D-Day commemoration

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

Hi all.

We are moving rapidly to the 80th anniversary of D-Day, 6th of June.

 

I was wondering what kind of commemorative things you may be considering. 

 

Such a pivotal moment in world history and the US played such a massive part in the liberation of Europe. 

 

We are planning displays in our community garden, a beacon lighting and band performance amongst other things. 

 

Mick. 

[adsm08 2,045]

I don't usually observe any kind of observance for D-day in particular, but on the 7th a museum about 90 mintues from me is having their WWII weekend, complete with operating period aircraft. I haven't looked up this year's roster but they usually have at least one B-17 and one B-29 as well as a few P-91s and even some Japanese planes some years.

 

One year there was a P-38. And one of these years I'm going to get together the money to actually ride in at least one of the bombers.

 

https://maam.org/wwii/

 

 

 

One time, many years ago when I was still in middle school my dad and I went and I actually got to meet, and briefly speak with, Col. Robert Morgan, pilot of the Memphis Belle.

Edited May 23 by adsm08

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

We have a memorial in Endcliffe Park in Sheffield to the aircraft Mi Amigo which crashed in 1944 killing all crew on board.

 

Terrible tragedy for those men.

 

[Daddy Don 905]

Love it. Great 

[JimSraj 429]

Nothing special planned for the day but a couple weeks ago ‘Doc’ was at our local airport for a few days. According to the men in the plane, after many thousands of man hours of restoration Doc and Fifi are the only two B-29’s that still fly. It was pretty awesome to be able to go through the plane and see some of the mechanisms that were used to fly it. Everything is mechanical. Rows and rows of cables and wires throughout. 
I took my 9 year old grandson along so he could check it out too.  Lines were long but it was worth the wait. Flights were offered for $600-$1500 and air time was about 30 minutes. Needless to say we didn’t fly but I live about 10 miles north of the airport and we did see and hear it fly over several times. 

 

Here are some of the stats we were told:

Wing span is 141’.

Ceiling of 30,000 feet.

Consumes 460 some gallons of fuel per hour

Range is 4000 miles. 
Carried a crew of 9. 
Most of them were used in the pacific, Only two B29 planes ever went to Europe. 
The ‘Fat Boy’ had to be put in a pit so the Enola Gay could be rolled over it to get it into the bomb bay. 

[1mor Project 78]

This is where I will be on June 6th. 

Ron Fagen's father landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. They have a full size figure of him and the other solders exiting their landing craft. This is only one exhibit in their small but professional feeling museum.

They have a great collection of flying Warbirds, a number of them being actual combat veterans. Their restorations are high caliber inside and out. For example in their P-51 when you charge the guns, you can hear the firing solenoids clicking in the wings. Many Mustangs just carry luggage or polishing rags in the old gun bays.

Fagen's business is building ethanol plants, so their family has some disposable income, and a fantastic, patriotic hobby.

Fagen Fighters WWII Museum

 

Fagen D-Day.pdf

[oliver2-44 9,725]

6 hours ago, Mickwhitt said:

We have a memorial in Endcliffe Park in Sheffield to the aircraft Mi Amigo which crashed in 1944 killing all crew on board.

 

Terrible tragedy for those men.

 

Thank You for remembering our US airmen. 

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

4 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

Thank You for remembering our US airmen. 

You are more than welcome. The pilot could have set down more safely but he avoided a group of kids playing in the park and hit trees instead. True heroism and selflessness.

Thank you for your help in WW2, we would never have managed without Brother Jonathan. 

Mick

[Handy Don 12,201]

I visited Normandy during the 75th anniversary year. Despite being well taught history in school, traveling that ground brought sharp focus on the magnitude of the operation and sacrifice of all the participants. It fundamentally changed my comprehension of war.

[adsm08 2,045]

7 hours ago, Handy Don said:

I visited Normandy during the 75th anniversary year. Despite being well taught history in school, traveling that ground brought sharp focus on the magnitude of the operation and sacrifice of all the participants. It fundamentally changed my comprehension of war.

 

It does. My dad is a huge history nerd, particularly around WWII. I learned about the Holocaust, the concentration/extermination camps and such from about the time I was 10. When I was 16 we went to Germany to visit my uncle who was stationed there and we went to Auschwitz.

 

Reading about it in books or seein it in film, and being in the place are very different things.

[SylvanLakeWH 25,524]

5 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

 

It does. My dad is a huge history nerd, particularly around WWII. I learned about the Holocaust, the concentration/extermination camps and such from about the time I was 10. When I was 16 we went to Germany to visit my uncle who was stationed there and we went to Auschwitz.

 

Reading about it in books or seein it in film, and being in the place are very different things.

 

 

Dachau... I still clearly remember details of my visit 25 years later... no book does that.

 

Berlin wall 7 years before it came down... could walk right up to the west side. East side not so much... sniper nests, razor wire, deep sand, extreme lighting...

 

pictures books films often show one side of a wall... perspective is seeing both sides...

