The Longest Day

[grampahol]

(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..

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

[Sled21]

I have a buddy who went over on a WWII tour last year. I'd love to do that. He not only saw all the D-Day sites, he went to where the 101'st was dug in, in the woods, during the Battle of the Bulge. The foxholes they dug are still mostly there. His pictures were awesome, would love to see it myself.

[sandwedge]

(03-29-2021, 05:31 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Sorry to bring this thread back, but I was finally able to watch SPR for the first time, this weekend.

The *ONLY* attachment my ancestry has to any war, is that my grandfather was an ambulance driver for the Italian Army, during WWII, in Russia (and the only story that he left {not sure if it's true or not}, was that he went off camp to refuel the ambulance once night, came back about an hour later and his entire unit was dead and all equipment either taken or smashed. So he spent the rest of his days before heading back to Italy, being tended to by Russians and he fell in love with Communism... but my grandfather was apparently not the brightest bulb of the lot {he passed before I was born, so I have 0 first-hand knowledge of him as a person} and his, "love of Communism," was completely misplaced and he didn't realize or acknowledge the failings in that system, like all socio-economic systems have), so I have little to no direct feelings or background/history of roots in WWII.

I have seen snippets of the opening scene (rather, the second scene), numerous times over the past few years (on top 10 lists and music videos, etc.), but actually sitting through the entire 25 minutes and seeing what I saw... the typewriter scene had me pause about halfway through it, as it fully sunk-in just the massive amount of loss of life on that day and how much of it was just unnecessary... I teared up quite a bit before continuing.

I was also shattered at the end of the film (the final scene, back at Normandy) and throughout the credits, merely because I appreciate so, so much, that I never have to go through a day of what all those young men did, some 77 years ago... I am forever grateful to those that go off to war and serve their country, even if it is just murder, death and killing in the end; if it will put a stop to atrocities and tyrants, then they are all winners in my book.

Easily one of the 5 best films I have ever seen, just a wonderfully-crafted piece of cinema; if you want an enjoyable, but still relatively-serious depiction of WWII, watch the Dirty Dozen. But if you want gritty, truthful and the starkness of WWII, you will watch SPR. Absolutely criminal that it didn't win Best Picture. Criminal.

The scene in the beginning of the beach landings, is pretty accurate as Hollywood could make it. 
Now that I have sold my farm, I have to start planning my trip to Normandy. Probably won't happen this year though.

[grampahol]

You wanna experience the longest day in person? Go get arrested and sit in jail waiting for trial.. Man! Time just stops dead in it's tracks..