Remembering D-Day

[RealMuddyboots]

June 6, 1944
Hoping everyone recognizes this invasion battle is the sole reason we won the war. The loss of life today was staggering and yet these courageous warriors pushed ahead into deadly fire.

I stood in several of these bunkers in June 1994, the 50th anniversary of the invasion and was overwhelmed by the thought of how many men were slaughtered from the very spot I stood. The cemetery of white crosses perfectly aligned was both sobering and an emotional experience I believe every American should go through. The caissons still on beaches, wrecks in ocean both watercraft and vehicles. It doesn't take much imagination to see in your mind how these men fought through such formidable odds to break through and start the retaking of France.

If you ever have a chance to go there, I highly recommend.

Freedom isn't FREE!

God bless America!

 

[RealMuddyboots]

We cannot allow battles for freedom to fade away. Please take the time to discuss with whomever to keep these memories alive. Our parents and grandparents fought and died to preserve our freedoms.

I received this book as a gift from the plant I was visiting while in Normandy along with a detailed battle map. Amazing and heart wrenching all at the same time.

 

[Scott85]

The greatest generation!

 

[hank4elk]

Dad was skippering a Victory ship supplying ammo.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Dad was skippering a Victory ship supplying ammo.

Mom was Rosie the Riveter, working shipyard at Portland OR ... pregnant with yours truly, who showed up in Dec. to ruin her birthday party, born 15 minutes after her birthday.

God bless the GREATEST GENERATION! Give thanks today for their sacrifices and success in securing our freedoms.

 

[RealMuddyboots]

My dad was in the Pacific; Midway and Marshal Islands. He was rear gunner/mechanic on Dauntless Dive bomber. Never once talked about it.

 

[elkduds]

