D-Day

👍 🤴

That a lovely poem Rosies. I wrote one last year. I’ll post it here if I may. It’s followed by what I think is the loveliest line from any war poem, from “The Lads in Their Hundreds” by Houseman.

They stand on the sand.

They stand on the sand, the old men,
Their eyes wet with tears.
Remembering the noise, the blood,
and their fears as they landed
On Juno, on Sword and on Gold.
And their comrades who died there and never grew old.

The beaches are clean.
Years of tides washed away the blood and the gore
That stained them. On D Day,
When men dashed ashore in the chaos of war.
On trembling legs they stumbled and ran
With “Get up that beach as fast as you can”
Ringing in their ears.

Was that Harry or Larry or Fred
Lying there?
But scant time to wonder and no time to stare.
We must get ahead.
Those who are dead now have earned their rest
In God’s final muster for the best of the best.
We will remember them.

Those beaches were nearly the end of the strife
To protect our country and our way of life.
But so many more were to fall.
Now those few who are left come to stand on the sand
And reflect on their brothers, that courageous band
Who gave their all.

“They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man.”
A.E. Houseman. A Shropshire Lad.

When we bought our first house in a village here in Normandy, an elderly neighbour told me how, when she was fourteen, her mother had told her that the British were coming. "No they aren't she said". Her mother replied, "If the British have said they are coming, they will come". They did not get there until the middle of August, but they did arrive.
I love to see the veterans returning and being honoured, but the stories of the French people who lived through it are a real privilege to hear.

How touching to hear your poems and stories. I looked up Plumelec, and it's quite far from Normandy, they must have had a plan to get there, through the occupied territory.

On the news last night they showed a few veterans from Vancouver that were going over for the ceremonies. One of them had just turned 100, and had never been back. He was going to honour and say goodbye to comrades he had left behind.

Joseann

... Just to explain, Plumenec in Brittany is where the SAS parachuted in the night before the Normandy Invasion. It's the first time a French president has honoured this event in the town.

That's a fair way from the Normandy beaches Joseanne I wonder how they were going to get to the "bocage" inland from the landing beaches? I always understood they were aiming for the R Orne and the canal with the aim of taking and defending what became known as Pegasus Btidge.

Masked youths went on the rampage in Plumelec, Brittany, hours before the ceremony attended by dozens of military veterans on Wednesday. "All the flags set to be used in the ceremony were stolen on Tuesday," said a spokesman for the town hall
This is sad.

I have just read a bit more and understand these gliders were especially big and delivering heavier equipment, vehicles etc for the invading (liberating) forces.
The organisation involved is staggering!

I get overwhelmed with emotion, when I look at their bravery and hardship.

It is a fascinating period in our history though, all the planning and logistics.

My late FIL was sent to Normandy D day+ 5, he was in the REME and was working on the mulberry harbours.
He witnessed the bombing of Caen and later worked as a driver and mechanic.
He eventually arrived in Brussels where he met the love of his life, marrying her in 1946.

In the early hours of June 6, 1944, while the American and British scouts jumped over Normandy, 36 commandos belonging to the French Special Air Service were parachuted into Brittany.They were divided into four teams, each comprising nine personnel: two were dropped around 00h30 near Plumelec in Morbihan and, and two jumped over the forest of Duault inthe Côtes-d’Armor region. I think the parachutist in Plumelec was THE very first soldier of the débarquement, and sadly, he was the first to die at the hands of the Germans.
The idea was for these men to organize a base from which attacks could be carried out, equipment vould be kept, and to guide parachutists through the Breton countryside.
Brittany is very proud of its resistance movement. The Bretons are a formidable force. I was at school in Brittany in the late 60s and many Bretons used to be very anti German.

It's so interesting on here to read information posters have been told first or second hand. It highlights the human aspect of the war. (Or any war really).

Emile Bouétard, un Breton,est considéré comme le tout premier soldat français mort au cours de l’opération Overlord.

I was 9 months old on D Day, a few weeks before DDay, my mother went down to Somerset, where my father was Liaison Officer at a USAF base for a few weeks.

On the journey down we had to change trains (Didcot or Reading?) and sat for over an hour in the waiting room on one of those platforms with trains both sides waiting for a connection. She said she knew something was planned because the whole time we were there goods trains and trains full of troops were rushing through heading south.

Later on D Day-1 she said all the planes going across to Normandy to 'soften' up and destroy German defensive before the D Day offensive seemed to fly over the area they were staying in. She said that no one could sleep because of the constant roar of the planes low overhead.

Most of my Dad's family were under German Occupation at the time of D-Day. Channel Islanders were breaking the law in having a radio but many of them had one hidden away in all sorts of ingenious places. I remember my Granny telling me the sheer relief they all felt to hear the bulletins about the invasion and with being so near the Normandy coast could hear the planes going over. It gave them hope that their Nazi rule would soon be over.

I’m so pleased the weather is good for today’s ceremonies in Françe.

And the coverage on French TV is excelling itself.
Interviews with normal, everyday people connected with the landings.
An old man,bwho was a 10 year old boy living on his grandparents' farm at the time, has just said he will carry the image forever in his mind how the sea that morning, once the mist cleared, was black with boats.

The sea this morning - and sky! How very different.

From D and SIL who are there

Not being too lighthearted here, but the French subtitles have, "I WOW to thee my country!!

What a moving poem RosiesMaw.

This day, and a terrible period in history, that France will never forget 🇫🇷🇬🇧 RIP all the brave souls whose lives were lost for our freedom.

The poems are very poignant and watching the programme last night made me tearful. My dad was an army Captain and went all over the place and mum was an army driver. I wasn't born until 1948 but I heard many stories and also met several men from the first World War. One had a large scar down his face due to a slash from a weapon. My mother did not approve of me visiting Germany colleagues in Germany and certainly didn't let a German lad who was with a friend of mine inside our home which was very embarrassing.

Joseann

Not being too lighthearted here, but the French subtitles have, "I WOW to thee my country!!

🤣🤣🤣
Bless!

The ceremonies at the British Normandy memorial and the “big” one were very moving. Just welling up here at these wonderful old men bring saluted and wheeled to their places by soldiers young enough to be their grandsons.
I thought Camilla and Brigitte looked very elegant - not
sombre but hitting just the right note.
(And none of that hand clutching H &M seem to go in for.)

I was born in 1943 and I remember my mum and grandma taking me out shopping after the war ended climbing over bombed homes. I also remember queing with my mum with our food stamps at the grocery store.

I was born exactly 6 years after D.Day (so Happy Birthday to me today a d to all the other 6th June babies😀)

My father served in the British army from 1939 and said little or nothing about his experience. All he said about D Day was that he drove a DUKW, which googling tells me was an 'amphibious truck. Thinking about it now, having seen the landing beaches and read about D Day I realise he was lucky to come back alive.

However, we have a shared holiday home in the Normandy peninsula and have used and visited many of the Normandy landing beaches over the past 30 years. The remains of the Mulberry Harbours are impressive and there is an excellent museum there.

The memory of WW2 is everywhere kept alive in Normandy. I just wish that the lessons we learned from it weren't slipping away from us.

Biden

“The price of freedom is not free”

Oh how true those words are.

Happy birthday MaizieD!

The caissons for the Mulberry harbours were built in Conwy Morfa just a few miles from my village and the new Marina has a lovely pub/restaurant named The Mulberry- well worth a visit 🥂