D Day.

[bannockburn]

Dibbs

Amen to that...Lest we forget!

 

[Mk-211]

Here's another powerful site.

 

[alsaqr]

A first cousin died at St. Mere Eglise on D-Day while serving with the 101st Airborne Division. An uncle by marriage was in the second wave to hit Omaha beach. He said it was impossible to avoid stepping on bodies of the first wave. My friend George Berry, serving in the Canadian army, was in the first wave to hit Juno Beach.

This evening i will tilt a snifter of Carleton Tower in their honor.

They were the greatest generation.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

...He didn't talk about it much though...

I think this is common of WWII veterans.

I attended a lecture by author and historian Michael Hirsh on the release of his book, The Liberators, which is an oral history of the men who liberated the various concentration camps. He traveled the country for years interviewing veterans. He said the almost singular commonality in every interview was the look of shock or astonishment on the faces of the veterans' wives and children. They never knew what their loved one had experienced in the war. He said one man responded to his wife's question why he never told her, and he said "The war was over. No one wanted to hear about it. Everyone wanted to just get back to normal."

If you haven't read With The Old Breed which is Eugene Sledge's memoir of his experience in the Pacific War, he wrote in the opening that the only reason the book got published was that his children read his raw notes from the war (which he wasn't supposed to be writing in theater) and they pretty much insisted he publish them.

I think it has only been recently, with the passage of time, that they are opening up. I can tell you that, last year, in Normandy, vets were treated like rock stars. Everywhere, we saw small audiences gathered around veterans listening to them tell their stories about their experience.

 

[12Bravo20]

I had another great uncle that served in the Navy in the Pacific. He was on a ship that got torpedoed and was in the water for quite some time before being rescued. He never told anyone about that until he opened up to me after I had gotten out of the Army in 1996. The whole family was shocked to not only hear what he went through but that he finally opened up after all those years. My Uncle that served in Vietnam hasn't ever said much even to me. I know the feeling since I don't say much when my kids ask me about my service. That is why I always listen to and am willing to talk to any fellow combat vet no matter when they served.

 

[Howland937]

Have a million things I should be doing, but History Channel is currently airing a D-Day special that premiered last year.

 

[grampster]

My screen is so blurry it's hard to type. My dad was with the 35th Infantry and was in the march up to break the bulge with Patton. He saw a lot of combat and was ultimately captured in a fire fight when his squad ran out of ammo. The only reason I know anything about his experiences is that he made two cassette tapes that I found after his passing at age 92 in 1999. I had the tapes put onto DVD. Over the years he related a couple funny stories, but when I listened to the tapes I was stunned at his experiences. He detailed his experience from the day he was inducted till he was mustered out after he was liberated.
He carried a Garand and had a great confidence in it. He had been a fisherman and a hunter before the war. He never hunted again after the war. I have all his medals and newspaper clippings that detailed some of his experiences.

 

[redneck2]

I used to work with another guy that was a waist gunner on a B-17. You gotta remember that the chance of making it through twenty missions was virtually zero. You either got killed, shot down and killed, or lived in a god awful P.O.W. camp.

before he got deployed, the P-51’s came out. Total game changer.

 

[.308 Norma]

I’m part of the Honor Guard at my post of the American Legion here, and we do Military Honors for every Veteran funeral up and down the valley. On Wednesday this week, we did Military Honors for a WWII Vet.
It was probably the hardest, and yet best funeral I’ve worked. I could hardly believe what happened. As usual, after we fired the volleys, the bugler, who is off in the distance, played Taps. However, on Wednesday there was a Mourning Dove in a tree near the gravesite, and he was answering the bugle. I think everyone broke, including those of us standing at “Present Arms.”
Just to keep this gun related though - we use Garands for the volleys. And every time we’re involved in any kind of presentation or Military Honors, I gain more respect for WWII Vets. Those darned M1s are heavy, and pretty darned awkward to load or unload when there’s a hundred people standing around watching while you’re trying your hardest to not “sweep” anyone with your rifle’s muzzle. All we’re shooting is blanks of course. But my dad taught me, drilled it into me that you never point a gun at anything you don’t want to kill.

 

[WestTexShooter]

So far I have only seen cnn and cbs totally ignoring D Day.

Sad that i find only 2 as being acceptable. They are trash.

 

[Double_J]

About 20 years ago I was talking to a WW2 vet in a bar. I was there with a Marine friend who just back from Afghanistan. We all had quite a discussion about humanity and life. The WW2 vet saw some things in France and Germany that would blow most people's minds and challenge their faith in humanity. He and his squad had to take a house being held by a few 12 year old boys in oversize uniforms and submachine guns. 2 of the boys had to be killed as they were true believers, the other boys were scared and wanted their parents and a warm meal. That is the moment he went from "angry killer soldier to peace loving human." We all had a drink and reflected on our lives and shared a moment of silence for those who didn't make it back.

