Today is/was D-Day, on 6 June 1944. What does D-Day mean to you? To us?

2015-06-06T09:09:57-04:00

Today is D-Day, or what we now call D-Day... What does D-Day mean to the US today? What does it mean to veterans today? What do you think of on D-Day?

http://taskandpurpose.com/8-iconic-photos-from-the-invasion-of-normandy-71-years-ago/

8 Iconic Photos From The Invasion Of Normandy 71 Years Ago

The invasion of Normandy, which was named Operation Overlord, launched on June 6, 1944, and was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 6 at 2015 9:15 AM

2015-06-06T09:15:04-04:00

When I really stop to think about it, COL Charles Williams, I think about the bravery required to storm the beach that day. And then the guts, the grit, the determination required to move inland (and up), fighting an enemy that was raining death down from above. Those men deserve our thanks and they deserve to be remembered - at the very least - on every anniversary of D-Day.

Response by Cpl Jeff N. made Jun 6 at 2015 9:19 AM

2015-06-06T09:19:33-04:00

I had the opportunity a few years ago to go to Normandy and the surrounding area. I went to Utah beach, St Mere Eglise, Point du Hoc, a German war cemetery and a few other spots. Of course, the cemetery at Normandy and a walk along the beach, the view from the bluffs etc. It is hard to imagine the courage and sacrifice that played out there and many other spots throughout the war.

The cemetery was immaculate, the grounds impeccable, befitting of the troops that are there.

St Mere Eglise was a town that I really wanted to visit as I had read the story so many times. The love, appreciation and admiration the folks there have for Americans is refreshing.

On D-Day, I try to remember the sacrifice of so many but also recall the appreciation so many have for them. As Churchill once said of the pilots during the Battle of Britain, "Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few. I think that quote could apply at Normandy as well.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 6 at 2015 9:19 AM

2015-06-06T09:19:59-04:00

I feel a sense of pride, a lot of Sadness for all the lives lost. The legacy that these brave men and all the supporting folks is just simply overwhelming. I can't imagine what they all went through. The training and mission rehersal couldn't even have came close at all to this day! I am very thankful for all Veterans, Past and Present and honored to stand tall next to them! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIFATDe9dsw

U.S. Army "Team" Commercial

You can't condense the U.S. Army story down into 60 seconds, but this commercial goes a long way toward highlighting the foundation of America's first team; ...

Response by CPO Emmett (Bud) Carpenter made Jun 6 at 2015 10:27 AM

2015-06-06T10:27:52-04:00

My father-in-law flew two missions that day in his B24. I'll be going with him on July 18th on his Honer Flight to Washington DC. It will be his 94th brith day.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Jun 6 at 2015 11:24 AM

2015-06-06T11:24:23-04:00

COL Charles Williams, every major operation had a D Day. Because of the immense size of the invasion forces, the sheer scope of the invasion goals, and the tremendous impact Operation Overlord will,be forever referred to as D Day.
I have studied history with a keen interest in military history since I was about 8 years old. My reading and studying of WWII played a large part in my desire to become a soldier.
My parents were British and the family had several relatives killed during the London bombings. The threat of invasion after Dunkirk was real to my parents families. The rationing system, blackouts, travel restrictions for many years were relaxed because D Day was successful although the cost was incredibly high to the invasion forces.
The invasion flotilla was larger than anything prior or since, years spent shipbuilding, bringing assets to Britain, dispersing and camouflaging the invasion forces, deception operations to cause the Germans to assume the landings would be elsewhere. The weather in early June was problematic but sufficient clearing occurred to launch the invasion on June 6 and the rest is history.

Response by LTC Stephen C. made Jun 6 at 2015 11:37 AM

2015-06-06T11:37:50-04:00

COL Charles Williams, many have already expressed their sentiments which match mine, and I don't think I could express myself any better than what's already been placed on this discussion thread.
However, I also think of my father, LTJG Jack Curlee, who served during WWII. He did not participate in Operation Overlord as he was commissioned in the Navy on 29JUN44, some 23 days after the event. Nonetheless, he went to the Pacific and was aboard USS LST -78 for some 16+ months before returning to the US. He's still alive and kicking at the age of 93!
I just hope that the world remembers enough about this event so that nothing like it will ever happen again.

