6th June 1944

[Billyni]

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

mot

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

RIP and thank you for your sacrifice from which we all benefit

[CalverleyBoy]

I watched the film The Great Escaper on the plane, I know it is ten years old, I didn't realise he had been on Landing Craft, as soon as I saw his beach scene flashback I was reminded of my Uncle who had the same role. He, like many, would not talk about it. He only came home in 1946, emaciated (no supplies to the ship) and mentally battered but was back at his old job the following week. How did we go from people of such calibre to some of the spoilt brats that think they deserve everything in life today!

[WTF11]

I watched the film The Great Escaper on the plane, I know it is ten years old, I didn't realise he had been on Landing Craft, as soon as I saw his beach scene flashback I was reminded of my Uncle who had the same role. He, like many, would not talk about it. He only came home in 1946, emaciated (no supplies to the ship) and mentally battered but was back at his old job the following week. How did we go from people of such calibre to some of the spoilt brats that think they deserve everything in life today!

My father-in-law was in the RAMC and was with the 50th Div on Gold beach. The French issued a medal to all those who landed on the 6th, and as both he and his daughter (my late wife) have passed, I felt it only right to wear it in his and his comrades honour, just yesterday as the day the invasion actually began, and today as the day the sea-borne invasion started in earnest. It will go back with Freds other medals until the next significant anniversary. Fred and I did speak about some of his time as a medic, but much was never spoken about, only hinted at (I know he was part of a contingent supporting armoured British troops that liberated Bergen Belsen, but that is all i know).

I suspect your question regarding how did we get to where we are now is one almost every person of those generations that lived through the war, and into the 50's and early 60's will be asking, and not just on the occasion of D-Day commemorations, but every day, when we see how the sacrifices that those who fell and those who returned changed in many ways, and almost always not for the better, have been taken for granted. The age of "entitlement" is upon us, of expecting others to do what the individual used to be responsible for, of instant gratification no matter what the cost to others or to the little blue marble each and every one of us lives on. How did we get here? F00ked if I know.

[spaldy]

I watched the film The Great Escaper on the plane, I know it is ten years old, I didn't realise he had been on Landing Craft, as soon as I saw his beach scene flashback I was reminded of my Uncle who had the same role. He, like many, would not talk about it. He only came home in 1946, emaciated (no supplies to the ship) and mentally battered but was back at his old job the following week. How did we go from people of such calibre to some of the spoilt brats that think they deserve everything in life today!

Post of the decade candidate for me.

I think about it almost every day. We were never defeated in battle. Just gave it all away. Much of the rest of the world does not look at life the way Europe and the US do. They will be happy to take it without second to think about it.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Think there are still lots of selfless people if that ilk they just don’t get media air time and tend to get less attention than they should.

[norfolk white]

I’m afraid most people nowadays think everything should be given to them without having to even work, handouts aplenty, those brave souls of 80 years ago gave their lives for these spoilt little brats, I doubt some even know what d day is, or care, so sad.

[Sniffer999]

Unbelievable how brave they were. Beyond comprehension for me.
True heroes

[BelfastAndy]

Post of the decade candidate for me.

I think about it almost every day. We were never defeated in battle. Just gave it all away. Much of the rest of the world does not look at life the way Europe and the US do. They will be happy to take it without second to think about it.

Agree.

[Orgoner]

My immediate family were all either too old or too young for WW2 (they tended to be nurses and firefighters at home), but my paternal grandfather (born in 1898) went to France for the tricky first leg where he was an ostler, looking after horses near the front line.

He never spoke much about it (although I have some pretty scary notebooks he wrote during his training at Rippon - think chlorine gas and hand to hand combat with bayonets) and he was shot under his armpit and the poor lad behind him (of a very similar age) didn’t survive.

I went on a school trip to Normandy when I was about eleven and we visited a few of the beaches. One of the few times even I knew not to play the fool.

We owe so much to those poor souls and that generation in general.