 

[1942bull]

So far I have only seen cnn and cbs totally ignoring D Day.

Sad that i find only 2 as being acceptable. They are trash.

I prereleases to remember the the success of valiant warriors than the failures of TV broadcasters

 

[Mauser lover]

Been thinking of this since Thursday... when it was supposed to start happening.
No family there. Dad was too young, Grandpa was too young! Great-grandpa was an old man in the Pacific. I believe already enlisted (Army) at the beginning of the war, and 36 when they bombed Pearl Harbor. Did a couple of things that I know of, trained anti-aircraft gunners on Bofors guns, and unloaded liberty ships, in charge of a group of stevedores.
He died in 2004, one week shy of his 99th birthday. I was blessed to get to know my great-grandfather better than most do, and he talked very respectfully of those who had combat positions, especially the troops who undertook amphibious operations (who were mostly young enough to be his children!).

In answer to the OP... M1 Carbine, if you please, although if I had volunteered at the right time and place, I probably would have ended up flying airplanes of some sort. That's what I'm drawn to now, so I'm assuming if I were born seventy years earlier I probably would be drawn to the same. Probably would have flown something made by Boeing, Republic, Grumman, or Douglas instead of Cessna or Piper though. Why the carbine? Because I'm lazy, and it's lightweight (good match, right there!). And it works. Well enough, anyway.

 

[jmr40]

Photo of dad and his ambulance. Taken somewhere in Germany after the shooting stopped.



I'd highy recommend reading Stephen Ambrose's book D-Day

https://www.amazon.com/D-Day-Illustrated-Climactic-Battle-World/dp/1476765863

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I had another great uncle that served in the Navy in the Pacific. He was on a ship that got torpedoed and was in the water for quite some time before being rescued. He never told anyone about that until he opened up to me after I had gotten out of the Army in 1996. The whole family was shocked to not only hear what he went through but that he finally opened up after all those years. My Uncle that served in Vietnam hasn't ever said much even to me. I know the feeling since I don't say much when my kids ask me about my service. That is why I always listen to and am willing to talk to any fellow combat vet no matter when they served.

This is another commonality I have observed. Vets tend to only talk to other vets. This is why organizations like the VFW, American legion, and AmVets are so important. Especially given how, until very recently, the Army has pushed PTSD under the rug as much as possible.

 

[Mauser lover]

I'd highy recommend reading Stephen Ambrose's book D-Day

https://www.amazon.com/D-Day-Illustrated-Climactic-Battle-World/dp/1476765863

I did, and I will offer my recommendation as well. Ambrose has been maligned quite a bit (and deservedly so) in academic circles for some sloppy historianship and research practices, but it's still a great book (I don't recall if these problems had to do with this book or others). I have probably read dozens of books focusing specifically on Overlord and facets thereof, and there is no other book I've found that covers both the overall organization of D-Day while incorporating the company and lower unit-level and personal stories and anecdotes in a way that flows well. All this in a way that is simple enough for even a high-school student to understand (or at least start to understand) the operational organization. I read through this book (the first time) on one of my spring breaks in high school (It had to be at least interesting for a teenager to get through 650 pages in a week!). Yes, he focus on the USA, but take a look at the numbers involved from the nations, and it is difficult to not focus on the USA. Yes, he has a disproportionate amount of stories about the elite fighters than the draftees, but the enthusiasm of the warriors for the war is significantly less pronounced in this book as compared to Band of Brothers or Pegasus Bridge. Also check out Citizen Soldiers, if you are okay with a little flag-waving. Is he as analytical as some others? No. Is he as analytical as he should be? Maybe not, as he said, he tells stories. And he does (did) it well.

What he does not do well, like most historians, is discuss the fine details of weaponry. Expect most historians to say that the M1 carbine is underpowered, unreliable, and unable to penetrate winter clothing. Expect them to say that the P-51 turned around the air war (with which it certainly helped, but this is probably more properly attributed to the order to destroy the Luftwaffa instead of protecting the bombers, thank you Doolittle [if memory serves]. Of course this ended up protecting the bombers in the long run, as well as protecting the ground forces, and everyone else!).

