Today is the 80th anniversary of the largest military operation in history and sadly the vets of that battle are fewer and fewer with each passing year and soon they will be gone and the country may forget them as we did for our WW1 vets.

A little background for the slower among us….

The Normandy invasion occurred more than four years into World War II. Planning for the operation which was executed on June 6, 1944 went on for years before its eventual execution.

History.com details the invasion, which stretched across five beaches codenamed “Utah,” “Omaha,” “Gold,” “Juno” and “Sword.” Plans were in place for heavy bombing from planes, which would take out Nazi guns and destroy crucial roads and bridges, cutting off their retreat and any potential reinforcements. At this point, paratroopers would drop in and secure inland positions before 150,000 amphibious troops from Britain, Canada and the U.S. attacked Nazi defenses.

This ambitious plan was foiled, however, when bombers were unable to destroy many Nazi heavy artillery bunkers. With foul weather, many paratroopers were blown away from their marks, drowned in lagoons or fell prey to snipers as they drifted down.

The UK does not forget the sacrifices made by the brave souls that participated in the ‘beginning of the end’

The Overlord Embroidery

Most everyone knows about the landing sites Juno, Omaha, Sword, Gold and Utah but there were other missions that began the invasion earlier.

The invasion began with the brave souls that we in the glider division that we sent behind enemy lines to start disrupting the Nazis in whatever way they could.

D-Day was a marvel of planning; it involved the simultaneous landing of tens of thousands of Allied troops on five separate beaches in Nazi-occupied northern France. The British and Canadians would land on three beaches in Normandy, codenamed Sword, Juno and Gold. The Americans were to capture Omaha and Utah beaches. 

Major John Howard and his company’s part in this elaborate plan required perfect navigation, great daring and complete surprise. Their mission was to capture two bridges intact – Bénouville Bridge, later known as Pegasus Bridge, over the Caen canal, and Ranville Bridge, later renamed Horsa Bridge, over the adjacent River Orne. Because these road bridges were the only way across the parallel water obstacles, capturing them would mean they could stop German reinforcements from reaching the beaches where the Allied armies would land later that day.  

Preparation for this audacious glider mission was intense. Thousands of aerial photographs were taken of the bridges and their defences mapped in detail. The British even created a model of the area which was modified to match each day’s aerial photograph. When the Germans cut down trees, the model-makers did the same. The idea of using gliders was that troops and heavier weapons could be landed in the same place behind enemy lines, without the need for parachutes. Because of the need to conserve metal supplies during wartime, the gliders were made mostly of spruce and plywood. They were tricky to operate, and liable to break apart upon landing.  

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240531-how-ww2s-d-day-began-with-a-death-defying-mission-in-a-wooden-aircraft

This link has photos of the day and the invasion….remember!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ng-interactive/2014/jun/01/d-day-landings-scenes-in-1944-and-now-interactive

Eighty years ago Thursday, Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to launch the liberation of Western Europe from the Nazis. More than 150,000 men attacked five beaches in the D-Day landings, and more than 4,400 of them were killed. Around 200 veterans who returned to France, all in their late 90s or older, were the focus of commemorations Thursday, where leaders praised their bravery in one of history’s most important battles, the Guardian reports.

• President Biden will speak at an event attended by around two dozen other world leaders, the Washington Post reports. He will later attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and a ceremony at Omaha Beach, where more than 2,400 Americans were killed or wounded.

ng Charles III spoke at the British Normandy Memorial, overlooking beaches where British troops landed, the AP reports. “Eighty years ago on D-Day, the 6th of June 1944, our nation—and those which stood alongside it—faced what my grandfather, King George VI, described as the supreme test,” he said. “This vital start to the liberation of Europe was a vast allied effort,” the king said. “American, British, Canadian, French, and Polish formations fought here in Normandy.”

“Brave Canadians like you sacrificed everything for our freedom,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a ceremony near Juno Beach, where thousands of Canadian troops landed. “There are no words to describe the immensity of the debt we owe you.” Some 13 Canadian veterans were at the ceremony, the CBC reports. Another vet, 100-year-old Bill Cameron, died the day before he was due to fly from Vancouver.

Remember The Day!   Remember the Loss!  Never Forget!

May we never have to make this decision again.

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