70th anniversary of D Day

It's a very sobering thought that at this time 70 years ago hundreds of thousands of very brave, very young and probably very frightened men were sailing or flying across the English Channel to liberate Europe.
It is quite amazing what the combined efforts of the UK, USA and Commonwealth achieved then.
The US took particularly heavy casualties on Omaha and Utah; and the Canadians lost many in the failure that was Dieppe, but taught many lessons.
God only knows what the world would be like today if they had failed.
The civilised world owes them all a massive debt of gratitude, particularly those who died so young.

Being a veteran as many of us are of US, UK, I sat through Saving Private Ryan with tears in my eyes at the end of the movie. God only knows is exactly right. Thanks for reminding us jimisim. Although I don't think many of us have forgotten who are in our golden years.

As a Vietnam combat veteran and wannabe historian, I have visited Normandy and I salute all that served and did the necessary for all, special thanks to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Peace, Turk

We are very grateful about Normandy, because of that mister Stalin cannot use more time, men and material to crush our army in Karelian isthmus. We lost Viipuri, but our lines stands. We make peace, no need to surrender. So thanks, allies

My family, on my father's side, is Finnish. Both my paternal grandparents were from Finland and I know a little about Russia's efforts to conquer Finland during the war. I know the Finns fought ferociously during the Winter War and decimated the dispirited, poorly supplied, conscript Soviet troops and made Uncle Joe take notice. Congratulations on making the Russian Bear bleed.

Those who gave their lives at Normandy seventy years ago, as well as those who gave their lives before and after, at Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Monte Cassino, The Battle of Britain, North Africa, Sicily and on and on made it possible for us to live the way we do today. It's impossible to overstate what we owe them...

There aren't all that many former soldiers left, on either the Allied or Axis side, who fought on the beaches of Normandy seventy years ago--those who did would, at the youngest, be approaching ninety years of age right now.

By the time that the western Allied forces broke out of the Normandy beachhead, two months after the first landings, the defeat of Germany was pretty much assured and the long-term liberation of western Europe was effectively from postwar Soviet domination.

Thus in Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, etc., even in western Berlin, the swastika wasn't merely replaced by the hammer-and-sickle as a symbol of another tyranny... --C.K.

You're so right, CK. The inevitability of the German collapse, though, didn't preclude there being some harrowing times getting there, most particularly during the Battle of the Bulge. And the imperative to counter the Soviet advance only added to the urgency.

CrimsonKidCK
Exactly.

Alltought that swastika thing... We used it first, but those damn Nazis ruined it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilmari_Juutilainen

Look closely those pictures of planes

You're right as far as the Finns using the swastika as a symbol predated the Nazis using it, but it has been around for millennia; all through Asia, ancient and modern Europe, the Byzantine Empire, The Roman Empire and even North America among Native American tribes. The word "swastika" came from Sanskrit. It was a symbol of a lot of things but it was largely symbolic of "good luck" or prosperity. It vastly preceded the Third Reich (even the First Reich) as the cross symbol pre-dated Christianity. You're right though; the Nazis positively ruined it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

And yet mankind never seems to learn.
The similarity between Poland then and the Ukraine now has me very worried indeed.