Friday, June 6, 2014

Lest We Forget, 70 years later



I'd like to thank "The Greatest Generation" for their courage, especially to Granddad James (my Mom's Dad). My Grandfather-in-law (my Sweetheart's Grandad) gave his live after D-day on or around July 4th,1944. The events surrounding his death are still cloudy and inconsistent.

The following was taken from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. I have personally been there and highly, very highly recommend it as a New Orleans must-see.


The D-Day Invasion at Normandy – June 6, 1944
 Invasion Date
June 6, 1944 – The D in D-Day stands for “day” since the final invasion date was unknown and weather dependent 
 Allied Forces
156,000 Allied troops  from The United States, The United Kingdom, Canada,Free France and Norway
 Areas of Invasion
The Allied code names for the beaches along the 50-mile stretch of Normandy coast targeted for landing were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Omaha was the costliest beach in terms of Allied casualties.
 The Armada
5,000 ships and landing craft
50,000 vehicles
11,000 planes
 Commanders
United States – Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley
The United Kingdom – Bernard Law Montgomery, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Arthur Tedder, Miles Dempsey, Bertram Ramsay
Germany – Erwin Rommel, Gerd von Rundstedt, Friedrich Dollmann
 Casualties
Numbers represent total killed, wounded, missing or captured
United States – 6,603 (1,465 killed)
United Kingdom – 2,700
Canada – 1,074 (359 fatal)Germany – Estimated between 4,000 – 9,000
 The Outcome
By June 11, with the beachheads firmly secured, more than 326,000 troops had crossed with more than 100,000 tons of military equipment. Paris was liberated on August 25. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945.
 Veterans Today
The number of remaining D-Day vets is estimated anywhere between 8,000 and 60,000. The Veterans Administration has detailed numbers on total WWII vets remaining available at www.nationalww2museum.org/the-greatest-generation

2 comments:

  1. Been watching all the war shows that PBS has been showing the last week. I hope they can forgive us for what is being squandered.

    Stay safe!

    ReplyDelete