Here’s an interesting assortment of colour films shot in England before June 6, 1944 and then in France and Germany after:
Just curious, are any SDA readers planning on being there for the anniversary?
Here’s an interesting assortment of colour films shot in England before June 6, 1944 and then in France and Germany after:
Just curious, are any SDA readers planning on being there for the anniversary?
I was in England for the 50th anniversery, which seems like yesterday. I was in the Canadian army attending a long training course at the Royal Military College of Science at the time. We Canadians there at the time were sent out to attend various memorial ceremonies as representatives of Canada. I got sent to a memorial at Oxford University, where I attended a church service and a reception for veterans of the SHAEF (supreme headquarters allied expeditionary force) which was the organization headed up by General Eisenhower, and based in Oxford during the war. Of course General Eisenhower wasn’t there anymore, but I got to have lunch and a few beers and reminisce about the war with the guys who worked on Eisenhower’s staff in the time leading up to D Day. A once in a lifetime experience.
I was born in London in 1938 and can remember some of those scenes. I distinctly remember V-1 bombs flying overhead (you didn’t hear the V-2 bombs coming; they just arrived and obliterated whole apartment blocks).
My parents, born 1929 and 1932, were there with you, participating in the Blitz as Luftwaffe bomb targets. Growing up in ‘Toon my closest friend in childhood was the only other in our crew who had such a direct connection to that history. To me WWII wasn’t just history in books and to the extent that it has been taught to subsequent generations, it doesn’t seem to register how much our world is still shaped by the experience and achievement of those who were in it at all levels.
I will be there next year, my brother is a piper and will be playing the lament at one of the many ceremonies. Then we will be moving on to arnhem. Im on photography detail
Wish I could be there for that.
Donald Pearce wrote Journal of War pub.1965 He wrote these words in 1945 after that last winter of the war. It is as good an explanation I have seen for some of the ways that generation was shaped.
“All my life I will be under the obligation of accomplishing something as a result of having lived through the war. Something tells me I must work hard, as if atoning for not being killed……
It is in not being killed that the strange obligation exists. I think of the splendid ones who have died, how splendid few will know. They have made it seem as if anything short of intense labor is trifling or shameful.
I suppose their smiling eyes, perpetually young and soldierly in memory now, will be the strict judges of my leisure forever. You cannot stare them out, or turn them aside with a sleepy look. They can exact anything.
Tonight I have the feeling that they will make me work. It is owing…..”
For all the memorials during George Bush’s funeral the one that stayed with me is the thought you expressed. Bush said that the memory of the two crew members who did not survive his WW II crash never left him. He said he always questioned why he survived and they did not. He credited part of his dedication to public service was an effort to justify his survival.
As I age I seem to dwell more and more on the legacy of my parent’s generation. “The Greatest Generation” is so true and as we lose the last of them our future will be more in doubt IMHO.
“…must work hard, as if atoning for not being killed……” I have known some WW II vets that felt that way. They felt guilty for having survived and would cry on occasion.
Good for those who are able and will attend. Bless you.
Sometimes it does seem that as a society we have forgotten what we fought against during those six years and during the cold war until 1990, seem oblivious to the coming nightmare of totalitarianism, and in fact some seem to welcome it.
“I have known some WW II vets that felt that way. They felt guilty for having survived…”
Indeed. And they never looked for recognition or special treatment. They accepted what they had volunteered for.
Remembrance Day wasn’t about them, it was only about “The poor sonsabitches who didn’t come back.”
Donald Pearce wrote Journal of War pub.1965. Great book. I read it years, and years ago. He was a Platoon Commander with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. Moved to the US. He wrote the book as his son was getting ready (or could be drafted??) to deploy to Vietnam.
My youngest son will be there playing at several of the ceremonies with the Burlington Teen Tour Band. Not sure if my wife and I are going yet. My oldest son played with the band at the 70th Commemoration of Pearl Harbour and the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland. My youngest played at the 75th Commemoration of Pearl Harbour.
It has been a great experience for both boys to be directly exposed to these seminal historical events. For the 75th Pearl Harbour trip the Band traveled with a US veteran who had been posted to Pearl for 3 days when the attack occured. He told them his story at a Band meeting before they left for the tour. The US officials organizing the event were so impressed with the way the kids conducted themselves that they have a standing invitation to take part in the annual event.
