D-Day

[Stive Pesley]

For fans of Sex & The City and Saving Private Ryan 

 

[Crewton]

As soon as they'd landed, French immigration and customs officials checked the papers of British Paratroopers who parachuted into Normandy yesterday for the D-Day commemorations:-

There's no record of whether they tried this delaying tactic on the German Army in May 1940.

 

[Wolfie20]

8 hours ago, Mucker1884 said:

Well, none of them look under 60, but they might be ok for us!

The woman on pitch 38 looks like she’s put her head to a few balls in her time. 
 

Filthy woman!

[Mucker1884]

I strongly suspect our own little mark of respect was the polar opposite of the Normandy beaches today… In terms of the numbers. 
Literally nobody there when we pootled in. (The museum-in-the-bunker was closed, but the grounds and outside relics (tanks/armoured vehicles/pontoons/artillery posts etc) were all accessible and presumably so 24/7?)

One lady cyclist turned up 10 minutes later. A couple in a UK reg motorhome pulled in just as we were leaving. 
It doesn’t get much more peaceful than that, and offered us the perfect backdrop for us to spare a few moments to give thanks to ALL those that paid the ultimate price, to enable us to then enjoy the freedom to devour our excellent baguette sandwiches in glorious sunshine!  😎

An hour well spent, and very much appreciated. 

PS:  Took the scenic route, and ended up pootling all day, and just surpassing the 40 mile mark. 
Ain’t freedom great!

xxx
 

[Crewton]

Rishi Sunak getting allot of stick for leaving the commemorations early yesterday in order to do an interview with ITV, leaving Lord Cameron to deputise. No political comment here, but I think it would normally be expected for the PM to be there when the leaders of the other western allies were.

[Anag Ram]

30 minutes ago, Crewton said:

Rishi Sunak getting allot of stick for leaving the commemorations early yesterday in order to do an interview with ITV, leaving Lord Cameron to deputise. No political comment here, but I think it would normally be expected for the PM to be there when the leaders of the other western allies were.

Agree, but TBH dignitaries and politicians are just the audience at these events.

The focus should be on those who served. They don’t change, leaders do.

[Crewton]

8 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

Agree, but TBH dignitaries and politicians are just the audience at these events.

The focus should be on those who served. They don’t change, leaders do.

I agree, but I think it's been criticised mainly as a missed opportunity to show unity - "bad optics" - particularly as his reason for leaving wasn't because he had an important and urgent matter he had to attend to.

[Ram-Alf]

1 hour ago, Crewton said:

Rishi Sunak getting allot of stick for leaving the commemorations early yesterday in order to do an interview with ITV, leaving Lord Cameron to deputise. No political comment here, but I think it would normally be expected for the PM to be there when the leaders of the other western allies were.

The Duty of the Western leaders is to stay to the end...simple, Leaving early shows he has more thoughts about himself than those that gave their lives, A thoughtless git👍

 

[NottsRam]

16 hours ago, Mucker1884 said:

I strongly suspect our own little mark of respect was the polar opposite of the Normandy beaches today… In terms of the numbers. 
Literally nobody there when we pootled in. (The museum-in-the-bunker was closed, but the grounds and outside relics (tanks/armoured vehicles/pontoons/artillery posts etc) were all accessible and presumably so 24/7?)

One lady cyclist turned up 10 minutes later. A couple in a UK reg motorhome pulled in just as we were leaving. 
It doesn’t get much more peaceful than that, and offered us the perfect backdrop for us to spare a few moments to give thanks to ALL those that paid the ultimate price, to enable us to then enjoy the freedom to devour our excellent baguette sandwiches in glorious sunshine!  😎

An hour well spent, and very much appreciated. 

PS:  Took the scenic route, and ended up pootling all day, and just surpassing the 40 mile mark. 
Ain’t freedom great!

xxx
 

Two friends of mine were lucky enough to get invited to the commemoration ceremony yesterday at Ver sur Mer.  Said it was the most amazing and emotional experience.

[NottsRam]

15 minutes ago, NottsRam said:

Two friends of mine were lucky enough to get invited to the commemoration ceremony yesterday at Ver sur Mer.  Said it was the most amazing and emotional experience.

