[fbsm]

6/6/44 Normandy

Thank a vet for your freedom

There are too few still alive that survived that day



http://www.ibtimes.com/d-day-anniver...-beach-2548288



http://www.history.com/topics/world-...-allied-forces

[Lups]

We all, everywhere owe you all for our freedom, for our values. I hope us, the generations who followed you treated you well when you returned from the lines. I hope you all forgive us if we didn't, understanding what you went through is too much for most of us.

[E92 M Sport]

The greatest generation.

[E90SLAM]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-landings.html

[Unknown_Car]

Originally Posted by E92 M Sport

The greatest generation.

I agree. Not like our stupid generation where smoking and drinks all they care.

[UglyBuzzard]

Not many snowflakes and cupcakes in the greatest generation!

Name enough!

[Scout10]

A visit to any of the cemeteries in europe . . . . . will almost stop your heart.
The rows of crosses . . . . there are no words deep enough.

[fecurtis]

Figures a thread about Normandy has devolved into some bullshit about snowflakes or whatever.

There are many people out there in uniform putting their lives on the line today as well.

[NickyC]

Having been to the Normandy cemetery a couple times, it's one of the most humbling experiences you can ever have. Standing on that beach, looking up at Point du Hoc, you cannot fathom the courage it took those Rangers to scale up that cliff. It's absolutely extraordinary.

Anyone who is able to visit France in their lives must make a trip to the hallowed ground, it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

[GreaseMonkey]

Both my grandfathers served in WWII, and I've been fortunate to meet and get to know many veterans of WWII.

My father's father was a front line medic, we have his medic's handbook that was strapped to his helmet...which now has a 2 inch wide hole in it where shrapnel lodged itself during artillery shelling, saving his life. He and his men shielded themselves in a makeshift hutch of tree logs, but the shrapnel punched through the trees. Without that book in place that shrapnel surely would have pierced his helmet.

My mother's father was an engineer and minesweeper on the Omaha Beach landing. His mission was to clear safe paths for tanks after taking the beach head. He's far from the tallest man you'll ever meet, and he tells us that the water came up to his chest when they jumped from the boat, the waves crashed up and ripped his gun from his hands. Without a gun he stormed forward and eventually had to take another soldier's gun that was left behind.

I'm glad these stories (and plenty more) were shared with us, not for glory, but as a way to preserve history and horror. They are indeed the Greatest Generation.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by UglyBuzzard

Not many snowflakes and cupcakes in the greatest generation!

Name enough!

Bastogne ?

[UglyBuzzard]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Bastogne ?

Very good. 4th liberated 101st. Patton's best and first in...

[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by Scout10

A visit to any of the cemeteries in europe . . . . . will almost stop your heart.
The rows of crosses . . . . there are no words deep enough.

Hell yeah, I'd love to go to this one some day,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...fb7_story.html

The Netherlands American Cemetery.

Each grave has been adopted by a Dutch or, in some cases, Belgian or German family, as well as local schools, companies and military organizations. More than 100 people are on a waiting list to become caretakers.

At the cemetery’s annual commemoration, 6,000 people poured onto the 65-acre burial grounds just a few miles from the German border, including scores of descendants of American war dead who had traveled here from all over the United States. They were eager to pay tribute to parents or grandparents who had died to defeat the Nazis. But they also wanted to thank the Dutch families who had been tending the graves of their loved ones, often passing the responsibility from one generation to the next.

For Arthur Chotin, 70, who had come from Annapolis, Md., to finally meet the couple caring for his father’s resting place, the devotion of the Dutch was a source of awe.

“What would cause a nation recovering from losses and trauma of their own to adopt the sons and daughters of another nation?” asked Chotin, the only American descendant to speak on Sunday. “And what would keep that commitment alive for all of these years, when the memory of that war has begun to fade? It is a unique occurrence in the history of civilization.”

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by UglyBuzzard

Very good. 4th liberated 101st. Patton's best and first in...

Thank you
I touched your tank in Bastogne and I visit every year in summer the American soldier cemetery .

Here is a MK10 Achilles Tank Destroyer from in the Belgian Ardennes (La Roche en Ardenne) with my car in front of it...