Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire D Day. June 6, 1944

This thread got me thinking of another guy who I knew growing up. Good friend of my dads that he worked with for years. They were both born 3 or 4 days apart in July 1924. Both were the same M.O.S. in the Navy, (radiomen), and both were aboard warships in the English Channel on D Day; and not too far apart IIRC. Never met each other until after the war when they both got hired at the same place. Sometimes when I think of my father and him it blows my mind to think about how many teenagers participated in D-Day and how many of them never saw their 20th birthday. Just think how many 18-19 year old guys were in those landing craft.

Yep,they are worth nothing more to me than a piece of Trash.

The fascinating part is the training and mental toughness that had to be molded into them for them to even do it.

My Dad was the only one to survive a bazooka attack on his Sherman in a small German town called Oehringen. The Corporal lived for 2 more days after, but sadly he also passed.

Just finishing up "The Victors" by Stephen Ambrose. The men who landed at Normandy were 20-23 years old and had undergone months and years of training and toughening up. They went in as cohesive units of men who knew and trusted each other. Easy Company of the 506th PIR had formed in the middle of 1942 but they didn't go to war until June 1944. The 1st ID had been in North Africa and Sicily before it landed at Omaha beach.

By November, just five and six months later, the army was being made up of 18-19 year olds with little or no training beyond basic. They just threw individual warm bodies into units as replacements who basically learned on the job or died.

That's some serious history.
I imagine that was before you came along and lived to eventually grow up and tell about this hero?

I worked with a lot of WWII vets when I started my apprenticeship in 71. One was an Omaha beach survivor. He cried when he told me, he was the only man to survive on the landing craft he came ashore on that day.

My uncle landed on Utah beach. Said the bottom of their landing craft was covered in vomit from the guys getting sea sick. Jokingly said at that point he didn’t care if he got shot he was so sick.

Yes. Before my time, by about a decade. Sadly, Pop is gone about 8 years now.

They really were the Greatest Generation. There isn't any doubt in my mind.

Same here--late June 2019.

That's a blessing to be honored with our Dads influences all of these years.

Lest we forget, Midway was June 4-7, 1942, The beginning of the end for Japan. Thanks to these and all the other brave men who secured freedom.

We could see the other man’s cards, we were waiting, locked and loaded.

I have read quotes of 250% casualty rates between June of ‘44
and May of ‘45, most of those going ashore on DDay would not escape unscathed.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
God bless America!

Met a 94 year old WW2 vet today at church. It was his birthday. We had a great talk. He was with the 101st Airborne and jumped into Germany on D-Day. He is in a wheel chair but still has his wits about him. I gave him his due and honored him in front of others at the church as part of the Greatest Generation.

I went to Knob Creek (the machine gun shoot in Kentucky) two years ago and on Saturday morning at 9:00a.m. when everyone was ready to start shooting the range master said ok start firing. You really don't know how many bullets a Browning 50 puts out or a .30-06 machine gun because you can't see the bullets flying across the range at 2700 f.p.s. But that morning they loaded the belts so that every fifth round was a tracer. I know it sounds silly, but the first thing that crossed my mind at that moment was the D- Day landing. How anyone made it across that beach that day is just unimaginable.

My Uncle was there.

My Dad and other Uncle were in the Pacific theater. Another Uncle was a Navy man and a third was late to the game, but still crossed the Rhine with Patton. All are gone now.

Yes, just six months into the war and Midway was the beginning of the end for the Japs. One of the most decisive battles in naval history.
Think of all the brave airmen from the American carriers who died on that day.