![[Image: LjGwsv1.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/LjGwsv1.jpg)
![[Image: 124471596_10221035713536137_303474267217...e=60E041E9]](https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/124471596_10221035713536137_3034742672179341386_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=dwRgSJxs3EkAX8WrcBd&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=5d8e418a821624dc087dfcaeb86170ba&oe=60E041E9)
06-06-2021, 06:10 PM
Couple things I read today…
Good morning on the 77th anniversary of D-Day. A day before the invasion on Normandy, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a famous speech in which he explained to the troops, "The eyes of the world are upon you."
Less known is an alternative speech Eisenhower wrote in case the invasion was repelled. In four short sentences, it went, "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Stuff to think about next time something goes wrong on your watch.
—Neal Freyman
At 7 p.m., a message from task force headquarters is read over the Quincy’s public address system. It urges the men to “put the Navy ball over for a touchdown.” The chaplain offered a prayer. All over the ship men bowed their heads. “10:30 p.m.: ‘All hands, man your battle stations,’ “The bugle blew, It had begun.”
That was the scene on the heavy cruiser USS Quincy 77 years ago today, the evening of June 5, 1944. The day that followed saw 155,000 Allied troops–Americans, British and Canadians–successfully storm Normandy’s beaches and push inland. In three months, the northern part of France would be freed and the invasion force would push to enter Germany.
In my opinion, the events of D-Day are best chronicled in Cornelius Ryan’s epic work: The Longest Day. As night turned into early morning, and thousands of landing crafts headed for Normandy, Ryan wrote the following:
“The first-wave assault troops could not yet see the misty shores of Normandy. They were still more than nine miles away. Some warships were already dueling with German naval coastal batteries, but the action as yet was remote and impersonal for the soldiers in the boats…Seasickness was still their biggest enemy. Few were immune. The assault boats, each loaded with about thirty men and all their weighty equipment, rode so low in the water that waves rolled over the side and out again. With each wave the boats pitched and tossed, and Colonel Eugene Caffey of the 1st Engineers Special Brigade remembers that some of the men in his boat ‘just lay there with the water sloshing back and forth over them, not caring whether they lived or died.’ But for those among them not yet incapacitated by seasickness, the sight of the great invasion fleet looming up all about them was awesome and wonderful. In Corporal Gerald Burt’s boatload of demolition engineers, one man wistfully remarked that he wished he’d brought his camera…”
The scene is hard to imagine.
The build up to D-Day was immense. Along with the planning, intelligence gathering, and training, American troops would also need military manufacturing to a scale never before seen in world history. Consider this for a moment:
In 1941, more than three million cars had been manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war.
Instead, Chrysler made fuselages, General Motors made airplane engines, guns, trucks, and tanks. At its vast Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Ford Motor Company performed one of the greatest feats in manufacturing mass production history. At the time the average Ford car had some 15,000 parts. The B-24 Liberator Long Range Bomber had 1,550,000 parts. Ford’s efficient assembly lines built one every 63 minutes, 24 hours a day.
By the end of the war, more than one-half of the worlds industrial production was in the United States.
America is a country where miracles happen.
Good morning on the 77th anniversary of D-Day. A day before the invasion on Normandy, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a famous speech in which he explained to the troops, "The eyes of the world are upon you."
Less known is an alternative speech Eisenhower wrote in case the invasion was repelled. In four short sentences, it went, "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Stuff to think about next time something goes wrong on your watch.
—Neal Freyman
At 7 p.m., a message from task force headquarters is read over the Quincy’s public address system. It urges the men to “put the Navy ball over for a touchdown.” The chaplain offered a prayer. All over the ship men bowed their heads. “10:30 p.m.: ‘All hands, man your battle stations,’ “The bugle blew, It had begun.”
That was the scene on the heavy cruiser USS Quincy 77 years ago today, the evening of June 5, 1944. The day that followed saw 155,000 Allied troops–Americans, British and Canadians–successfully storm Normandy’s beaches and push inland. In three months, the northern part of France would be freed and the invasion force would push to enter Germany.
In my opinion, the events of D-Day are best chronicled in Cornelius Ryan’s epic work: The Longest Day. As night turned into early morning, and thousands of landing crafts headed for Normandy, Ryan wrote the following:
“The first-wave assault troops could not yet see the misty shores of Normandy. They were still more than nine miles away. Some warships were already dueling with German naval coastal batteries, but the action as yet was remote and impersonal for the soldiers in the boats…Seasickness was still their biggest enemy. Few were immune. The assault boats, each loaded with about thirty men and all their weighty equipment, rode so low in the water that waves rolled over the side and out again. With each wave the boats pitched and tossed, and Colonel Eugene Caffey of the 1st Engineers Special Brigade remembers that some of the men in his boat ‘just lay there with the water sloshing back and forth over them, not caring whether they lived or died.’ But for those among them not yet incapacitated by seasickness, the sight of the great invasion fleet looming up all about them was awesome and wonderful. In Corporal Gerald Burt’s boatload of demolition engineers, one man wistfully remarked that he wished he’d brought his camera…”
The scene is hard to imagine.
The build up to D-Day was immense. Along with the planning, intelligence gathering, and training, American troops would also need military manufacturing to a scale never before seen in world history. Consider this for a moment:
In 1941, more than three million cars had been manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war.
Instead, Chrysler made fuselages, General Motors made airplane engines, guns, trucks, and tanks. At its vast Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Ford Motor Company performed one of the greatest feats in manufacturing mass production history. At the time the average Ford car had some 15,000 parts. The B-24 Liberator Long Range Bomber had 1,550,000 parts. Ford’s efficient assembly lines built one every 63 minutes, 24 hours a day.
By the end of the war, more than one-half of the worlds industrial production was in the United States.
America is a country where miracles happen.
06-07-2021, 08:02 PM
PATRIOT, Nice write up. I was just a small child at the time but I think Ike was a good President. We can thank him for the freeway system we have today. I don't recall the gentleman's name, but the young man standing to the right of Ike in the above photo was from Wausau, WI. He survived the invasion and the war and led a productive life here in Wausau until his death a few years back. His granddaughter went to school with my son.
Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)