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D-Day landings remembered How remiss of me to forget – today is the anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France. In a few weeks’ time me and the missus are heading to Honfleur, the French port town in northern France, for a long weekend. It is one of my favourite bits of France.
We should never forget the sacrifices made on that day and in the weeks thereafter. A relation of mine was in the British beach landings, and he lasted the entire campaign right through the Battle of the Bulge, the Rhine crossings and later, as part of the post-war occupation of north Germany. He went back to Normandy a few years ago and said the same family were working in a cafe near Caen as when he was a young lieutenant in the artillery. Oh, and he married a German girl from Hamburg, who was a lovely woman without a trace of bitterness.
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My great uncle landed at Sword beach too; he was later shot in the head in Belgium, left for dead, then rescued and operated on 24 hours later.
He had a plate in his skull, permanently lost all sight on one half of his field of vision and had to learn to speak again. He recovered sufficiently to resume his studies (and even his rowing) at Oxford, going on to be a long-serving county archivist, an accomplished artist, a lover of terrible puns, and a MBE. He did used to get on my mum’s nerves quite badly, mind you.
He who overcometh shall inherit all things.
My father landed on Omaha. He used to joke that the French would end up convincing themselves that the only reason we landed in Normandy was to sample the food and taste the wine.
He was wounded near Isigny and every time I see butter or cookies (biscuits) from there I think of him.
There is a post at Chicagoboyz by Shannon Love regarding the bankruptcy of modern intellectualism that is tangentially related to this topic in the sense that there is an urgent need for younger people who are not being taught anything about the calamitous 20th century to understand the immensity of the challenges the liberal democratic west faced during that period.
Also related, both to this subject and to the current conflict, is a marvelous article at Pajamas Media about Vaclev Havel. I linked through Instapundit.
Often we can be overwhelmed, and lose heart, due to the seeming enormity and complexity of all the problems facing our civilization. It is well, at those moments, to consider the strength and courage of those who have faced evil incarnate, and prevailed.
All times are times that try men’s souls, but occasionally, just occasionally, there are souls that can triumph over seemingly impossible odds. They have the power of the powerless…
One of my great uncles jumped with the 101st into Normandy. Happily, he survived the war in mind and body.
Sadly, he died in a car crash: granted, he was in his 70s, in his nephew’s sports car and never “drove faster than he could see”.
Good man.
Lovely spot, Honfleur. Possibly best visited away from the weekends if you go there in summer and don’t like crowds. (This is the closest French coastal town to Paris). As a bonus there is a particularly stunning bridge crossing the Seine just a little upstream from the town).
A day when a lot of good men got killed – but also a day of victory.
Their sacrifice was not in vain, no one said “there has been a lot of blood shed – let us pull out” and Nazi Germany was eventually defeated.
In case someone thinks the above comment is too political……
Last night (i.e. on D. day) the B.B.C. Radio 4 show “A Good Read” had a man on snearing at the American “shock and awe” tactics at Iwi Jima (spot contempary point making) and saying that the Americans allways “demonize people in other countries” – which is why they do such terrible things to them and so on…….
In fact Americans tend to give the ordinary people in the countries lots of aid – especially if they have been at war with the dictators of those countries (as in the case of Germany, Japan or Iraq).
But you are not going to hear that on the B.B.C.
“But Conservative party people are allowed on”.
Yes – like Lord Hurd on the BBC1 discussion show on Thusday, and David “two brains” Willitts (spelling alert) on the BBC Radio 4 discussion show on Friday.
Both endorsed the Marxist Senator Obama to be President of the United States – although his Marxist background and connections were not mentioned by them.
The best that can be said of the sort of “Conservative” the B.B.C. has on is that they do not know what they are talking about.
Because if they do know anything about the subjects they are talking about…….
Douglas Hurd is scum and always has been.
I live near Villers-Bocage, site of the famous battle in which the score was Michael Wittman’s Mk VI Tiger – around 20 ; 7th Armoured Division – 0. Wittman’s 501 SS Schwere-Abteilung 101 later had it’s arse kicked while making an ill advised counter-attack inside the town, making their Tigers point blank targets for the Desert Rats’ cleverly placed 6 pounders.
Although the anniversary of the battle is 13th June, my point is that all my French friends remain eternally grateful to the allies for liberating their homeland. Outside Normandy and in the political elite, French voices are not nearly so kind, particularly towards our American friends whose Omaha tragedy was so great. As usual, the voices of those who had the most to lose are not those who are today the most easily heard.
Particularly as their whole town was leveled by Bomber Command the next day when the German Panzers had predictably withdrawn.