D-Day Anniversary

I've been learning as much as I can about that war... trying to understand why? I wasn't proud to be a part of the war on terror during my service, but I would have been proud to serve my country on d day

 

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Hotwater

 

Of course. Both my grand parents were Eastern Front though so no where near France on D Day. One was Panzer divisions SS and the other regular Wehrmacht.

I have all their decorations, gear, uniform etc. locked away in a safe of mine.
My parents still have a K98 of theirs at home. I used to compete at the range with it, it was awesome. Envy of everyone there too lol. I've never tried to ship that back overseas luckily he was able to bring it from Iteland at the time to Australia when the laws weren't so tough in the 90s.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHcunREYzNY"]We'll Meet Again - Vera Lynn - YouTube

 

Well, my ex employer I mentioned in my previous post helped defeat your two grandfathers.My own grandfather too. Fact of history for which I can't apologize.

But nowadays I hope we can all be good European friends - unless the right wing scrrw up the EU.

 

Don’t you mean they fought for the Axis?



Hotwater

 

my grandpa fought in WWII. if by "fought in WWII" you mean "joined when he turned 18 in 1946. he tended to be full of shit. and not in the cute, "oh we love listening to grandpa's tall tales" way, but in the "grandpa is a pathetic narcissist who lies about everything in his life in an attempt to make himself come off as a great man" way. he's dead now though, so i shouldn't talk too much shit about him.

both my grandparents on the other side were in the navy during the war. i honestly have no idea what kind of combat they saw, if any. pretty sure my grandma, who is still alive and kicking at 92, was some sort of navy housekeeper, or whatever similar position existed back then. i know nothing about what happened with her husband except that he was in the navy and was stationed in hawaii, not at pearl harbor i'm assuming because i would think i would know if he had been. neither of them ever talked about it though, so i dunno.

 

That is all I needed to know. Not that they or you were proud of that fact.

 

It is indeed.

I remember when I was at school, we still had a few Old Contemptibles who would turn out at the war memorial on Remembrance Day.

For those who don't know what an Old Contemptible was ... it was one of the 100,000 strong British Expeditionary Force who were sent to Belgium at the beginning of the First World War ... described by the Kaiser as a "contemptible little army".

Now, we don't have any First World War combat veterans left ... and as you guys say, we're rapidly running out of Second World War vets.

Mind you, not so long ago I was in Braemar, where they have the grave of the Last Jacobite ... who fought for Charles Edward Stewart at Culloden in 1746. He died aged 110 in the 1830s, and at his funeral they sang Who Wouldnae Fight for Charlie. It still brings a tear to my eye every time I think of that!

 

When I was a mere stripling, there were german WW11 POWs working in the fields in central California south of Fresno. They really had it made as far as POWS go. And the last of the soldiers from the Civil War were still dying out. Early 40s.

No TV of course, but we would gather around and listen to the news of the war on a big ol' ornate radio and saw newsreels in the theater. I'm still fascinated by black and white films of the second world war.

I remember ration stamps with little pictures of jeeps that my people had to use to get commodities like butter and other things. We little kids would bring money to buy food for people that lived in areas ravaged in Europe by the war. Part of the Marshall plan to help those affected, I guess.

I have a friend whose father was in the air force and he was at the Hickam Air Base (north shore, Oahu)when the Japanese were strafing the base. He hid under a bed.

 

Irony not your strong point?

fyi - It's often over looked that Russia also invaded Poland in 1939.

 

I think, I have posted images before, for people who have not seen ))




My grandfather was fighting since 1941, it is a small amount of his military things.




And took this as some reward, I don't know, from battle in Berlin, 1945 )

 

Might not 'get you' given your average post count is 0.25.

 

wars are a bloody mess and people seem to want to remember the wrong things about them for the wrong reasons. hitler's ass needed kicking and that was the last thing america has done militarily right. as for the war in the pacific, japan had little choice but to respond as it did, to a situation the u.s. and great brittain had conspired to force them into.

japan was bloody, but there's no fighting politely when you're fighting for your life, which, unlike all the military conflicts america has engaged in since, japan was essentially fighting for its life.

 

My Dad enlisted in the Navy, Dec. 10, 1942; 10 days after his 17th birthday.

 

I love your pictures, and the insight in your life.
Seriously, awesome.

 

Irony needs to be articulated in a recognizable form. If irony was intended, I assume you were having a swipe at the US for not entering the war until '41.

 

I'll play devils advocate and ask; if D-Day had failed or never happened would it have really made a difference to the length of the war or the eventual outcome

 

Good question.
I think what might have happened, and this was a big part in America's involvement in the war in Europe, is that the Russians would have taken the whole of western Europe after defeating the Nazis. There would have been nothing to stop them. It would have taken longer, but probably that would have been the outcome.
Subsequent history would then have been very different.

I'm pretty much convinced that preventing such an outcome was at least an equal goal to the US (Britain too) to the defeat of Hitler. Eyes were on the post war balance of power.

 

Interesting answer as well, Bill! Anyway, without the western front (which they still would have to guard of course) it would not be entirely out of the question that the germans would have hold the eastern front and eventually compromise with the russians on a border. But yeah, it will remain speculation in the end!