Good book, read it. Then read something about the British wargamers so you don't get to thinking that the USA won the war totally alone. Then go back to reading something about the guns, because that's what we do here

 

[rust collector]

Dad went in two weeks after graduating from high school, ended up in the 104th Timberwolves and slogged across Belgium before losing an eardrum to a concussion grenade. His outfit was in on the liberation of Dora-Mittelbau. He was a gunner's mate or 2d gunner on a 1919 MG, and spent 6 months in Paris after he was wounded. He rarely spoke of his time in the service, but he was a kind and gentle man who never wanted anyone else to experience what he had seen. He died on June 6, 2004. Damn, I miss him. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28645956/glendon-edwin-lee

 

[skeeterfogger]

My dad was Navy. The fear on his face when he very seldom talked about it brought tears. He and all aboard did their jobs to the best to support those landing. Possibility of a u-boat paled to them. Getting, as he put it, the boys, landed safe was all that mattered. They knew that the success of this one operation would usher in the end of the war regardless of what might happen after. His ship was positioned next to the battle ship Oklahoma. He wrote of the seemingly endless bombardment of their big guns vibrating through their hull and the thunderous reports of the other battle ships.
How the crew was fully prepared to go down firing their pre landing barrage till the last to get those men on the beaches as safely as possible.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I did, and I will offer my recommendation as well. Ambrose has been maligned quite a bit (and deservedly so) in academic circles for some sloppy historianship and research practices, but it's still a great book (I don't recall if these problems had to do with this book or others).

No, it was Undaunted Courage. He got caught plagiarizing the work of some other historians (I forget who, but it was 2-3 different people). In his defense, it may have been unintentional. His research assistants (his adult sons) apparently did not keep very good track of the sources for all of their research notes, and they ended up using other people's words in the book. It doesn't make the book inaccurate, but, as you stated, it was sloppy work, which is unacceptable from such an accomplished historian; it's a rather high school level mistake to make.

By the way, the proper term for "historianship" is historiography.

 

[wgp]

My Dad was training with a crew for his B-17, but was pulled out and assigned stateside as an instructor in B-17s and B-25s. He used to tell us that he was angry and wanted to go over to kill Germans, but came to realize that had he been sent over at the beginning of daylight bombing he would certainly have been shot down. Whenever a -17 would come through town he and I would go to see it, but he never wanted a ride. After his death I did take a ride in one along with his wings. I grew up on stories of those days and episodes on TV of Twelve O'Clock High.
Last May my wife and I were in Paris and spent one day taking a bus trip to Normandy and the American cemetery. Certainly glad we did. I have also managed to take my kids to Arlington, hoping that some of what they saw might rub off.

 

[Insignificant bill]

I thought about it today, it was a terrible day for our guys. They are spinning in their graves over what has been happening.

 

[Bruce D Pease]

Skeetrfogger ..... not trying to be a d......k ...Oklahoma was sunk on Dec 7 1941. She was revolted eventually but was unfit to return to duty. While being towed to the West last she founder and sank in the open ocean.

 

[Dudedog]

Delete

 

[CapnMac]

the others were lesser calibers. Nothing to sneeze at though.

Yeah, Texas only had 14" rifles (14"45 Mk VIII), but ten of them, and near shot the liners out (max 90 rounds per each). And was hit by German 20cm fire (one live, one dud) in return.

Texas had closed in at one point, south of the landings to engage with her 5"51 rifles.

The man who would have been my uncle once removed had already been lost over Ploesti. My grandfather was in Philadelphia, where his ship was under overhaul. The rest of mu uncles were working up for J-Day, the invasion of Saipan. (Because the planning of the operations were so close chronologically, Saipan was referred to as "J" to prevent confusion.)

 

[Mauser lover]

No, it was Undaunted Courage. He got caught plagiarizing the work of some other historians (I forget who, but it was 2-3 different people). In his defense, it may have been unintentional. His research assistants (his adult sons) apparently did not keep very good track of the sources for all of their research notes, and they ended up using other people's words in the book. It doesn't make the book inaccurate, but, as you stated, it was sloppy work, which is unacceptable from such an accomplished historian; it's a rather high school level mistake to make.

By the way, the proper term for "historianship" is historiography.

Ah, yes. While writing my rough draft I wrote down a placeholder I understood, intending to look up the proper word after I got my thoughts down (because I'm liable to forget anything at any time!). Apparently those red wavy lines aren't big enough, because I missed it while re-reading it AFTER I forgot it! Thank you for getting the proper word down.

Also, in looking at the highly trustworthy source of Wikipedia, it seems that Ambrose has been called out on seven books for plagiarism, with Wild Blue being the first one. Now, was it just by authors who didn't like that Ambrose's book(s) was (were) on the shelves at bookstores, and their books weren't? There was probably some of that, but still, they teach you to properly cite your sources in grade school...

In any case, D-Day is a good book, written by a fallible human like the rest of us.

To those who know...
What's a good place to find the difference between a 14" shell from Texas and say, a 16" shell from Iowa? Any spreadsheets out there with weight and velocity figures? Or if you have a good rule of thumb regarding differences in naval gunnery?