D-Day Anniversary Post #2: D-Day Items

As a second post in honor of the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, I thought I'd post a picture of some D-Day related items I possess.

Below is the picture and below that a description of the items in it...

D-Day Related Items (C) Marc Osborn

Helmet. In the middle on top of the books is a WWII-era U.S. tankers helmet. It is not vintage from the time, but is a 100% replica. Tankers landing on D-Day would have been wearing one of these. Sadly, most tanks and the men in them did not make it to the beach or much farther because pre-invasion Allied bombardment did not take out the heavy German guns on the beach.

Books. The helmet is sitting on two books by author Steven Ambrose about June 6, 1944. One is simply titled D-Day and gives an account of the invasion, primarily but not all, from the American point of view. The other book is called Pegasus Bridge. It tells the harrowing tale of British glider-borne troops who landed in the early morning hours behind enemy lines to take and hold a key bridge so troops coming in from the sea could move inland.

Rocks and Sand. These are actually from Omaha and Utah Beach respectively. I collected these on my visit to the two beaches in 1994. The taller, skinnier bottle contains sand from Omaha Beach. The other bottle has sand from Utah Beach in it. The rocks are from Omaha Beach.

Pouch and Patch. The pouch is vintage WWII era, although not used on D-Day in Normandy. It held first aid items and could be affixed to a soldier's belt. The patch is the insignia of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division. This division began its legend on D-Day by dropping behind enemy lines at night and proceeding the seaborne assault to capture and hold key towns, bridges and crossroads behind the invasion beaches.

Concrete Chip. This is an actual chip from Hitler's "Atlantic Wall" in Normandy.

D-Day 70th Anniversary Post #1: My Own Now-And-Then Photo Comparison

Today marks the 70th anniversary for for Allied D-Day landings in Normandy, France. Below I've marked the occasion by posting a "then and now" series of photographs. The "then" shots are historic photos taken by war correspondents. The "now" pictures were taken by me in the fall of 1994 when I visited a number of sites where the landings took place, along with other locations around France.

You can see a bigger set of pictures of my visit to D-Day locations from that trip by clicking HERE.

OMAHA BEACH
This was one of two beaches where American forces landed. It's also the place where the fiercest resistance came from the Germans that day, making the beach's unfortunate nickname "bloody Omaha."

First below is a historic shot taken on the day of the invasion by a photographer at the back of one of the landing craft. You can see the soldiers wading ashore into the carnage.

Below that is a picture I took standing at the water's edge on Omaha beach in 1994.

Omaha Beach (C) Marc Osborn

Between the two pictures, you can see how far it was through the water and across the beach to some relative safety of a sea wall and vegetation. You can also see how looming and dangerous the ridge overlooking the beach is. From there, the Germans had a perfect position to shoot down on the Americans. Through their determination, creativity and sheer guts...the U.S. soldiers worked their way up and around the emplacements and slowly, painfully knocked them out over the course of the day. Having paid a high price in lives, however, the US Army took Omaha Beach in one of the most epic days of battle ever.

UTAH BEACH
This was the other major beach where Americans landed. Resistance here was lighter, but by no means non-existent. Ultimately, the Americans took Utah and moved inland earlier than their comrades over at Omaha.

First below is a historic picture showing some U.S. soldiers on Utah Beach as something blows up down by the water's edge at what appears to be a low tide.

The next picture is a shot I took while standing on Utah Beach in 1994 from a similar perspective. The tide is a bit farther in on this one, but you can see the beach looks very similar.

Utah Beach (C) Marc Osborn

POINT DU HOC
Point Du Hoc was where American Rangers landed on a rocky beach, scaled a sheer cliff face and defeated the Germans defending that position. The Rangers' mission was to knock out large guns that resided there and could easily fire down onto Omaha Beach. A monumental task to be sure...and they did it.

The first picture below is a historic picture of Point Du Hoc. You can see the point where the Rangers landed and at the far right of this picture...just where the one rocky point meets up with the rest of the coastline.

The second picture is one I took at Point Du Hoc in 1994. The monument you see towards the right of the picture is where the Rangers crested the bluff as they climbed and fought their way to victory.

Point Du Hoc (C) Marc Osborn

PEGASUS BRIDGE
Before the Americans, British and Canadians landed at their respective beaches, airborne troops from the UK landed in the middle of the night right next to this bridge and took it - securing a passage across a major canal for advancing Allied troops. It is now called "Pegasus Bridge" in honor of the 6th Division of the British Airborne who assaulted the span. Their insignia is of a flying horse or Pegasus.

