British and American veterans are set to leave Portsmouth and travel to Normandy for the 76th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the Second World War veterans have journeyed from across the UK, and the US ahead of a series of memorial events to be held this week.
It is understood that some of the former servicemen are returning to the beaches of northern France for the first time in 70 years.
It’s been 76 years today since that fateful June 6 on France’s Normandy beaches, when allied troops in 1944 turned the course of the Second World War and went on to defeat fascism in Europe in one of the most remarkable feats in military history.
D-day, the largest seaborne invasion in history, saw as many as 19,000 troops on both sides die during the landings. The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War, Codenamed Operation Neptune, it was often referred to as D-Day.
Memorial
The project had been delayed by protests from local residents who claimed it would destroy the view of the sea and the car park and coach loads of tourists would damage the environment.
(c) Euro Weekly News
“The project had been delayed by protests from local residents who claimed it would destroy the view of the sea and the car park and coach loads of tourists would damage the environment.”
Maybe the Frogs would have prefered a monument to Stalin instead, or maybe a huge white flag.
There was a great movie of this event: The Longest Day, which featured some of the biggest American and British stars of the day, including Richard Todd, who was a Captain, a landing officer who had fought at Pegasus bridge and was himself a genuine war hero.
Speaking as an Englishman, we should not forget the blood and treasure lost in order to help the most ungrateful, slippery, miserable backbiters in history: the frogs.
For a second there I thougth you were talking about the Russians.
I can’t understand why I was confussed?
My family lost a cousin in that battle.
He was a small town, good looking all american guy and every body loved him.
Specially his brother Gerald (My uncle) who had cerebral palsy.
Gerald still wept when he told me about his hero brother 30 years later.
No we should never forget the sacrifices our forbears have made for us.