The 60th D-day Anniversary

[Solid Lifters]

My mother was a little girl during German occupied Holland. Her father, who died two years ago at age 95, secretly made British machine guns in a bicycle shop near where he lived at the time. Since he had 8 children, a German soldier that was supposed to live with Dutch families, wasn't there. So, if a downed pilot crashed in Holland, he would stay at his house until he can be snuck out of Holland.

He told me stories of how stuid and easily fooled the Germans where. Since he was an building engineer, the Germans wanted to use him for building German bunkers, and what not. He told them he ran a flower shop. So, they put him in charge of growing vegetables.

I miss him a lot. But, why does this remind me of D-Day? He fought the Germans before D-Day, but would have never freed himself without the support in the Axis forces. For that, I am very thankful. My grandfarther could have been executed for his actions, but thank God the Germans never found him out.

Happy D-Day everyone. The day is a happy one for me.

 

[Carl.]

Originally posted by shopping_carts_
...canada attacked dieppe which helped relieve the pressure on the soviets and played an enormous role in the battle of britain

My grandfather was within these troops. Dieppe was a total failure, and a real slaughter. Bad planning, bad luck (because of delays, they didn't have the element of surprise at dawn as expected) and less than half of the 5000 canadian soldiers made their way back to england, most of them being wounded. The only good thing about it is that it helped a lot to learn, to prepare D-Day, and I guess that was the purpose of this mission: a simple test before the real thing.


The debate of who contributed the most in WWII is very futile. If the british, USA or USSR were not in it, the outcome of the war may have been very different. And if anybody cares about the numbers to brag about it, USSR had by far the largest army, more casualties and were responsible for the greatest losses of Hitler's army. We were in fact very lucky that he was stupid enough to backstab Stalin in 1941, otherwise we would had a few millions more germans soldiers to deal with in 1944, and most likely wouldn't be celebrating D-Day at all.

Anyway, we're all grateful to every men that risked or gave his life while fighting with us for this war, regardless of where they came from.

Happy D-Day!

 

[Mike Rotch]

Originally posted by Viper Zero
The US, UK, Canada, France, and Russia all had big roles to play in WWII.

All Commonwealth countries played a huge role in WWII. Along with the Free French, escaped Norwegians, escaped Poles etc etc.

Only those Spaniards, Swiss, Swedes and Portugese chickened out.

Anyway, we're all grateful to every men that risked or gave his life while fighting with us for this war, regardless of where they came from.

 

[DQuaN]

Operation Overlord was the most daunting task any soldier has ever carried out. Nothing like that will ever happen again. My deep thanks go out to all the men form every country who helped make the world a safer place fo all today, despite the odds agains them. Well done lads.