Response by LTC Gavin Heater made Jun 6 at 2015 12:12 PM

2015-06-06T12:12:31-04:00

I had a few D-Day Veterans as friends through AUSA who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day or D-Day plus one. They all told amazing stories. Unfortunately they are all gone now and in Fiddlers Green. I received my first of seven "combat patches" on D-Day plus 60 years while in Tikrit, Iraq serving under the 1st Infantry Division. The ceremony recalled the bravery of those who bravely went before us and preserved our way of life. I still recall it fondly.

Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Jun 6 at 2015 12:12 PM

2015-06-06T12:12:38-04:00

D-Day means everything to me in respects of Duty Honor Country. I am embedded to the Sacrafice so many gave to the liberty of Freedom world-wide.
"PRICELESS"

Response by LTC Bink Romanick made Jun 6 at 2015 12:27 PM

2015-06-06T12:27:06-04:00

My dad and 7 uncles fought in WWII. Two were in the ETO. I was basically raised with WWII veterans relatives and friends of my folks.

What I think about D-Day is simply thousands of young Americans, Canadians and Brits, common men, not professional soldiers left their homes and trained to fight the greatest evil the world had ever known.

On D-Day the landed on beaches covered with obstacles and raked by machine guns and kept on going despite the obstacles and despite the danger... They advanced forward. Common men doing a common soldiers job and doing it uncommonly well.

Many of these young men died and they died far too young.... Just common soldiers.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jun 6 at 2015 1:40 PM

2015-06-06T13:40:30-04:00

D-Day to me is the pivotal operation to conduct a subsequent push in Europe to free it from an evil force. It is a day when soldiers from the Canadian, British, and American saw divine providence of their maker in action in the sea and the vast length of the beaches.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Jun 6 at 2015 2:37 PM

2015-06-06T14:37:29-04:00

D-Day set the standard by which pretty much any military operation pre or post is compared against.

The size, scale, tactical importance, planning, tonnage of military equipment, number of personnel, train up time, logistics, inter-service/international coordination/cooperation you name it, nothing this immense will (we hope) ever happen again.

The SMs who fought on THE, "Day of Days" and the ensuing battles may have thought they were simply doing the job they were trained for but their courage, conviction and sacrifice as individuals and an entire fighting force is tough to equal.

The mentality of the war was vastly different then what we've seen since as the allies were fighting an evenly matched enemy where the outcomes of battles were not readily predictable.

Thanks to the "Saving Private Ryan", what I see when I reflect on this day is the vision of the scarred beach and rolling, blood soaked tide. It's a haunting vision that only those who endured it can really know what it means. I see the photo of General of the Army Omar Bradley standing on that same desolate beach 25 years later simply reflecting...

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 6 at 2015 3:20 PM

2015-06-06T15:20:39-04:00

COL Charles Williams, when I think of D-day, I think about all those brave souls who took beach and continued pounding while their buddies were getting killed and wounded all around them. I think of the video clip always shown where the soldier is advancing on the beach, even though there is machine gun ammo hitting all around him, and gets killed. I think of all the parents of those young heros who got the telegram that their son is MIA or KIA. Having been in combat myself, I can feel what those kids were thinking as they offloaded those carriers and had to run through the the water and sand, praying it's not their time, but continuing on while they watch the horror surrounding them. Theirs was not in vain, as Korea and Vietnam was. They represented the freedom everyone wants, by winning their war.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jun 6 at 2015 6:37 PM

2015-06-06T18:37:49-04:00

They were gladiators in a huge coliseum facing an elemental collage of life and death. They felt fear, water, thirst, fire, bravery, confusion, hunger, sand and dirt, against a well entrenched enemy.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 6 at 2015 7:12 PM

2015-06-06T19:12:07-04:00

SFC Private RallyPoint Member Sir, I ran across this story and video.