The first two pictures - a historic one taken after the battle and my picture taken in 1994 - show the bridge from the side of the canal where the British troops landed in their gliders and began the fight to take the bridge.

The following two pictures show where the gliders landed. The historic shot looks from the location of the bridge back at the gliders. My picture from 1994 looks toward the bridge with the landing spots of the gliders off to the right signified with small markers.

Pegasus Bridge (C) Marc Osborn

Pegasus Bridge and Glider Landing Spots (C) Marc Osborn

SAINTE MER EGLISE
This is a town behind the American beaches that U.S. paratroopers took as part of the invasion. The idea was to drop troops behind the beaches to take and secure towns, bridges, causeways and other vital territory so that the invading soldiers from the beach could quickly advance inland. While this is what happened, the paratroops did not all land where they were supposed to. Rather, they were scattered all over the place. However, as a testament to their bravery, training and toughness, groups of them came together here and there to take objectives in the wee hours of the morning and into the day.

Famously, in the confusion a contingent of U.S. paratroops were dropped directly onto the town of Sainte Mer Eglise. Now, the town WAS an objective, but dropping them directly into the town square was not the plan. The result was a lot of fighting immediately in the town, and unfortunately, a number of paratroopers killed before they even hit the ground. If you've ever seen the movie The Longest Day, you know the scene. That actually happened.

One incident in that action was one paratrooper landing on the church steeple and becoming stuck there during the fight below. This is also depicted in the movie. Anyway, because of that, the church in the town is what most people associate with D-Day.

Below is a historic picture of the town church. If you look closely you can see American soldiers creeping up along the low wall in the middle of the picture.

The next picture is one I took of the church when I visited the town in 1994. Because that year was the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings, there was a full sized dummy dressed as a U.S. paratrooper up on the top of the church, held there by his parachute as it hung on the roof line of the building.

Church in Sainte Mer Eglise (C) Marc Osborn

So there you have it. Some comparison pictures from "then" and, well, kinda "now"...or at least the modern era.

I was profoundly impressed with what I saw on my visit and in awe and thanks to each person who participated in that great invasion that day 70 years ago. Thank you for what you did.


NOTE: All color photos in this post were taken by Marc Osborn. Copyright for this pictures is owned by Marc Osborn and no use of any kind of these images is permitted without the prior written permission of Marc Osborn.

June 6 - 69th Anniversary of D-Day Landings in Normandy, France

Today marks the 69th anniversary of the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy, France. While there were other major battles that preceded and followed this one on all fronts of the war, this particular day was monumental in turning the tide in the European war against Germany because it opened up a major western front that began the squeeze on Nazi forces from the west by the U.S., Britain, Canada and free French forces and from the east by the Soviet Union's Red Army.

In 1994, I went to Normandy and visited many of the major sites of the D-Day battle just after the 50th anniversary. Below are three shots I took while there. More can be seen on my Flick Photostream HERE.

Omaha Beach

This is Omaha beach where U.S. Army forces landed. I took this shot standing at the water's edge looking back up at the beach and the cliff above. Imagine having to charge across this expanse littered with iron obstacles put there by the Germans and unrelenting machine gun and mortar fire. All round you, fellow soldiers lay dead or wounded while others scramble for cover. Eventually on June 6, forces here overcame the German defenses and moved in land.

Sainte Mere Eglise

The next shot is the church and town square of the village of Sainte Mere Eglise. This is a town behind the landing beaches that the U.S. 82nd Airborne division was charged with securing following their early morning jump into France. However, airborne forces were scattered all over the area, and many came down directly into the town where Germans were waiting. If you've ever seen the movie The Longest Day, this battle is depicted in one of the sequences in the film.

Point Du Hoc

The third shot here is Point du Hoc. This is where U.S. Army Rangers came in by small boat, scaled the steep cliffs under German fire and secured the area so the Germans could not fire down onto the main landing beaches. Again in the move The Longest Day, you can see this battle sequence dramatized.








All pictures in this post were taken by Marc Osborn. Marc Osborn owns the copyright for this images and no use of them for any purpose is permitted without prior written permission from Marc Osborn.

D-Day Anniversary - How To Learn Some More

Today is the 67th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy France on June 6, 1944.

The landings were conducted by the Allies - the U.S., the U.K., France, Poland, Netherlands and others fighting the Germans in World War II.

Here are three ways to learn more about this major, major turning point in the history of the world...

