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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 6, 2014 - 11:27am PT
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I've done some scary climbs but don't think I can imagine what it was like for a teenage kid to be in a vomit filled Higgens boat headed for Omaha Beach. They had to perform or die, and saw horrors that nobody should while doing so.
A friend of mine is in Normandy for the ceremonies, and wants to check out the cliffs our boys batmanned up at Point Du Hoc.
Looks like the weather is much nicer on this 70th anniversary.
Hats off to the greatest generation. I would never have had the wonderful life that I have enjoyed were it not for their courage and sacrifice.
How many kids these days even have a clue as too how much blood was spilled for the freedoms that they take for granted.
(ok, end of geezer rant)
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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both my grandpa's did the deed for d day.
my uncle did an even bigger deed by fly'n the b24 and b17 over france at the time..uncle bruno didnt make it thru some akak..
happy doughnut day!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Today's LA Times tells the story of a lad who stepped off the LC ramp and went straight to the bottom with 90 pounds of gear on. He managed to wriggle out of his gear and make it to the
beach. That is known as making it out of the frying pan and into the fire. My dad did that at Guadalcanal. That wasn't as hotly contested on the beach but it wasn't exactly beach blanket bingo, either.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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thx Toker for the Du Hoc reference
from Wikipedia...
2 days after
Demo of type of ladders used.
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Seamstress
Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
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Found myself tearing up on the morning drive in, listening to D Day memories. From the father-in-law who was liberated, to my mom's friend who endured bobings in Nazi Germany and deep shame for her nation when migrated to the US with a GI husband, this war was very real. Changed history. Salute.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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We all owe far more then we can ever repay.
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Hats off to the greatest generation. I would never have had the wonderful life that I have enjoyed were it not for their courage and sacrifice.
How many kids these days even have a clue as too how much blood was spilled for the freedoms that they take for granted.
(ok, end of geezer rant)
Rant on Toker and may we never forget.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 6, 2014 - 02:11pm PT
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The bitch about Du Hoc was that the guns had already been moved and replaced with dummy pipes.
Most of the mortar grappling hooks failed because they hadn't prevented the ropes from getting wet in the crossing, and nobody had factored in the heavier weight. Less than half reached the top.
It was totally sketched out, but somehow they topped out and fought off the emplaced and fortified germans.
There were a few skilled german MG42 gunners over on Omaha that accounted for hundreds of casualties each!
What carnage! But we actually did worse to the Iraqies hauling home booty from Kuwait on "the road of death". Fish in a barrel.
Too bad the amphibious tanks flubbed. (Or should I say blub blub)
Who was the officer that said, "Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beach. Let us move inland and be killed there."?
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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My Dad went across the channel around the end of June 1944, part of the Third Armored Division, 1st Army. He was a second lieutenant in charge of moving wounded tankers from the front to field hospitals via stretcher, jeep, and 3/4 ton truck ambulances.
Hard to imagine the suffering he must have seen.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Heard about the preparations and tried to inlist but, even though I was a big 10 month old, they turned me down.
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gunsmoke
Mountain climber
Clackamas, Oregon
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Hard for those us born after the war was long over to imagine what they faced. Too bad that the Google logo is silent about this day, just as it was for the 60th anniversary a decade ago. By the next decade anniversary there will be almost no survivors left.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Who was the officer that said, "Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beach. Let us move inland and be killed there."?
Norman Cota .... A leader of men.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Not many people understand what it feels like to be sent on a mission that it surely suicide.
While there is some nervousness, there is also a profound acceptance of your own impending death. You can't understand that unless you've felt it yourself.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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On June 4th, 1944, Rome fell to American forces breaking out from Anzio.
On June 15th, 1944 American Marines stormed ashore at Saipan in the Pacific (also called then, as was every amphibious assault of the time "D-Day").
All during June 1944, British and American forces were fighting the Imphal/Kohima battles and striking toward central Burma.
On June 22, 1944, the Red Army launched Operation Bagration (timed to be on the fourth anniversary of the German invasion) which eventually gutted the German Army Group Center.
So much concentrated fighting during that time, and all the then-Western Allies celebrate in a big way now is the invasion of Normandy.
That doesn't seem necessarily inappropriate, but to those of us who study history, it does seem a little odd. I suppose that "D-Day" has come to be the one overriding symbol of that war, and of what one of America's greatest generations did.
Thank goodness we do at least that.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Estimates vary, but at this point there may be fewer than 5,000 living people who could tell you what it was actually like to land or parachute into Normandy on D-Day, according to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
Which means the rest of us, on the 70th anniversary Friday, have to get our impressions of that bloody, momentous day when 156,000 Allied soldiers landed on the beaches of France from a different theater of war: the movies.
http://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/movies/on-d-day-s-70th-the-longest-day-other-movies-provide-a-sense-of-the-moment-1.1029710
In 1960 I read Cornelius Ryan's book, The Longest Day. Two years later I saw the movie, which had The Duke, among others, in the cast. And let's don't forget the TV series, Combat. All three shaped my view of the invasion and the aftermath.
It was very satisfying to see the movie Saving Private Ryan managed a more humane perspective while still making oodles of money. I saw it twice on the big screen. Hats off to Spielberg.
And a salute to the remaining vets of the landings all over the world.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
Good Luck! and Let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
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John Duffield
Mountain climber
New York
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I went through Point du Hoc in April. Pretty cool. The ceilings were burned from the thermite grenades. There was a double black flag on a buoy in the water there. Wonder what that was.
The signs said, the guns hadn't been installed yet. They had one though.
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