64 years ago today

[kallend 1,623]

On D-Day, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy. The American forces landed numbered 73,000: 23,250 on Utah Beach, 34,250 on Omaha Beach, and 15,500 airborne troops. In the British and Canadian sector, 83,115 troops were landed (61,715 of them British): 24,970 on Gold Beach, 21,400 on Juno Beach, 28,845 on Sword Beach, and 7900 airborne troops.

11,590 aircraft were available to support the landings. On D-Day, Allied aircraft flew 14,674 sorties, and 127 were lost.

In the airborne landings on both flanks of the beaches, 2395 aircraft and 867 gliders of the RAF and USAAF were used on D-Day.

Operation Neptune involved huge naval forces, including 6939 vessels: 1213 naval combat ships, 4126 landing ships and landing craft, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Some 195,700 personnel were assigned to Operation Neptune: 52,889 US, 112,824 British, and 4988 from other Allied countries.

By the end of 11 June (D + 5), 326,547 troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches.


In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day.

Total Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. British casualties on D-Day have been estimated at approximately 2700. The Canadians lost 946 casualties. The US forces lost 6603 men. Note that the casualty figures for smaller units do not always add up to equal these overall figures exactly, however (this simply reflects the problems of obtaining accurate casualty statistics).

Casualties on the British beaches were roughly 1000 on Gold Beach and the same number on Sword Beach. The remainder of the British losses were amongst the airborne troops: some 600 were killed or wounded, and 600 more were missing; 100 glider pilots also became casualties. The losses of 3rd Canadian Division at Juno Beach have been given as 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner.

The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach.

The total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4000 and 9000 men.

Naval losses for June 1944 included 24 warships and 35 merchantmen or auxiliaries sunk, and a further 120 vessels damaged.

From the D-Day Museum

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Butters 0]

Mankind at it's best. Mankind at it's worst. All because of one man ...

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[JohnRich 4]

It's too bad that Obama wasn't around back then - he could have just talked with Hitler and then none of that sacrifice would have been necessary.

Damn that warmonger Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

[kallend 1,623]

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It's too bad that Obama wasn't around back then - he could have just talked with Hitler and then none of that sacrifice would have been necessary.

Damn that warmonger Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

"To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war." June 26, 1954. Winston S. Churchill, at a White House lunch with Dwight D. Eisenhower.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 2,400]

> It's too bad that Obama wasn't around back then - he could have just
>talked with Hitler . . .

Fortunately we had Rumsfeld.

[Butters 0]

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> It's too bad that Obama wasn't around back then - he could have just
>talked with Hitler . . .

Fortunately we had Rumsfeld.

Are you trying to prove his point? After all, Rumsfeld talked to Saddam and Saddam still committed genocide.

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[billvon 2,400]

>Are you trying to prove his point? After all, Rumsfeld talked to Saddam
>and Saddam still committed genocide.

Why - you're right! The only possible solution is to kill anyone we dislike.

[Trent 0]

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Why - you're right! The only possible solution is to kill anyone we dislike.

LOL... how much hay did you have to cut to build that one??

Oh, hello again!

[kallend 1,623]

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> It's too bad that Obama wasn't around back then - he could have just
>talked with Hitler . . .

Fortunately we had Rumsfeld.

And Nixon

And Reagan.

And Eisenhower.

And Nixon again.

And Kissinger.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Butters 0]

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>Are you trying to prove his point? After all, Rumsfeld talked to Saddam
>and Saddam still committed genocide.

Why - you're right! The only possible solution is to kill anyone we dislike.

Really mature. We know what they stand for and they aren't changing (even if we talk to them). They know what we stand for and we aren't changing (even if they talk to us). Thus, we don't have to talk to them (or kill them) until they do something.

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[billvon 2,400]

>We know what they stand for and they aren't changing (even if we talk to them).

Are you claiming, for example, that our talks with Pakistan had nothing to do with what happened in that country over the past few decades? After all, why would a brutal warlord listen to us? Why did we even bother?

If the very best the right can do lately is claim "it's worthless to talk to people, and anyone who does doesn't deserve to be president" then they are in trouble indeed.

[Butters 0]

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>We know what they stand for and they aren't changing (even if we talk to them).

Are you claiming, for example, that our talks with Pakistan had nothing to do with what happened in that country over the past few decades? After all, why would a brutal warlord listen to us? Why did we even bother?

Nope, what I am claiming is that we need to distinguish between those who will change and those who won't change and focus are efforts on those who will.

Quote

If the very best the right can do lately is claim "it's worthless to talk to people, and anyone who does doesn't deserve to be president" then they are in trouble indeed.

If the very best you can do lately is claim "if you don't agree with me than you must belong to the right" then you are in trouble indeed.

