Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Today we remember

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Today we remember

    Today we remember the longest day. On June 6th 1944, the Allied Forces invaded Normandy France. US, UK, and Canadian troops storm ashore supported by more servicemen from numerous other nations.

  • #2
    News: June 6. A terse, low key announcement from General Eisenhower's HQ told the world that the long-awaited invasion of Europe had at last begun. "Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France". No place names were given, nothing that would help the enemy. ...



    Artist : David Low
    Published:Evening Standard, 06 Jun 1944



    Yes, Adolf, this is it!
    Artist: Leslie Gilbert Illingworth
    Published:Daily Mail, 7 Jun 1944



    Artist:David Low
    Published:Evening Standard, 12 Jun 1944

    Comment


    • #3
      Amazing men. Amazing courage.
      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
      Mark Twain

      Comment


      • #4
        my boss sent out the following e-mail this morning.

        ----

        Team IAR, in honor of D-Day yesterday, here’s some quotes I’ve copied that puts in perspective the US Army Air Forces sacrifices in WWII from the book “Masters of the Air”, By Donald L. Miller:


        The Bloody Hundredth: 8th AF (in Europe) had more fatalities--26,000--than the entire USMC in WW II. 77% of Americans who flew against the Reich before D-Day would wind up as casualties

        German air raids killed nearly 43,000 British civilians. Not until the fourth year of WWII would the Germans kill more British soldiers than women and children.



        Dangerous Sky: In the 8th AFs first year of operations, more than 1,634 men were removed from flying for frostbite, over 400 more than were removed for combat wounds.



        The Bells of Hell: in ground combat, for every soldier killed, three to four were wounded. In the AAF in WWII, over three times as many men were killed as wounded.



        The Turning: Maj James H. Howard, won the only MOH awarded to a fighter pilot in EU theater.



        Liberated Skies:

        In the 5-month battle for air supremacy that made D-Day possible, the AAF in Europe lost over 2,600 heavy bombers and over 980 fighter planes and suffered 18,400 casualties, including 10,000 combat deaths, over half as many men as the 8th AF lost in all of 1942 and 1943. These airmen deserve an equal place in the national memory with the approximately 6,000 American soldiers killed, wounded, or MIA in the amphibious and airborne assault on D-Day.



        Allied bombing in WWII has been more closely scrutinized than any other military operation in history, but almost none of its critics point out one of its most dangerous shortcomings: the failure to place air operations--what to bomb, how to bomb, and when to bomb--under closer civilian scrutiny.



        BOTTOM LINE: The 8th AF sustained approx. 1/10th of all the Americans killed in WWII. Only subs had a higher fatality rate: 23%. 28K AAF members became POWs. Taken with the over 18K wounded--and not counting psychological casualties--the rate is over 34%--the highest casualty rate in the American armed forces in WWII.





        A very humble thanks to our Greatest Generation!



        MARK C. DILLON, Maj Gen, USAF

        Director of Regional Affairs

        International Affairs
        There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

        Comment


        • #5
          Present Arms.

          Comment


          • #6
            The first allied troops to land on the beaches were not soldiers, but navy commandos and frog me who set about blowing up obstacles to clear lanes. US Navy frogmen suffered 37 dead and dozens wounded beginning at least an hour before the first landing craft arrived.

            Comment


            • #7
              Astralis,

              I believe you have seen me say this before but I will repeat...the sacrifices of the 8th, 9th & 15th Air Forces made D-Day possible.

              They gave Ike air supremacy.
              “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
              Mark Twain

              Comment

              Working...
              X