D - DAY, June 6th 1944, A DAY TO REMEMBER

[Thanos]

Just a small memo to all dear members, for something very important:

Let's all pray for a moment for all those souls lost during that BIG DAY. The day that liberty & justice smiled again to Europe, after four dark years...
Allow me to humbly commemorate this glorious event by copying the dedication of MAX HASTINGS to his little son, opening his masterpiece book titled "OVERLORD" :

“ TO HARRY, in the hope that beaches will mean no more to him than buckets and spades…”

[A.S.]

Posted just ten minutes from here during WW2, and flying your beloved Spitfires was a Polish flight. The Poles were ferocious, fearless pilots who had a clear mission. Last Sunday there was a tribute to them and their steel-plates-on-grass makeshift runway. More here.

In 2004 there was an airshow on the fields that were formerly the runway. More here. Click on the pictures - some wonderful shots of Spitfires here.

[weaver]

“ TO HARRY, in the hope that beaches will mean no more to him than buckets and spades…”

These words were brought to mind yesterday as I sat on our local beach with our youngest.

Picture: Start Bay from Torcross

Start Bay in South Devon played it's own (tragic) part in the D-Day preparations as it was chosen for landing exercises in 1943/44

from wiki:

Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, were the code names for a full-scale rehearsal in 1944 for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. During the exercise, an Allied convoy was attacked, resulting in the deaths of 946 American servicemen.

In late 1943, as part of the war effort, the British Government evacuated approximately 3,000 local residents in the area of Slapton, now South Hams District of Devon. Some of the residents had never left their villages before being evacuated.

Landing exercises had started in December 1943. Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises that would take place in April and May 1944. The make up of Slapton Beach was selected for its similarity to Utah Beach, namely a gravel beach, followed by a strip of land and then a lake.

We still have local residents who remember being evacuated and servicemen from the USA still make the trip over for the annual memorial service.

[Question to Mods: can I not attach a picture to this thread? - The attach icon is not present in the editor, not sure if they display in-line]