04-02-2021, 01:07 AM
(06-11-2020, 08:35 PM)Beaker Wrote: I have always been fascinated with WWII. Got to Normandy in 2015. Went to Utah and Omaha Beaches, Point du Hoc, St Mere Eglise and the Airborne Museum, and the American and German cemeteries. Knowing as much as I did about those places and their stories made it very powerful to me.
One of the most powerful and emotional things for me was going to Omaha beach. I went at low tide (which was when the invasion took place so the landing craft could avoid the German obstacles. I went all the way down to the water and stood with my feet in the water looking back to the beach, imagining having to cover that ground while being shot at. Most movies you see portray it as about 50-100 yds to cover. Its more like 300-500 yds. The soldiers were totally exposed with only obstacles and craters for cover. I imagined trying to run for my life, with an 80 pound pack....soaking wet. Incredible that ANYONE survived. And the reason we were able to take the beach was that we simply overwhelmed the Germans with numbers. Even with machine guns there were simply too many to mow down.
Did you forget they bombarded the crap out of the beach for a good long time with 16" canons before setting foot on it? Still...a hell of a slog for all of them..
In the immortal words of my old man, "Wait'll you get to be my age!"
Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse, but the one comfort we have is Cincinnati sounds worse. ~Oliver Wendal Holmes Sr.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse, but the one comfort we have is Cincinnati sounds worse. ~Oliver Wendal Holmes Sr.
