Today marks the seventy-seventh anniversary of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of North-Western Europe.
As each year passes, the number of veterans diminishes, and it will not be very long before we are able to identify the last serviceman or woman to have taken part in the Second World War. As a child in the 1950s, I can remember seeing members of the Old Contemptibles marching past the Cenotaph on Armistice Sunday. It is sobering to think that in the 1950s I was much closer to the end of the First World War than I am now to the end of the Second, and that an eighteen-year-old who stepped ashore on D-Day is now going to the ninety-five years old.
I happen to think that it is our duty and our honour to remember them on days like today, alongside all those who served their country before them, and who have served it since. We should never forget the sacrifices they made.
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Well said Bob. A neighbour in a village I lived in many moons ago was in the first wave of engineers that went ashore to dismantle to obstacles etc before the main landings took place. A more unassuming and pleasant chap you could not wish to meet.
ReplyDeleteSteve J.,
DeleteThe word ‘hero’ is much overused these days, but to me, everyone who took part in D-Day and the Normandy Campaign was a hero. Most of them were very young and probably scared, but they did not hesitate to do what was necessary.
All the best,
Bob
22 years after WWII was over, I enlisted in the Black Watch of Canada cadets, some of my instructors were vets. 27 years after the end of the war I was a member of the regular forces. This year it'll be 20 years since 9/11.....
ReplyDeleteApparently the world keeps spinning.
Ross Mac,
DeleteIt is amazing how time passes without us really noticing. Twenty-two years after the war ended, I was in in my first year of my A-level studies, and five years after that, I was studying for my teaching qualification and I had just met Sue. We married in 1982 … which seems like yesterday!
All the best,
Bob
Hear hear!
ReplyDeleteI’m sure I can remember there being Old Contemptibles around as a child, and being marched into the school lecture theatre in 1976 for a documentary on the 60th anniversary of the Somme. There were certainly members of the Grimsby Chums alive then (the local Pals battalion).
A friend recently sent me a pic of his 95 year old father (a vet of the Italian and Dalmatian coast campaigns) looking like he’s got a few more miles in him yet!
Nundanket,
DeleteMy A-level maths teacher was a Great War veteran, having served as a subaltern on the Western Front from 1917 onwards. He was a very active seventy-year-old who carried on teaching for as long as he could.
It’s amazing how many of the veterans of the Second World War are still mentally and physically active. They bred them tough and durable back them!
All the best,
Bob
Alas, here in America, and in my later generation, our interaction with D-Day veterans is limited. I’m grateful for two chance meetings. One visiting the Marine Corps Museum with my son, a Navy vet who was at both Pearl Harbor and D-Day (as a Higgins boat driver). I also met George Taylor a few years ago while walking in the park; as an African-American soldier with an engineering battalion he waded ashore at Omaha late in the day through blood and bodies, a memory he could never forget. He passed away just before the pandemic.
ReplyDeletePeter Schweighhofer,
DeleteEven a chance meeting or two is something that enabled you to gain some understanding of their experience. They were ordinary men who did extraordinary things … I think that we need to remember them for that.
All the best,
Bob
My grandfather served with Patton and so didn't participate directly on D-Day. (Also, that was his birthday.) Still, we would do well to always remember the sacrifices made by all those who served, on that day, before and after.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteHe may not have taken part in D-Day, but if he served with Patton, your grandfather saw strenuous service during the breakout and in the liberation of France. We owe a great debt to men like him.
All the best,
Bob
On his behalf, thank you.
DeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteCredit where credit is due. He was typical of the many ordinary men who did extraordinary things to secure our future.
All the best,
Bob
It's amazing to think about what my grandfathers generation went through when compared to today, he for example escaped from Germany, came to the states in the late 30s. He joined the US Army went on to fight all over the Pacific and even did occupation duty in Japan. I think he and my great uncles who served in WWII were a major influence on my becoming a soldier. All them have passed sadly but their memories are cherished in my family.....
ReplyDeleteDon M,
DeleteMy father served in the Home Guard and the National Fire Service before he was called up for National Service. He became a gunner, and served with 6th Airborne Division right up until the end of the war. He then went to India and Burma, where he helped to train the new Burmese Army. He was in India during partition, where he had to deal with the rioting and inter-communal violence. Some twenty years later, he suffered from what we now call PTSD as a result of his experiences.
I wanted to follow him into the services, but poor eyesight meant that I could not serve in the Royal Navy, and my scoliosis resulted in me being unable to join the Army. Instead, I became an amateur military historian and wargamer.
All the best,
Bob