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[piper17 1]

Remarks at the U.S. Ranger Monument
Pointe du Hoc, France
June 6, 1984

One of two speeches commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, this speech was delivered at the site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where veterans of the Normandy Invasion, and others, had assembled for the ceremony. Later during the day, President Reagan spoke at Omaha Beach, France.
1,988 words.

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers--the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.''

I think I know what you may be thinking right now--thinking, "We were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.'' Well, everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him--Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, "Sorry I'm a few minutes late,'' as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.

There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a rollcall of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's "Matchbox Fleet'' and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge--and pray God we have not lost it--that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They thought--or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.

There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance--a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, Allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose--to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.

We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all.



Note: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. at the site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where veterans of the Normandy invasion had assembled for the ceremony.

Following his remarks, the President unveiled memorial plaques to the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions. Then, escorted by Phil Rivers, superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, the President and Mrs. Reagan proceeded to the interior of the observation bunker. On leaving the bunker, the President and Mrs. Reagan greeted each of the veterans.

Other Allied countries represented at the ceremony by their heads of state and government were: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands, King Olav V of Norway, King Baudouin I of Belgium, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau of Canada.

"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling

[mnealtx 0]

...my father was shuttling troops between the Dorothea L. Dix and Omaha Beach.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[kallend 1,623]

My family lived in SE England (Kent) and knew the invasion was underway before it was announced, due to the number of aircraft going south.

Tom Morrison is still an active skydiver and a D-Day veteran. He was on the recent JOES world record (see June "Parachutist"). He's a cool guy.

Does anyone know of any other D-Day veterans who still skydive?

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[nerdgirl 0]

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We know what they stand for and they aren't changing (even if we talk to them).

Quote

Nope, what I am claiming is that we need to distinguish between those who will change and those who won't change and focus are efforts on those who will.

History is a neat thing … instructive but not predictive.

Remember the Arab leader that President Reagan called the “mad dog of the Middle East"?

As a result of a decade of quiet diplomacy spanning the Clinton & GW Bush administrations (i.e., it takes time & the a-partisan nature of diplomacy), Libya voluntarily gave up its nuclear and chemical weapons programs after relations were normalizing with the west and demonstrated to the Bush administration's satisfaction that it was no longer a state sponsor of terrorism. Full diplomatic ties were re-established in May 2006. Are things still less than ideal? Yes. More importantly, have the security interests of the US been served through diplomacy with less-than-palatable regimes? Yes.

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[downwardspiral 0]

Um didn't we bomb him first?

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[Channman 2]

"We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent."

There is so much in this speach that should ring true today I hope.

[mnealtx 0]

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It's too bad that Obama wasn't around back then - he could have just talked with Hitler and then none of that sacrifice would have been necessary.

Damn that warmonger Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

"To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war." June 26, 1954. Winston S. Churchill, at a White House lunch with Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last" - Sir Winston Churchill

"You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival. " - Sir Winston Churchill

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[nerdgirl 0]

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Um didn't we bomb him first?

Yes ... and in response to Operation El Dorado Canyon in 1986 the Libyan regime metaphorically 'dug in more.'

Q'addafi responded by accelerating his covert nuclear and chemical weapons programs, attempted to get an offensive biological program going, and increased state sponsorship of terrorism: admittedly to the bombing of Pan Flight 103 (Lockerbie), allegedly supporting the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 by Abu Nidal, increasing illict arms deals (sales to other non-state actors), was complicit in the kidnapping and execution of at least half-dozen American and British nationals in the Middle East immediately after, and tried to pay (~$2.5M. iirc) inner city American gangs to commit terror against US citizens.

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[nerdgirl 0]

Quote

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last" - Sir Winston Churchill

"You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival. " - Sir Winston Churchill

Iirc, the "Blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech was *after* WWII had begun, yes?

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[warpedskydiver 0]

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>Are you trying to prove his point? After all, Rumsfeld talked to Saddam
>and Saddam still committed genocide.

Why - you're right! The only possible solution is to kill anyone we dislike.

Bill Von for president!!!

[warpedskydiver 0]

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My family lived in SE England (Kent) and knew the invasion was underway before it was announced, due to the number of aircraft going south.

Tom Morrison is still an active skydiver and a D-Day veteran. He was on the recent JOES world record (see June "Parachutist"). He's a cool guy.

Does anyone know of any other D-Day veterans who still skydive?

Carl Nelson Sr.

Unless you have been living under a rock!

Not jumping, but certainly partially responsible for the fact you even skydive.

[billvon 2,400]

>what I am claiming is that we need to distinguish between those who will
>change and those who won't change and focus are efforts on those who
>will.

I agree! Now, how do you determine which ones will be amenable to discussion/negotiation/bribery?

[warpedskydiver 0]

Guess where Abu Nidal was a hero, and resided afterwards?

I am sure you know this one.