Each year the Band plays a role in the city’s Remembrance Day ceremonies and usually a smaller group from the band goes to the Legion to play for Veterans and their families in the late afternoon.
I saw the CBC SHOW on October 19th about the Burlington Teen Tour Band. They are excellent. You must be very proud. I wrote about them on October 20th in S.D.A Readers Tips.
Yes Nancy, very proud. With all the bad things we see and read about teens today, seeing the dedication, commitment and hard work of these kids reaffirms your faith in the next generation. I’m sorry I missed your comment last time around. Thank you for the kind words.
P.S. Their last parade of 2018 is this Saturday in Niagara-on-the-Lake. They’ve been doing two and three parades per weekend since the middle of November.
Steve E,
You’re welcome! Happy to read about the Band again. They seem like they will become outstanding citizens, these young adults. Do try to keep us posted if they will be on T.V. again or better yet, in Calgary, where I live.
@Steve E:
I was with a tour group that went to Holland in 2005 to observe the 60 anniversary of the liberation of Holland and the end of the war. We fitted on one tour bus, about a third of the group were actual vets. They were accompanied by a family member or friend. The rest of us were along for the ride. I had hoped to persuade my mother to come but she declined. She was a Canadian army nurse who served overseas and who saw the awful effects(physical wounds) of war on soldiers and later on saw the awful sight of starved Jewish and non-Jewish survivors of the concentration camps. Anyway, what sticks in my mind is the wonderful way the Dutch showed their appreciation of the liberators. And the way they look after the graves, the way they educate their children about that hellish time. Those children grew up knowing and appreciating the efforts and sacrifices of Canadian soldiers in liberating Holland. More so than our own Canadian children know about the war.
My wife went on the supporter tour to Holland for the 70th anniversary. She visited the grave of her great-uncle. He died during the liberation. He’s buried in Grosbeek Canadian War Cemetary. My wife said very much the same thing you did about the Dutch people. Even while visiting the area, when a Dutch person found out she was Canadian and had come for the commemoration, they were very appreciative and thanked her.
I’m thankful that my kids have been exposed to history through the band. It’s given them an appreciation they’d never get from the history they teach in school.
@Steve E.
We were at Grosbeek as well during that tour.
My Regiment, The Royal Winnipeg Rifles was in the initial assault landing at 0750 on Juno Beach. B Coy landed where the Juno Beach Centre is now located. Was there for the 55th with two Rifleman (18 and 20 on 6 Jun 44). Standing on the beach at approx 0800, 55 years later was inspiring. Planning to be there in 2019.
Mr. Molotov goes to Washington; but why?
On 29 May 1942, the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov arrived in Washington. It was a moment of great significance – a leading Communist emissary was about to sit down in the White House with the leader of the capitalist world.
Molotov had made the trip from Moscow to Washington for largely one reason. He wanted to convince President Roosevelt to launch a ‘second front’ – a large scale invasion of France – that same year, 1942. The Soviets craved this action because the situation on the Eastern Front was grim. Despite the Red Army’s successful counter attack in front of Moscow four months before, the Germans had since crushed the Soviet offensive at Kharkov and were clearly in a position to mount a major attack themselves. A ‘second front’ in France would draw German troops away from the Soviet Union and give the Red Army much needed respite.
emphasis added
http://ww2history.com/key_moments/Western/Molotov_visits_Washington
War is hell but fighting against injustice will always be required. If that stops so does hope of saving freedom. So long as there’s those that seek to enslave others and gain ultimate control over their lives there will be a need for war. Nothing else will liberate.
Amen!
Just Imagine if we had all those noteworthy media correspondents embedded in some contemporary D-day invasion? A secret invasion, full of deception and distraction. How many of our contemporary reporters would be “leaking” vital information to the enemy? About 85% of them, by my estimation. So it is quite another era … just 80 years ago … wasn’t it? Where all the correspondents could be queued-up with our soldiers pre-invasion … and NOT report our troop movements to the enemy. What a horrible culture we’ve devolved into … on the blood of our parents and grandparents