79 years ago

[Jim Bow]

S/Sgt Louie Miori, a 25 year old construction worker from Seattle arrived in France at 8:00. Utah beach. He died on August 1, 1944.

[robm]

Re: 79 years ago

I was waiting for this. June 6, 1944. D-Day.

That day, my Dad was an oiler on a sea-going tug in Halifax harbour, RCNVR. My Mum's brother was probably still in Italy, holding what they had taken. He eventually wound up in that part of the war, in time to meet a nice Dutch girl and bring her home to Canada. I am not sure what my paternal aunt's husband-to-be was doing, but he might have been in the wings, getting ready to head over and carry on. I am pretty sure, if he had been in the first wave, we would have heard about it. They all survived, obviously, but I didn't hear many war stories. Except from my Dad, who raved about staying on his tug on Friday and Saturday, and eating everyone's ice cream, because the rest of the crew were all out on the town.

[Hugh MacD]

Re: 79 years ago

My Dad dodged that particular bullet and spent the duration in the Sunny South Pacific. He wouldn't talk much about it.

[Breakaway]

My grandfather was part of the Normandy invasion. Landed at Omaha beach. A private.
He died of cancer 30 years ago.

Kevin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[hawkeye54]

Re: 79 years ago

^ That generation mostly did not talk too much about it - My Dad was an MP on Omaha Beach , shortly after the landing, he was processing German POW's back off the beach - He only started to talk about it when he was 70+




Rick

[chas]

Re: 79 years ago

My father was patrolling those beaches this day, flying two sorties that morning. His biggest concern were the wires from barrage balloons as the ceiling was low and many balloons were hidden by clouds. Ten days later his fighter wing was operating from B4 at Beny-sur-Mere and his participation in the Normandy campaign was well underway.

[Lugs]

Re: 79 years ago

Dad had been in various locations of the franchised Adolf Holiday Camps for just over 3 years by then, with another year to go. Here's his diary from June 6, 1941

[skuthorp]

Re: 79 years ago

My dad, a SBA( medic) spent the war in the navy, sunk once and self rescued in a lifeboat. Closest he came to invasions was assisting in a dressing station on Guadalcanal.

[Peerie Maa]

Re: 79 years ago

My father's service after D Day

22.2.1944 to 1.10.1947 Corporal RAFUR E/Asst ground radio, France & Germany
Jack volunteered as soon as he turned 18. Initially posted to Blackpool for training. Jack was then to follow the advancing Allies through France into Germany in a radio wagon. Jack and his comrades were occasionally billeted in liberated chateau, or had to rough it, sleeping on stretchers between the radio equipment racks in the back of the radio wagon.
Jack was discharged from No 101 Dispersal Centre, RAF Kirkham in Lancashire.
From his R.A.F. Form 2520A
Airman
Royal Air Force
Service and Release Book

J E Miller R A F Service and Release Book

Key entries: Air Crew category/R.A.F Trade: ACH/GA 5. 5. 44. E/ASST 19. 12. 44.
Overseas Service: 3.02.45 - 19. 3. 46 W. Europe.
His papers discuss disability for which he was able to claim benefit until at least 1965.

[L.W. Baxter]

Re: 79 years ago

my maternal grandfather ottis rechard was a remarkably young lieutenant on eisenhower's staff, a mathematician employed in the meterological assessments planning, leading up to, and during the invasion. he went on to work at los alamos, then computer science professorship at washington state and uni of denver.

[Gerarddm]

Re: 79 years ago

I crewed for a man who was Vice Chairman of Singer Corp, and who climbed the cliffs at Normandy as a Ranger. He looked like a duffer, but wow when I learned about his Normandy experience.

[Rich Jones]

Re: 79 years ago

^ That generation mostly did not talk too much about it - My Dad was an MP on Omaha Beach , shortly after the landing, he was processing German POW's back off the beach - He only started to talk about it when he was 70+




Rick

I'm thinking it was about self-preservation. The things they saw and had to do were so horrible that they were best left unsaid and buried.
They might have talked about these things to fellow vets, the only ones who could truly relate.

[L.A Marche]

Re: 79 years ago

My father signed up in ‘39 off to defend the UK in ‘40 and by D day had been doing the Sicily/Italy slog for the best part of a year, he and the rest of his division were shipped to North West Europe in the winter of ‘45 for the balmy weather and the liberation of the Netherlands. The up side though was as as one of the first to go he was one of the first to come home, being demobbed in Canada in June ‘45.

[L.W. Baxter]

Re: 79 years ago

grandad married at 19, commissioned and shipping out in '43

19B9F3E9-D3AA-4804-B421-D17669B18B29.jpg

norma wore that wedding dress when we married in '95.

[David W Pratt]

Re: 79 years ago

My father dropped out of U of Texas and enlisted, ended up flying p-51s out of Luzon.
Died in 1973, of Huntington's Disease.