From the Greeley Tribune
It’s a day the world changed. It’s a day two Greeley men went into battle. D-Day
By GREELEY TRIBUNE | [email protected] |
PUBLISHED: November 25, 2002 at 12:44 p.m. | UPDATED: May 13, 2020 at 9:45 a.m.
It is the story of two men, 57 years ago today, taking part in a fight for their lives in France.
It is the story of Ken Hobbs, in the air, aboard a B-26 bomber named “Mary Jo,” on a mission where 95 percent of them were expected to die. And it is the story of Harold Hyde, part of the landing force at Omaha Beach, where thousands would die before they were victorious in the biggest battle of the biggest war of the century.
Both Hyde and Hobbs live in Greeley now, where they keep scrapbooks of buddies who are gone and relive memories that would haunt them in nightmares for years.
It is the story of two men who both say they were doing their job, but, despite their reluctance to accept the title, many consider them heroes. The Normandy Invasion, the largest invasion in the history of the world, was supposed to start on June 5, 1944, but bad weather delayed it a day. The plan was to first send in the bombers to hit the big guns the Germans had placed along the beaches; then the landing force, hundreds of ships carrying thousands of soldiers, would hit the beaches to push the Germans out of France.
“We were flying back to England on June 5, and over the channeI I never saw so many ships,” Hobbs remembers. “We knew the invasion was coming soon.”
“We were in a forest in England, avoiding the German bombs, when they told us we would be in the invasion,” Hyde explains. “We had no idea it would be that big.”
Both men were prepared for the day. Hyde, who grew up in Weld County, was drafted in 1942, shortly after his 20th birthday. He trained stateside, preparing for the African campaign. Suddenly, the training became more intense, and they began practicing amphibious landings. They weren’t told when or where the landing would take place.
Hobbs, who grew up in Denver, was a veteran. The 18-year-olds called him “Pappy,” even though he was only 22 in 1944. D-Day would be his 31st bombing mission.
Hyde remembers dozens of blimps hovering overhead as the soldiers were put aboard ships on June 4. The blimps were there to protect the troops against any low flying German planes that might venture near.
He was told his plane and fellow crew members would be the lead plane into Normandy on June 6. Hobbs said they had to get up at 2 a.m. that morning to prepare for the 6 a.m. bombing. “At a breakfast briefing that morning, they told us our ‘must target’ was the platforms for the big guns that the Germans had along the beaches … then they said they were expecting to lose 95 percent of us on the bombing run.”
Hobbs’ target was Utah Beach, while other bomb groups had Omaha Beach, both on Normandy.
Hyde’s transport would dump him, his team and a halftrack — an Army truck with treads on the back wheels — on Omaha Beach.Before 6 a.m., Hobbs and the crew were flying across the English Channel toward Normandy. There were eight bombing groups with 54 bombers in each group, 432 B-26 bombers flying into France, with “Mary Jo” as the lead plane. “I was scared, but I really didn’t think I was going to die,” Hobbs said. “Maybe that’s because I prayed before every mission, and then thanked God after every mission for bringing us home.”
At the same time, Hyde was in the transport, moving slowly toward Omaha Beach. “You had goosebumps,” Hyde said, “no doubt about that. We’d been on practice runs before, but this time they were firing at us.”
Hyde, hitting the air over Utah Beach shortly after 6 a.m., could see the German guns firing up at them. “There was flak all over us … it was exploding everywhere. The plane next to us, our wingman, was hit and blew up. But it was the only plane we lost from our group.”
In the water on Omaha Beach, Hyde and his crew were inside their halftrack, trying to keep the engine going even when the hood went underwater. He looked around to see the dozens of bodies floating in the water and on the beach. The driver just kept driving the halftrack, slowly, ploddingly toward the beach.
Just minutes before, Hobbs on the “Mary Jo” walked from his first assignment post, between the pilot and co-pilot, back to his gun turret. Along the way, he reached down and pulled the pins on each of their bombs, arming them for the drop. He put the first pin in his pocket, to save the first pin from the first bomb on Normandy. Today, that pin is in an aviation museum in Tucson, Ariz.
“We had one of the best bombardiers in the Army Air Corps,” Hobbs said. “When we got over the target, he dropped them and they were right on target. We took out the guns and headed back toward England.” The target guns were the 88 mm cannons that could sink ships and shoot down aircraft alike.
But the bombers assigned to Omaha Beach missed their target, and the German guns remained to fight the battle.
“Machine gun fire was coming at us from all directions” Hyde said. “The 88s were firing from both sides, and we thought they were supposed to be knocked out already. We could hear the shells from Big Bertha passing through the air overhead.”
But getting to the beach didn’t solve the problems for Hyde and the other soldiers in the halftrack. They had orders to stay on the beach until orders came through to move on. They parked on the beach, with mortars, bombshells and bullets exploding around them for three days.”We didn’t have any big guns to hit the Germans, just our rifles. So we’d shoot at the low-flying planes that came over us. Some of them went down, but there was no telling who hit them because so many guys were shooting.”
For three days, they watched bombs explode around them while never taking off the gas masks for fear of German gas bombs. When the tide would go out, hundreds of vehicles, guns, cannons and dead soldiers would be revealed on the ocean bottom.
Hyde calls it the worst three days of his life.
Later that day, Hobbs and the crew of the “Mary Jo” would return to Normandy with a fresh load of bombs, trying to lighten the resistance against the Allied ground troops.
Hobbs would fly 40 more missions in the war, hitting bridges and train depots behind the battle lines. He suffered only one wound — shrapnel to a hand — and his plane was only shot down once. For the final six months of his active duty, Hobbs was an instructor in aircraft engineering. He was discharged in July 1945.
For Pfc. Hyde after D-Day, the war on land would take him through France, Belgium, Holland and back again. He would haul German prisoners of war back from the front lines, while moving into Germany as far as Munich.
Hyde was discharged in December 1945, returning home on a long ship’s voyage. His wife, Genievieve, waited for him in Weld County.
Both men have medals from their experiences in the war, which they keep along with the scrapbooks. Both men were haunted by nightmares of planes in flames or ground soldiers invading their homes. Both men overcame the nightmares.
Hyde’s proudest war memory is a framed certificate, showing a shoreline with three churches, each representing a village in Normandy. The certificate was signed by the three mayors of the villages, and proclaims Hyde as “an honored citizen of Omaha Beach.”
Hobbs sits at his living room table on a rainy spring day, holding the photo. It is the crew of the lead plane into Normandy on D-Day: Capt. James Parish, Maj. Jens Norgaard, 2nd Lt. Loris Gniffke, Lt. Col. Robert Witty, 1st Lt. Louis Offenberg, Sgt. Jules Theobald, Sgt. John Leach. S/Sgt. Kenneth Hobbs stands at the center.And in the background of the photo, the black fuselage of a B-26 bomber, with “Mary Jo” written boldly on its side.
What is D-Day?
On June 6, 1944, the Allied command launched an invasion force across the English Channel to the coast of Normandy, in the northwest corner of France.
Since 1944, Germany had held France, and for the Allies to start winning the war they first had to win back France.
The invasion was the largest amphibious assault in world history. Code-named “Operation Overlord,” it was under the command of American Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
It was a difficult landing, because of German artillery and cannon fire. The worst was Omaha Beach, where the Americans suffered 2,400 dead, but landed 34,000 troops.
The successful invasion was a key factor that led to the surrender of Germany 11 months later.

 

[Islander]

Both of my sisters were born on D-day (65 and 66}, so easy to remember. Even easier because the eldest is named "Dee".

 

[seeth07]

Could you imagine if there was a world War at this scale about to start today and our current 15 to 20 year Olds were being called upon to fight? No doubt they were the greatest generation

 

[406dn]

My father was a 19 year old on a flight crew in the Army Air Corp. They were dropping paratroopers on D-day.

I have long felt that my father had done more in his life by the time he was 21, than I've done thru 74 years.

So many men gave so much, my respect goes out to all of them.

 

[kodiakisland]

Could you imagine if there was a world War at this scale about to start today and our current 15 to 20 year Olds were being called upon to fight? No doubt they were the greatest generation

The men and women who fought in WWII were definitely on a different level than todays individuals, but you also have to remember they drafted people into their 40s and turned away half the draftees because they were not fit for service. Average age was in the mid 20s. Those who did serve were a special breed of people, but it's not like the whole population was cut from the same cloth. Much like today.
The thing that strikes me looking at all the family photos of the 10+ family members who fought in WWII were how old they all looked when they came home. The war easily put 20 yrs on their looks.

Normandy is a cool place to visit. Been several times on different anniversaries. My son did his Arrow of Light ceremony on Utah Beach.