And they stayed till the end 🤣

[Alph]

3 hours ago, Crewton said:

Rishi Sunak getting allot of stick for leaving the commemorations early yesterday in order to do an interview with ITV, leaving Lord Cameron to deputise. No political comment here, but I think it would normally be expected for the PM to be there when the leaders of the other western allies were.

Ah. The man putting forward National Service.

[Ram-Alf]

39 minutes ago, Alph said:

Ah. The man putting forward National Service.

The media edited the full version of National Service, The part that was edited out was those selected must be a certain height, Sunak demanded this to be in the rules if passed...I wonder why?

 

 

 

 

 

😁

[Reggie Greenwood]

14 minutes ago, Ram-Alf said:

The media edited the full version of National Service, The part that was edited out was those selected must be a certain height, Sunak demanded this to be in the rules if passed...I wonder why?

 

 

 

 

 

😁

He comes from Notty Ash 😉

[ImARam2]

D-Day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy is such an emotional place.

Until a few years ago I had an apartment in Normandy, and I have been many times to these ceremonies, including being present in Bayeux Cathedral for the 65th D-Day commemorations, sitting just a few rows behind Prince Charles, as he was then.

The Bayeux cemetery is the largest for the fallen British servicemen and women, however, there are another 22 in the Normandy region, with the smallest called Jerusalem near the village of Chouain, which contains the body of the youngest British soldier, Jack Banks, who was just 16 years old when he was killed.

He'd actually joined up at the age of 15 and when his mother found out that he had been posted overseas she wrote to the War Office to have him returned to England. However, by the time the regiment in Normandy found out he had been killed.

There are dozens of such stories and I would recommend anyone to visit the towns and villages of this part of France, not only to take in the history but also the welcome the Normans give to the British visitor, with their wonderful food and drink, especially the Calvados!!

[Van der MoodHoover]

Grandfather Moodhoover was called up to serve at D-Day at the age of 37 so it wasn't all young lads.

He refused to kill anyone so was a medic, rushing around Sword beach patching up as many as he could to keep them alive.

He didn't like to speak about the actual 6th June much. Too harrowing.

[1of4]

On 07/06/2024 at 10:21, Anag Ram said:

Agree, but TBH dignitaries and politicians are just the audience at these events.

The focus should be on those who served. They don’t change, leaders do.

As you rightly say the focus of the day was to show respect for those that participated on that day.

The audience were there to show thanks for what the fallen and those that survived had sacrificed.

I'm sure many amongst us would have liked to have been a member of that audience. But due to the limited seating available this would have been impossible. So like many similar events it's left to the country's leader to represent the the whole of our nation.

Unfortunately the nations was let down by the disgraceful antics of our Prime Minister.

[Mucker1884]

9 hours ago, ImARam2 said:

D-Day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy is such an emotional place.

Until a few years ago I had an apartment in Normandy, and I have been many times to these ceremonies, including being present in Bayeux Cathedral for the 65th D-Day commemorations, sitting just a few rows behind Prince Charles, as he was then.

The Bayeux cemetery is the largest for the fallen British servicemen and women, however, there are another 22 in the Normandy region, with the smallest called Jerusalem near the village of Chouain, which contains the body of the youngest British soldier, Jack Banks, who was just 16 years old when he was killed.

He'd actually joined up at the age of 15 and when his mother found out that he had been posted overseas she wrote to the War Office to have him returned to England. However, by the time the regiment in Normandy found out he had been killed.

There are dozens of such stories and I would recommend anyone to visit the towns and villages of this part of France, not only to take in the history but also the welcome the Normans give to the British visitor, with their wonderful food and drink, especially the Calvados!!

The first (main) thing that struck about these cemeteries (firstly the WW1 cemeteries in NE France & Belgium, then later the Normandy cemeteries) were just how pristine and orderly they are. Certainly every one we visited (and not just the Brit cemeteries either). 
The good folk that tend to these graves and graveyards are an absolute credit. 
xxx

[Crewton]

2 hours ago, Mucker1884 said:

The first (main) thing that struck about these cemeteries (firstly the WW1 cemeteries in NE France & Belgium, then later the Normandy cemeteries) were just how pristine and orderly they are. Certainly every one we visited (and not just the Brit cemeteries either). 
The good folk that tend to these graves and graveyards are an absolute credit. 
xxx

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, but no doubt they must employ very conscientious local people in every location, because they're always immaculate.