70 th anniversary of D-Day

[Greenleaves]

Immortalised in our hearts and forever indebted to them. May the lesson in history serve us well

[Compo72]

After gardeners world tonight , Beeb 2 930 pm


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[Noosner]

Very moving to see the veterans standing and remembering their dead comrades.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Great Tip for me Compo.

They had one of my old comrades on the program Capt. Render SRY.

[Nicos]

Yeh- thanks for that Compo- we watched it.

What most peeps don't realise that it was then a 100 day battle fighting through small fields full of snipers and tanks etc to get as far as Falaise where the Allies encircled the Axe ( mainly German soldiers) to finally push them out of Normandy.
This was then considered the turning point of WWII

The horrors of those battles most people are unaware of.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Your so right Nicos When an armoured regiment looses three colonels in five days things are really bad, after all colonels are supposed to be at the rear directing things, just shows how close the fighting was.

And proof of how fierce is given by the figure that three regiments consisting of 150 tanks needed 1073 replacements during the Normandy campaign. Guys were getting tanks shot from under them and those that survived formed a new crew and jumped in the next tank to do it all over again.

[Nicos]

Truly hard to imagine isn't it?

I think because most of my generation and that of my children haven't seen active duty we really can't imagine the true horrors involved/ experienced.

[Verinda]

My aunt phoned me yesterday, she's 95 and remembers dday like it was yesterday, it just seemed amazing to talk to someone who lived through it. She's also written a book about her life in war time London, she wrote it when she was 93!

[dogsbody]

I decided to tackle the elderflower invasion of my natural hedge, did my side on Friday morning and went round to do my neighbour's side this morning.

He jumped in to help and during the conversation it turned out he was on Sword beach with the Royal Navy on D Day.

His first action had been in the sinking of the Scharnhorst just 6 or 7 days after joining his first ship.

True respect to the guy!

[elizajay]

The coverage certainly brought it all to life and was very moving.

[Noosner]

On the theme of World Wars, have just finished reading Robert Graves WWI memoir - Goodbye to All That. I TOTALLY recommend it. It does bring home some of what the soldiers went through. One big difficulty seems to have been dealing with the public's perception of the war when they came home.

[Compo72]

The tv programme did not really mention
That one if the mulberry harbours got damaged and led to logistical problems

Although a lot of destruction at Falaise Gap
A good number of Germans also got away

I must admit I'm sceptical about Montys plan to hold the Germans in battle around Caen
Perhaps just a bit ambitious hoping to capture a major town on DDay itself


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[Nicos]

Yeh Compo...the Germans ( a large % weren't actually German!!!) were purposefully actually allowed to 'escape' through the gap for humanitarian reasons....more like 'herded' through the gap.

Noosner - that'll be the next focus this year- 100yrs on....

It's almost unbelievable that the 2 major World Wars were only 21 years apart.

[Compo72]

I've read max Hastings book - overlord
Plus ten armies in Normandy cannot remember the author

Both good reads .

One of the things I find interesting
Is that the western allies could not produce a tank capable of taking the German tanks one to one
Yes we had the firefly with the 17 pounder

The Germans used the 88 in a anti tank role
Why us Brits never used the 3.7 inch anti aircraft gun in similar il never knew

The allied naval shellfire was very effective
As much as the RAF typhoons in Normandy , too





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[Potstubsdustbins]

The 17 pounder was an excellent piece of kit quite capable of doing it's job, that's why it carried on in service into the Korean war. Many people think that the main German tank was the tiger but this is not so, they were few and far between.

One of the big problems is that the British were advancing against prepared well camouflage positions in open country. This is always difficult and dangerous usually the first time you know the enemy is there is when you are under fire and the lead tank goes up in smoke.

The Americans had different problems as they were fighting in very close country, small fields and big impenetrable hedges, ideal ambush country. It was not until some guy came up with a 'field' modification that their Sherman's could actually burst through the hedges to support their infantry.