D Day - 77 years ago

[duke74]

A note of remembrance.

Tomorrow, June 6th, marks the 77th anniversary of the Normandy invasion in 1944 - aka D Day. Please take a moment to remember the stalwart men and women who braved German air defenses and sea obstacles to land on the shores of France, beginning the march to Berlin. The resolve of our soldiers, military leadership and the U.S. Government was incredible.

If you are privileged to know a veteran of this "greatest generation," please thank them. We continue to owe them much.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

A stunning moment in history. Thanks for the reminder.

[DU82]

A note of remembrance.

Tomorrow, June 6th, marks the 77th anniversary of the Normandy invasion in 1944 - aka D Day. Please take a moment to remember the stalwart men and women who braved German air defenses and sea obstacles to land on the shores of France, beginning the march to Berlin. The resolve of our soldiers, military leadership and the U.S. Government was incredible.

If you are privileged to know a veteran of this "greatest generation," please thank them. We continue to owe them much.

I was prompted by it being on the History Channel to re-watch Band of Brothers again. Amazing group of young men, jumping out of perfectly good planes (mostly.) And the acting in the show was quite good, too.

[ClemmonsDevil]

I was prompted by it being on the History Channel to re-watch Band of Brothers again. Amazing group of young men, jumping out of perfectly good planes (mostly.) And the acting in the show was quite good, too.

That miniseries is amazing

[jimsumner]

I usually try to squeeze in the appropriate episode of Band of Brothers and/or Saving Private Ryan, both of which I have on Blu-Ray. But I hope to be occupied with Duke baseball for a considerable portion of the day.

Does it still count if I push it back to Tuesday?

But yes, we've all seen the real-life footage of what it looked like in one of those landing crafts approaching the beach, especially Omaha Beach. The courage it took to jump into that waist-deep water and approach that beach is astonishing.

[ClemmonsDevil]

I usually try to squeeze in the appropriate episode of Band of Brothers and/or Saving Private Ryan, both of which I have on Blu-Ray. But I hope to be occupied with Duke baseball for a considerable portion of the day.

Does it still count if I push it back to Tuesday?

But yes, we've all seen the real-life footage of what it looked like in one of those landing crafts approaching the beach, especially Omaha Beach. The courage it took to jump into that waist-deep water and approach that beach is astonishing.

I had both grandfathers in the Battle of the Bulge. One got frostbite during the battle and the other was shot in the left thigh in Kassel, Germany a few weeks later.

[duke74]

D Day Order.jpg

[rasputin]

My fam watched They Were Expendable on Memorial Day. Today will be The Longest Day.

[ClemmonsDevil]

My fam watched They Were Expendable on Memorial Day. Today will be The Longest Day.

The Longest Day is fantastic.

[jimsumner]

The Longest Day is fantastic.

An interesting movie. In the 1950s and a good chunk of the 1960s, before Vietnam made us cynics about all things military, Hollywood made a lot of big-budget WWII movies, hitting many of the most pivotal moments, Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid (psychologically big), Midway, Ardennes Forest, Market Garden, Remagen, many more, along with Guns of Navarone, Bridge Over the River Kwai and others less well-known and/or fictional.

History 101 at your local theater.

And The Longest Day certainly had about as many big-name stars as any one movie could handle; Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert (a real-life Marine in the Pacific Theater), Sean Connery, Robert Wagner, a bunch of teenage heartthrobs et. al. They even found a way to get a few women into action.

But the movie is in black and white. A big-budget, Hollywood blockbuster in black and white in 1962? What were they thinking?

[ClemmonsDevil]

An interesting movie. In the 1950s and a good chunk of the 1960s, before Vietnam made us cynics about all things military, Hollywood made a lot of big-budget WWII movies, hitting many of the most pivotal moments, Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid (psychologically big), Midway, Ardennes Forest, Market Garden, Remagen, many more, along with Guns of Navarone, Bridge Over the River Kwai and others less well-known and/or fictional.

History 101 at your local theater.

And The Longest Day certainly had about as many big-name stars as any one movie could handle; Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert (a real-life Marine in the Pacific Theater), Sean Connery, Robert Wagner, a bunch of teenage heartthrobs et. al. They even found a way to get a few women into action.

But the movie is in black and white. A big-budget, Hollywood blockbuster in black and white in 1962? What were they thinking?

That wasn't before the world turned to color?

[jimsumner]

That wasn't before the world turned to color?

Hollywood was making movies in color in the 1930s. Remember Ben Hur and how its Technicolor component was so hyped? That came out in 1959.

And, yes, I realize not everyone on this board saw Ben Hur at the theater back in the day.

When you could see through the cigarette smoke, anyway.

Not everything was better in the old days.

[ClemmonsDevil]

Hollywood was making movies in color in the 1930s. Remember Ben Hur and how its Technicolor component was so hyped? That came out in 1959.

And, yes, I realize not everyone on this board saw Ben Hur at the theater back in the day.

When you could see through the cigarette smoke, anyway.

Not everything was better in the old days.

I don't miss the smoking indoors thing.

[jimsumner]

I don't miss the smoking indoors thing.

That's one thing that would stun young people if they could go back in time to 1960. People smoked EVERYWHERE. Hospitals, cabs, airplanes, theaters, restaurants, smoke 'em if you got 'em. Even non-smokers were expected to have ash trays in their living rooms for visitors.

[ClemmonsDevil]

That's one thing that would stun young people if they could go back in time to 1960. People smoked EVERYWHERE. Hospitals, cabs, airplanes, theaters, restaurants, smoke 'em if you got 'em. Even non-smokers were expected to have ash trays in their living rooms for visitors.

Yep. My parents weren't smokers, but guests smoked in our house.

[jimsumner]

And to bring the thread back full circle, the guys who the beaches on D-Day darn well smoked.

[dudog84]

And to bring the thread back full circle, the guys who the beaches on D-Day darn well smoked.

I think I would have even taken up smoking if I was in Normandy on 6-6-44.

[jimsumner]

I think I would have even taken up smoking if I was in Normandy on 6-6-44.

Yep. They were thinking short-term survival more than long-term.

[rasputin]

To try to bring this train back to the track, I suggest another WWII movie made a couple of years later, The Train (1964). Probably the last non-ironic of the WWII movies made, it's in black and white, and is IMHO one of the great war movies ever. Burt Lancaster as a French underground agent (whose day job is supervising the railroad). If you haven't seen The Train, you need to.

[WillJ]

Yep. They were thinking short-term survival more than long-term.

Paul Fussell's Wartime - a sympathetic but ultimately jaundiced tour through WWII culture - is one of my favorite books. He suggests that WWII GI's obsession with cigarettes, referred to as "coffin nails," was a way for them to manage their own fears of much more immediate demise.