Pointe du Hoc; June 6, 1944
Jonn Lilyea | June 6, 2015

Rangers Mission for D-Day, 6 June 1944

The Ranger Group, attached to the 116th Infantry and commanded by Lt. Col. James E. Rudder, was given the mission to capture Pointe du Hoc and destroy the guns. The Ranger Group was made up of two battalions: the 2d Rangers, under direct command of Col. Rudder, and the 5th Rangers, under Lt. Col. Max F. Schneider. Three companies (D, E, and F) of the 2d Battalion (Task Force A) were to land from the sea at H-Hour and assault the cliff position at Pointe du Hoc. The main Ranger force (5th Battalion and Companies A and B of the 2d, comprising Task Force B) would wait off shore for a signal of success, then land at the Point. The Ranger Group would then move inland, cut the coastal highway connecting Grandcamp and Vierville, and await the arrival of the 116th Infantry from Vierville before pushing west toward Grandcamp and Maisy.

One DUKW was hit and sunk by 20-mm fire from a cliff position near the Point. The nine surviving LCAs came in and managed to land in parallel on a 400-yard front on the east side of Point du Hoc, landing about 0705. Allied naval fire had been lifted since H-Hour, giving the Germans above the cliff time to recover. Scattered small-arms fire and automatic fire from a flanking machine-gun position hammered the LCAs, causing about fifteen casualties as the Rangers debarked on the heavily cratered strip of beach. The grapnel rockets were fired immediately on touchdown. Some of the water-soaked ropes failed to carry over the cliff, but only one craft failed to get at least one grapnel to the edge. In one or two cases, the demountable extension ladders were used. The DUKWs came in but could not get across the cratered beach, and from the water’s edge their extension ladders would not reach the top of the cliff.

Despite all difficulties, the Rangers used the ropes and ladders to scramble up the cliff. The German defenders were shocked by the bombardment and improbable assault, but quickly responded by cutting as many ropes as they could. They rushed to the cliff edge and poured direct rifle and machine gun fire on the Rangers, augmented by grenades tossed down the slope. The Rangers never broke, continuing to climb amidst the fire as Ranger BAR men picked off any exposed Germans. The destroyer USS Satterlee (DD-626) observed the Rangers’ precarious position, closed to 1500 yards and took the cliff top under direct fire from all guns, a considerable assist at a crucial time.

Within ten minutes of the landing the first Americans reached the top of the cliffs.

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=60227&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thisainthell%2FnTMY+%28This+ain%27t+Hell%2C+but+you+can+see+it+from+here%29

Pointe du Hoc; June 6, 1944

Republished almost every year; Rangers Mission for D-Day, 6 June 1944 The Ranger Group, attached to the 116th Infantry and commanded by Lt. Col. James E

Response by SGM Mikel Dawson made Jun 6 at 2015 9:35 PM

2015-06-06T21:35:10-04:00

I've been to Normandy, seen the sites, walked the beaches at 0630 when the operation began. You get a complete different prospective when standing at the water's edge looking up at that long, flat beach understanding the cross fire, direct/indirect fire being placed on the incoming soldiers. Movies, books tell you a lot, but standing there, if you don't feel the fear, then you're missing something. It made me ask, "How did they do it?"

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Jun 6 at 2015 11:33 PM

2015-06-06T23:33:27-04:00

I think of the June 6th D-Day as one of the most known days of hell on earth. I have no idea how I would have reacted had I been there. I'd like to say that I'd perform admirably, but the sheer horror of the situation was too much for men much tougher than me. I'm just awe struck in the planning, performance, and execution of the invasion. Psychologically, that invasion signified to the American public that we had the upper hand in Europe and the war would eventually be won by the allies. Had we been turned back, I feel like there might have been enormous politial pressure to try to end the war under a flag of truce (worst case scenario). Of course we'll never know because failure was never an option and surrender is not in our creed.
Much like the disaster of the Hurtgen Forest being overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle for Okinawa was going on at the same time as the Normandy invasion. Losing Okinawa sealed the fate of Japan, just as the D-Day success signaled the beginning of the end in Europe. April-June of 1944 defined the US military as absolutely, positively, 100% certifiably, badass. Back to back World War champs. Greatest Generation RESPECT!!!

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Oct 20 at 2015 11:43 AM

2015-10-20T11:43:19-04:00

It was the start of the end of the Eastern European front.