I heard recently that we are losing 400 World War II veterans a day now. A generation of warriors passing.

A lot of good shows on TV remembering what took place on the 6th of June in 1944, and what it cost in terms of human sacrifice.

I cannot imagine being told that I am going to be in the first wave of landing craft to hit a defended beach! Insane! Attacking survivors recount that they thought that no one could possibly survive the air and naval bombardment that preceded the landing. They soon found out how wrong they were.
Away from all the John Wayne and Chuck Norris movies it is hard to imagine, but the movie "Dunkirk" captures this quite well. FEAR! Pure Fear. But somehow they overcame it. I don't know how.
Peter.

Don't you know the Germans just watched the landing crafts approaching, and waited for that door to drop.

In the documentary I watched Monday night one of the boat captains that drove a landing craft described how they had been instructed that no one on their craft was allowed to return to their ship when they tried to return for a second run. He said on the first run, the door dropped and every man tried to leave, as they were being killed, except one young man who froze in fear. The captain said he raised his arm to wave the man forward and yell at him, and at that moment, he was shot in that arm, and the young man's face was blown away.

Watch the first five minutes of Saving Private Ryan. WWII vets said they couldn't watch it without the real horror of what they had experienced coming back to them. That tells you Spielberg nailed it.

Not surprised. I lost my Dad at age 85 on my birthday seven years ago -- 97th Infantry.
Speaking of D-day, how many here know the valiant role played by a handful of destroyers risking grounding to come in and provide close support fire just off the beaches?

https://www.usni.org/magazines...ant-destroyers-d-day

Bad as it was,it could have been much worse. Rommel directed multiple troops into the Caen area.He was already aware that the war was lost + he wanted to make sure that the allies (American + British) hit Berlin 1st before the soviet animals.That was before Hitler demanded Rommel's suicide.Had everything gone to plan w/the Americans reaching Berlin 1st,the world would be much different today (maybe).FDR refused to allow our troops to take Berlin even though we were there 1st.They cut off Patton's gas supply + ordered Gen. I.B. White to stand down + let the soviet scum take Berlin as well as setting up rape camps on every corner.TRUE!! I.D. White thought more about what was right than his second so after kicking the windows out of his car ,he disobeyed orders + advanced on Berlin.He stopped at the Brandenburg gate + said that if any russian moved past that point,he would be shot.That's how we came to have west + east Berlin.That's also how we came to have the 'cold war' + what we are still dealing with now.ALL the current woes could have been prevented if the politinions had been kept out of the mix.

Have any of you noticed that a 97 year old veteran, Tom Rice, jumped yesterday near Carantan? He did the same 25 years ago, the event having been managed by a friend of mine (now a retired General officer) but I was sticking with my father and attending the 1st Infantry Division ceremonies. Most of the 1st Infantry veterans avoided the big media event since Clinton avoided military service, but the smaller commemorative events in towns like Caumont and at the Division's monument at Omaha Beach were probably more important to them anyway. Amazing men and I was lucky to meet them.

I got "volunteered" (by a shove in the back pushing me forward) at some of the media events to act as translator for the local media. At a dinner in Bayeux the veteran sitting next to me asked why I was there. I answered, pointing to my father, that I had been invited. He said, "I don't like officers." I came to understand that they all had a very only-known-to-them sense of humor.

And I’m watching live coverage of the ceremony as I write this.