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June 6 1944 Normandy Invasion


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Next year will be the 70th anniversary of D-Day. If my 91-year-old stepfather is healthy enough, I'll be going there for it with him. He drove one of the landing crafts for the British navy at Juno.

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Next year will be the 70th anniversary of D-Day. If my 91-year-old stepfather is healthy enough, I'll be going there for it with him. He drove one of the landing crafts for the British navy at Juno.

 

Awesome!

 

My next door neighbor was there on D Day 1944. He was part of the planning committee for the 50th anniversary ceremonies. So, he was there in 1993 making plans, etc...........Then his wife had a stroke in early 1994 and he couldn't go.............He was genuinely pissed on 6/6/94 - he's watching the stuff all day, but fuming that he wasn't there!

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Exactly! Spent ample time in the classroom going over numerous facets of this day, even the German perspective. Wanted our future generations to remember the bravery of our guys.

if you want another perspective read :6 Armies in Normandy by John Keegan

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...the reduction of the German military to wage war due to day/ night bombing...

My grandfather flew a Lancaster, his brother as well. Pa came home, his brother, 2 flights, 1 an active training flight for new crews, then shot down.

 

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...the reduction of the German military to wage war due to day/ night bombing...

My grandfather flew a Lancaster, his brother as well. Pa came home, his brother, 2 flights, 1 an active training flight for new crews, then shot down.

The Lancaster was an awesome bomber, better in some aspects than the B-24/B-17 (perhaps not defensively) also versatile enough to skip bomb (the Dam Busters)

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How do we feel about the air war then & in particular say, Bomber Command?

 

They got to go back to their Barracks every night in England and live a relatively calm life when not on missions. But their loss rates in combat were horrific. On certain raids 1 out of every 3 crews were lost. Those aren't very good odds.

 

There are a few notorious missions, the raid on pluesti oil fields, the merserschmitt factory etc...

 

The brits had a rough go of it night bombing as well.

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...the reduction of the German military to wage war due to day/ night bombing...

My grandfather flew a Lancaster, his brother as well. Pa came home, his brother, 2 flights, 1 an active training flight for new crews, then shot down.

 

This was probably happening from 41-44, right?............Thanks to your grandfather and great uncle, my father had an easier time once he got to France with Patton's Third Army.

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