At Metafilter, I found these comments on a D-Day thread, “Fading to yellow in a brown leather frame”:
- When I was in 11th grade, the grandfather of one of my other students, who was at Normandy, came to talk to our history class about his experiences. He sobbed openly when he talked about storming the beaches and seeing what he thought were sand dunes, but were instead “waves” of corpses of those who had gone ahead of him. It was an experience which marked me deeply.
posted by dhens at 7:40 AM on June 6 [3 favorites]- My Mum still remembers the sound of planes flying over southern England. She and her family were awakened early by the noise and knew the push has begun. She remembers people being very quiet and determined as they went about their day and most folks dropped into a church at some point.
- My gran was shot at by the Luftwaffe. The bastards.
We owe a huge debt to the people who went through it for us. I can’t imagine what the world would look like if they’d failed.
posted by Summer at 7:59 AM on June 6
That last one’s worth repeating and remembering:
We owe a huge debt to the people who went through it for us. I can’t imagine what the world would look like if they’d failed.
Peace at Omaha Beach - Omaha Beach from the American Cemetery, June 6, 2004 - Sedulia blogs.com
I live in Ireland and I agree with your sentiments 100%.
D-Day saved Europe not just from Fascism but also from Communism, because if the democratic powers had been forced to wait another year, the Soviets would have grabbed much of the Atlantic Coast.