Today marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. The Allied land, sea, and air forces – which were not only drawn from American and Britain, but also Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Poland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and other occupied countries – mounted what was at the time the largest amphibious and airborne landing even seen, and began the liberation of Western Europe.
Today some of the few remaining veterans will take part in ceremonies to mark this anniversary. Alongside them will be numerous political leaders and heads of state, and no doubt some of them will be basking in the reflected glory of what their countrymen achieved that day ... but it is the veterans that we should be remembering. All of them will be at least ninety years old (someone who was eighteen years old in 1944 will be ninety-three now) and their numbers are dwindling every year. It will not be very long until then last of them dies, and it is vitally important that what they did on that day seventy-five years ago and in the months after it is not forgotten.
There will be veterans of the Allied armed forces whose contribution to the ultimate victory will probably not be mentioned today, but who should also be remembered.
They are the men – and women – who were taking part in the fighting in Italy, the Far East, the Pacific, and in Eastern Europe. The first were very unjustly referred to as the ‘D-Day Dodgers’ and the second as the ‘Forgotten Army’*. It is worth remembering that on 6th June 1944 Allied forces had occupied Rome, having recently concluded the Battle of Monte Cassino, whilst in India fighting against the Japanese continued at Kohima**, and in the Pacific, the US Navy was transporting the expeditionary forces for the invasion of Saipan towards the Mariana Islands. In modern-day Belarus, eastern Poland, and the Ukraine, Soviet forces were preparing for Operation Bagration (Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration), which began on 23rd June.
*It is said that General Slim – the commander of the Allied Fourteenth Army – once remarked that:
** The Military Cemetery in Kohima has the famous inscription:
Today some of the few remaining veterans will take part in ceremonies to mark this anniversary. Alongside them will be numerous political leaders and heads of state, and no doubt some of them will be basking in the reflected glory of what their countrymen achieved that day ... but it is the veterans that we should be remembering. All of them will be at least ninety years old (someone who was eighteen years old in 1944 will be ninety-three now) and their numbers are dwindling every year. It will not be very long until then last of them dies, and it is vitally important that what they did on that day seventy-five years ago and in the months after it is not forgotten.
There will be veterans of the Allied armed forces whose contribution to the ultimate victory will probably not be mentioned today, but who should also be remembered.
They are the men – and women – who were taking part in the fighting in Italy, the Far East, the Pacific, and in Eastern Europe. The first were very unjustly referred to as the ‘D-Day Dodgers’ and the second as the ‘Forgotten Army’*. It is worth remembering that on 6th June 1944 Allied forces had occupied Rome, having recently concluded the Battle of Monte Cassino, whilst in India fighting against the Japanese continued at Kohima**, and in the Pacific, the US Navy was transporting the expeditionary forces for the invasion of Saipan towards the Mariana Islands. In modern-day Belarus, eastern Poland, and the Ukraine, Soviet forces were preparing for Operation Bagration (Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration), which began on 23rd June.
*It is said that General Slim – the commander of the Allied Fourteenth Army – once remarked that:
‘When you go home don't worry about what to tell your loved ones and friends about service in Asia. No one will know where you were, or where it is if you do. You are, and will remain ‘The Forgotten Army.’’Lord Mountbatten was even blunter in 1943 when he said:
'I understand you believe you’re the 'Forgotten Army'. That’s not true … The truth is nobody’s ever bloody well heard of you'!
** The Military Cemetery in Kohima has the famous inscription:
‘When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today’This epitaph will no doubt be recited at some point today … and it is worth remembering where it was first used.
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Well said Bob. I freely admit that I've been rather emotional, with a tear in my eye, watching the coverage yesterday and this morning. Their sacrifice shall never be forgotten, where ever they fought and of whatever nationality.
ReplyDeleteSteve J.,
DeleteThanks! I doubt that anyone could have watched yesterday's coverage and not cried at some point. These were ordinary people doing extraordinary things ... and as you comment 'Their sacrifice shall never be forgotten, where ever they fought and of whatever nationality'.
All the best,
Bob
Morning Bob, first thing I thought about this morning upon waking up, how many had already lost their lives on those beaches 75 years ago. Going to watch the coverage on IPlayer now. Did you see the two old para who jumped in tandem, both mid nineties! Certainly emotional and must never be forgotten. Sadly I think there may be a generation who could not have told you what happened on D Day, I hope today will remind them :)
ReplyDelete'Lee,
DeleteGood day to you as well! I hope to watch the ceremonies in Normandy as they unfold today, and I will be remembering everyone who took part. Their sacrifice and service deserves nothing less.
I thought that the two old paras were marvellous, and showed everyone that once a para, always a para! The body may get frail as one ages, but not the spirit!
It is to be hoped that events like the D-Day celebrations might just be enough to remind some people that the freedoms and lifestyle they enjoy today were bought with the lives of an earlier generation.
I was born in 1950, only five years after the war, and life was only just beginning to improve for most people. By the 1960s, the Second World War was still a relatively recent memory ... but now it isn't. It is worth remembering that England won the World Cup 21 years after the end of the war ... and 1998 - when the film Titanic was winning all sorts of awards and the World Wide Web was already eight years old - is 21 years ago! How things have changed!
All the best,
Bob
The ceremonies I've just been watching on BBC were incredibly moving. My late father in law was at Kohima and was very reluctant to talk about his experiences.
ReplyDeleteDavid Bradley,
DeleteMy later father-in-law was also at the Battle of Kohima, where he was wounded. He would talk about lots of other things (including the time he spent as a cook at Mountbatten's HQ after he recovered from his wounds) but never about the fighting.
All the best,
Bob
So how about a Portable Wargame Scenario?
ReplyDeleteMichael Taylor,
DeleteI must admit that I hadn't even given it a thought ... although one of the MEMOIR '44 scenarios would do.
All the best,
Bob
On June 6 my father was a radio operator in a DC3, flying troops and supplies from India over "the hump" to China. When I was a kid he talked about the relatively mundane things that happened to him. It was not until after he died that my sisters and I discovered in letters he wrote to our mother at the time that later in June he was grounded because he had a bad cold. En route back to the base in India, his plane crashed, killing everyone on board. At one blow he lost everyone in his service "family". I think the shock and survivor's guilt he felt stayed with him the rest of his life--and probably explains at least in part the alcoholism and certain disagreeable aspects of his personality that afflicted him ever since. To that extent he was a victim of that plane crash as well.
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
Chris
Chris,
DeleteWar creates bonds between people that are in some ways much stronger than those between members of the same genetic family. The total loss of ones service 'family' in a single incident must have been something devastating at a time when the normal grieving process would have been almost impossible. Keeping those sort of normal feelings pent up inside can be so very emotionally corrosive, and if they are never truly and openly expressed, they can remain gnawing away at one for the rest of your life.
As you suggest in your comment, the injuries people sometime suffer in time of war are not always obvious and physical, and yet they are as equally damaged as those that are physically maimed.
All the best,
Bob