70 years ago today

[Mull]

I live in in a country, where on the whole, I can think and say what I like. Yes there are problems but more than less I live in peace. If it were not for people who gave so much, I would not be here now; would not be allowed to think and openly express my views; would not live in a predominantly free society.

 

I don't agree with the concept of war on the whole. Yet, sometimes the means does justify the the goal. And it seems to me, that WWII is a prime example of a just fight, against maniacal nations gone mad with a sense if revenge and or a lust for domineering power.

 

 

Lest we forget

 

War is not something you choose to agree or disagree with, it's a last resort against maniacs that will stop at nothing!

Also it's a sad waste of life.

Human beings eh?

[luftwaffe]

I would not of fancied my chances myself in the Normandy breakouts in the British Canadian sectors against the infamous heer and ss tiger battalions or the fanatics of hitlerjugend.

we took heavy losses we could replace... they could not.

 

 

 

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True.

[luftwaffe]

There were very very few Tiger Tanks in Normandy.

Nobody actually knows the numbers that were involved, records were destroyed.... from memory 1350 tiger1's were built and about 500 kingtigers were built.

[shavey]

As a fairly young man, growing up in a fairly quiet world, i have absolutely no idea of the fear, courage and loss faced by the families and comrades of the time. Unfortunatly not many of the veterans left and those that are dont talk about it much. I have nothing but respect and admiration for all service men and women of the past, the present, and unfortunatly the future.

Lest we forget.

As a very proud Englishman i am proud to fly the flag. However i think we should all bear in mind, there is always two sides to a war.

 

great post well put i visited my uncle who has just left hospital after a small operation who is 95yrs old he started the war in northern europe then went down to the north african campaign and finished the war in italy he has never talked about his years away from home but iam so proud of these fine men and women which kept the world at peace again

 

i have visited the graveyards at moorselle in belgium very humbling to see makes your problems seem very trivual seeing those graves

Edited June 6, 2014 by shavey

[pycoed]

Respect to all the fallen soldiers on both sides.

 

But history is only told by the victors.

 

But i am of the opinion that Britain and America took on a severly depleted and weakened Wehrmact after the rigours of fighting the Red Army for 4 years. As Stalin wanted to know why did it take so long to assemble an invasion and come to Russia's aid earlier?...Answer... Churchill played a blinder by letting the Russians and Germans knock 7 bells out of each other before going in for the kill against the Germans later in the war. 75% of the German Army died in Russia, and it took 35 countries to defeat them.

 

 

Mostly nonsense: whilst the Wehrmacht was obviously severely depleted

following it's Eastern campaign, the same could be said of the RN & RAF after 5 years of war. Pretty soon after Dday the German high command's principal strategy was just to try & hold in the East whilst trying to win a tactical victory in the West so as to enter into an armistice with the Western powers. They thought (erroneously) that they could agree terms with us to continue the struggle jointly with Germany against Russia.

 

D day was a momentous event to plan & execute & could not have been done much earlier than May 1944 in any case, so to suggest it was put off opportunely is farcical. The planning alone had taken the best part of a year following the disastrous Dieppe "raid" from which at least lessons WERE learnt.

 

Nothing before or since has approached the scale & complexity of D day as a military operation. Just thank our forefathers it all went so well albeit at horrendous cost by the standards of today. Absolute thanks to all involved.

[Mark Bolam]

My thanks to the men who gave their today's so we can have our tomorrow's.

 

Had a great crack at the AA show today with Puk, a German lad from Stuttgart who was splicing for Nod.

 

It's good to know that we have moved on, but I think it's really important that we never forget.

 

 

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[luftwaffe]

Mostly nonsense: whilst the Wehrmacht was obviously severely depleted

following it's Eastern campaign, the same could be said of the RN & RAF after 5 years of war. Pretty soon after Dday the German high command's principal strategy was just to try & hold in the East whilst trying to win a tactical victory in the West so as to enter into an armistice with the Western powers. They thought (erroneously) that they could agree terms with us to continue the struggle jointly with Germany against Russia.

 

D day was a momentous event to plan & execute & could not have been done much earlier than May 1944 in any case, so to suggest it was put off opportunely is farcical. The planning alone had taken the best part of a year following the disastrous Dieppe "raid" from which at least lessons WERE learnt.

 

Nothing before or since has approached the scale & complexity of D day as a military operation. Just thank our forefathers it all went so well albeit at horrendous cost by the standards of today. Absolute thanks to all involved.

You need to do a bit of research as to the numbers involved my friend, from memory Operation Barbarossa involved over 3 million troops crossed the border in Russia in June 1941 as opposed to 155000 allied troops in the Normandy landings.

[Graham]

Barbarossa was indeed a larger operation which failed....even after starving to death millions of Red Army pows!

[luftwaffe]

Yes it failed for a number of reasons, namely, logistics( a 1000 mile supply line), Hitler's insistance to hold the line at all costs, and not retreat and regroup, out numbered at times by 8 to 1, and last but not least General winter, sleeping out with temperature at -30 aint much fun night after night with only summer uniform, brutal times for sure.

[Wood wasp]

It would be a shame if this thread deteriorated to a pissing contest about western & eastern campaigns. The Eastern front dwarfed the western campaign in every aspect but was that really relevant to the poor souls in their tommy cookers/bomber command/infantry slogging through the mud of Italy.

 

Respect to all fighting men of all nationalities who in the vast vast majority of cases would far rather have been at home with their families.