hedge rows." His family tried to take him back, and he flatly refused, saying once was enough.
2. Someone at my school booked a local D-Day vet for a Veterans Day speaker. I knew his son-in-law. He pulled me aside and said, "Drift, I don't know what he's going to say. At this point we don't know what he actually experienced and what he's seen on TV over the years and thinks he did." No question the guy was there; his mind has just blended his reality with other stuff. I said, "Kids won't know the difference."