MOVIES

• The Longest Day - a massive film from the 1960s featuring a whole constellation of stars, this movie definitely is a "Hollywood" production. However, it's well acted and communicates the broad sweep of the events of D-Day through the various vignettes that skip between overall strategy, individual personal stories, from the German perspective, from the British and American perspective and more.
• Saving Private Ryan - starring Tom Hanks, this modern film tells the story of one mission that took place during the events of D-Day. Through the telling of the story of one little group of soldier's mission to find one man among the armies fighting in Normandy, you get a sense of what happened at the D-Day landings and after.

BOOK

• D-Day by Steven Ambrose. While the focus here is virtually only on the U.S. participation in D-Day, it is a first class telling of the history from both the high level and personal level. Very readable.

PHOTOS

• There are loads of photos online about the D-Day landings, both vintage from the time of the invasion as well as newer ones taken many years later. So, check them out to see what things looked like (or look like now) where the battles were fought. One suggestion is a set of pictures I took on a visit to the D-Day beaches and other battle sites in 1994. You can see those by clicking HERE.

It's Never A Good Idea To Link Yourself to WWII Germany

Political pundits sometimes throw out how certain people or policy positions compare with - in their minds - those of Nazi German or what Hitler did or "would have" supported. The translation of any such argument is that the person saying these things is calling their opponent "a Nazi" or "Hitler" and implying that they harbor the associated racism, hate, anti-Semitism and responsibility for the deaths of millions of people that goes with that accusation.

This never works as an effective way of discrediting an opponent because it comes across as desperate, mean spirited or out-of-touch...even if the assertion happens to be technically correct on some level. And, no matter what the issue is, the public isn't going to believe that whatever political issue or hypothetical argument that's being discussed on TV in the U.S. in 2010 is as bad as what actually happened in Europe because of the Germans before and during World War II (because it's not).

OK, so it's clear that it's not effective to try and link an adversary to WWII Germany. But, FOR SURE you should not link yourself or your own organization to them.

As evidence, this week the University of Tennessee head football coach tried to explain the mindset and status of his team by saying they were "like the Germans in World War II." He went to explain how his team is like the defenders of the D-Day beaches. Really? That's the comparison you want to make? That your student athletes are akin to German soldiers in World War II trying to kill Americans, Brits, Canadians and others as they try and liberate Europe?

The coach is probably a big WWII buff and knows well how the Allies successfully invaded France in 1944 - starting with D-Day on June 6. So, he probably was trying to make a point along the lines of...so complete was the Allies plan and execution of the D-Day invasion that it totally confused and completely defeated the Germans defending the coastline, and that's how our team feels right now. We're young, beat up and overwhelmed.

Two problems with that analogy:

1. Whatever your intentions, you just aligned yourself, your school and your team with the Nazis. Virtually nobody will get the comparison you were trying to make, but they definiately will conclude that you are an idiot who just associated their beloved school and team with "Nazis." 
2. The Germans went on to lose World War II - badly. If you ARE going to use a war analogy, is that the side you want to compare yourself to when talking to your team, fans and supporters? I think not. For free, I'll give you an appropriate WWII analogy - even though I'm against using them in business, politics or sports because war is horrific and whatever "sacrifices" your team or company is making they are nothing compared to what real soldiers in a real war sacrificed. OK, so you could say that your team is like the Americans at the outset of the Battle of the Bulge - surprised, overwhelmed and confused. But, like those American soldiers, the team will rebound, re-double efforts, fight hard and in the end emerge victorious. There. Everybody is happy. Your analogy is aligned with the right side and your (feeble) point is made.

So the big sum up is...when making an argument or an analogy, never bring in references to the Nazis, Hitler or the Germans in WWII. Just don't. You're more than likely wrong, you look desperate and you greatly undermine your own credibility rather than making your point.

Pictures for Memorial Day & D-Day Anniversary

With Memorial Day coming on May 25 and the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in France coming up on June 6, I've posted a set of appropriate pictures to my Flickr Photostream. 

Click here to see the set.

Included are pictures I took while visiting the Normandy coast in the fall of 1994. On that trip I visited Omaha Beach and Utah Beach where Americans landed, as well as Point du Hoc where U.S. Rangers scaled the cliffs, killed Germans and took out a series of cannons. 

Also included are some pictures of other American battlefields I've visited - including the bridge at Nijmegen in Holland, as well as Belleau Wood (World War I) and Yorktown (Revolutionary War). (Left: Point du Hoc - Normandy, France)

I've also thrown in some pictures of Pegasus Bridge where British paratroopers landed in gliders and took the span on D-Day. And, I've put in an image of Arnhem bridge in Holland where those same British paratroopers fought it out with Germans a few months later.