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.

New Republican "Fixes" for the Economy Are A Sham

Today we see what Republicans in the House have in mind when they talk about cutting the budget deficit.

Why? Because they've floated their outline for budget planning over the next 10 years, and it includes slashing spending by $5 billion, privatizing Medicare and cutting big from Medicaid. However, it also includes exactly $0 tax increases or other revenue sources. So, it's only touching one side of the budget ledger - spending. Story HERE.

You may recall a couple recent posts I wrote about the importance of addressing both sides of the ledger (spending and revenue) as a responsible way to balance the budget HERE and HERE.

Not surprisingly, the "new" ideas from the Republicans are exactly the same as their traditional ideas on economy and government. To me, this proves they are not serious about responsibly reducing the budget deficit and/or they are wholly blind to their addiction to"voodoo economics" of tax cuts for the rich and corporations combined with roll-back of government programs. This approach not only does not work but makes things horribly worse.

As evidence of this claim, I give you the entire history of the United States of America from the 1770s to the 1930s. That's right. Our history is one of boom and bust, boom and bust, boom and bust...all with a relatively small middle class, virtually no government programs or regulation and with wealth concentrated at the top among a very few.

Only in the period roughly between 1934 and the early 1980s did we REALLY break out and grow our middle class and society into the unquestioned economic, cultural, military and standard of living leader of the world. And what do you think was one key differentiation in that 40+ period of time from everything that came before? Responsible government programs and laws - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Civil Rights legislation, regulation of financial markets and banks and others.

None of that stuff existed before 1932 and much of it has been under attack or rolled back since the mid 1980s. Only when government asserted itself responsibly to address the economic disaster of the Great Depression, mobilize the country for World War II and pass Federal civil rights laws did we flourish as a world power with a broad, deep, employed and comfortable middle class the likes of which had not seen by any society before.

Flash forward and back to recent times. Our current budget crisis was created by turning our back on the fundamentals that made us a great nation. Conservative economic theory and leadership over the past 10-12 years has been wickedly efficient of producing wealth for the already rich and big companies, but as it did so it created the massive budget deficits, shrinking middle class, rising unemployment and overall erosion of our society that we see today.

And what to the Republicans propose as of today to fix the problem they created...more of the same thing.

That's why I call "sham" on what they're proposing. It won't work...it never has...and is most likely just a new way to funnel money to corporations or the wealthy. And we know how that always works out for the rest of us.

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.

Poland Pictures on Anniversary of Invasion

I had no idea when I posted my entry yesterday with pictures of Warsaw, Poland that Sept. 1, 2009 was the 70th anniversary of Germany invading Poland - generally considered the initiation of World War II.

But it was.

Diane and I visited Poland in 2002 on an adventure to find where many of her relatives came from, and we had a really good time...nice people, rich history, wonderful food and great beer, beautiful architecture (in parts not destroyed by WW II), and a sobering reality check on what humanity is capable of with a visit the former Auschwitz concentration camp.

Today Poland is doing well in the post-Soviet era. It's a country moving forward, but not forgetting its past. I would recommend a visit if you're looking for something a little different but equally European than the typical France, Italy, Germany experience.

I've uploaded some more pictures of Poland such as the ones below to my Flickr Photostream. You can see the set by clicking - here.