 

I fear we are losing that perspective as we lose the last few WWII vets... 

 

Thanks for a European view.

 

 

[Handy Don 12,201]

12 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

and we went to Auschwitz

My wife took a bunch of students to Dachau; I was a chaperone. I agree that the place itself tells the story unlike any other medium.

Several students observed that it is now, and was then, in a fairly somewhat residential/industrial area so the neighbors could not have been “unaware.” An extra lesson, for sure.

[Beap52 809]

I'm not sure many Americans realize the importance of remembering wars fought, lives given and the pain and suffering families suffered in the name of freedom.   When I was a child, we visited several cemeteries decorating and cleaning graves and placing flags on family members who served in the military.  I'm not aware any of my nieces, nephews and even my own daughter or any other family members decorating graves.  I suppose part of it is our fault as we never carried on the tradition of visiting gravesites other than a couple of times when it was convenient. 

 

We have visited Corregidor Island in the Philippines, traveled part of the Death March in the Philippines.  Pam and I toured a well-displayed Korean War museum in Seoul, Korea.  We have been to the bridge over the river Kawi in Thailand.  We spent a good part of a day touring Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.  We have visited numerous historic sited here in the United States honoring those who fought for freedom including Washington D.C.   Every one of these memorial sites have caused me to pause and be thankful for freedom we have. 

 

Last year, I took mom on what would likely be her last time to visit and decorate those cemeteries we went to each year.  Knowing that we would not be returning to dad's, my brother's and our son's graves this year, we decorated them a couple of weeks ago. 

[1mor Project 78]

We went on a historic tour put together by local High School teachers. We spent one day in Normandy passing many local museums. Our bus eventually took us through Roen, Bastone, we flew to Munich and toured Dachau. I remember the first building where they removed "all their belongings and their dignity". It was a beautiful day and a John Deere tractor was mowing along the east wall. It seemed surreal. Hard to get your mind around what happened there. 

The next day we went to Hitler's Eagles Nest. The elevator is about 12x12. It is lined in gold, both the walls and ceiling. Hard to get your mind around that amount of evil.

History and remembrance is important.

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

I've had a go at making a couple of parachutist silhouettes for  our display.

 

I'm going to string them with real 2mm paracord. 

 

 

The sheer scale of the invasion of Europe is impossible to get your head around. Something I hope the world will never suffer again.

 

I was reading about how the Normandy beaches got their code names.... the English and Canadian beaches were to be named after fish; gold, sword and jelly. Churchill said he wasn't sending men to die on jelly beach so it was renamed Juno after an officers wife. 

The American beaches were going to be x-ray and yoke, but it's said a general chatting to two young soldiers found they came from Omaha and Utah, the names changed soon after. 

 

 

 

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

We have a small display area for the garden and we are doing a kind of beach scene for the D-Day theme.

 

I made three tank obstacles to put in there, large to small to make it look like they go on for miles. 

 

[953 nut 55,155]

During World War Two the US Navy UDT (underwater Demolition Team) training began in Fort Pierce, FL, because so many of those tetrahedrons were being used to stop amphibious landings. Many of the UDTs swam hundreds of yards to these beaches and placed explosives under the barriers then dug in until the landings began. Once the landing craft were within a hundred feet of the beach the UDTs detonated the explosives gaining the approaching soldiers a clear path for tanks and trucks.

I had the honor of getting to know some of these heros during the formative meetings that led to the opening of the UDT/SEALs Museum. As a part of the opening ceremony a tetrahedron made of railroad crossties was erected on the same beach these frogmen trained on and they blew it up. Everyone knew it was there but only a handful of us knew it would be blown up.

Residents of a couple of beachfront condominiums called 911 but since the Sheriff, Police Chief and Fire Chief were all there no responders came out.

Edited June 1 by 953 nut
fat finger

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

A few images from our community garden D-Day commemorative display. 

 

 

 

 

[953 nut 55,155]

Seems like all the news media attention from the USA is focused on Normandy, France, when so much of the success of the landings can be tied back to Great Britain. Thanks for all the photos you are posting.

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

Normandy was the focus of the invasion, but it all built up in the south of England. 

 

Thousands of American soldiers and tons of American equipment were involved. 

 

You stepped in to save Europe from a tyranny that would have endured if it had not been stopped. 

 

Our thanks can never be enough for the sacrifice made by your country. 

 

[Red-Bovine 309]

My Husband, Rich, and I were fortunate enough to visit Normandy Beach and many of the D-Day sights back in 2012. Very moving. We have no specific ties to the invasion and don't specifically celebrate it, but it is a very profound event and meaningful to all Freedom Loving People all over the World. Thank God for the Men and Women who gave ALL for us. 

[Red-Bovine 309]

Here are some more pictures of Normandy Beach

[Red-Bovine 309]

[Red-Bovine 309]

[Handy Don 12,201]

Glad you had a chance to experience what only being there in person can offer, @Red-Bovine.