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75th Anniversary of the D Day landings

jmadone said:
I understand what you say but you may well be surprised by the youth of today. The ones that grab the headlines are the yobs and thugs because it sells newspapers and causes sensation. The majority of young people I come into contact with are sensible, caring people. My children and their friends realise what sacrifices were made in both world wars by their ancestors and are proud of what they did. My grandchild, although perhaps a little young at the moment to fully understand what happened in the past, attends remembrance day parade with his cub scouts and proudly wears his great grandfathers medals on November 11th.
Click to expand...

My son Lee called his son "William" after his great great grandfather who fought in the first world war.
My son was very proud of his great grandfather and my mum sent him his war medals.
Wendy
 
A solum occasion it it's only right to honor everyone involved, but I wonder what the enemy thought when they saw what must have looked like half the world on the horizon by that time most had a good idea they where on the wrong side of history, it's so sad to see all those white cross's looking like solders on a display ground and I suppose they are in some strange way
 
On the same topic, Bob, I wonder how much those German soldiers knew? Their news was probably censored to the utmost by Goebbels' Propaganda Dept in the interests of keeping up the morale of their troops. It must have been a shock when they were overrun in a seemingly invincible position!

Maurice :cool:
 
As a young child during the war these anniversaries bring back memories .... a few below.

I remember when I was dragged out of our house when a bomb hit it. A school photo below taken about that time.
Me_in_the_War.jpg

I had learnt to read newspapers by the the time the RAF sent a 1000 bombers to bomb Cologne and was rather pleased.

We had a nearby US army base and remember when american soldiers came to help and brightened up the lives of the kids in the district.

On D Day we had a full school assembly and prayed.

Then VE day came and we had a street party with a bonfire in the road.
 
Told my G/son when I was 5 one day looked up in the sky and saw loads and loads of planes in the sky.Was this the start of D Day would love to know.Why was I not at school ,was it a weekend.Would anyone know when D Day was in 1944
 
oldMohawk said:
As a young child during the war these anniversaries bring back memories .... a few below.

I remember when I was dragged out of our house when a bomb hit it. A school photo below taken about that time.
View attachment 134806

I had learnt to read newspapers by the the time the RAF sent a 1000 bombers to bomb Cologne and was rather pleased.

We had a nearby US army base and remember when american soldiers came to help and brightened up the lives of the kids in the district.

On D Day we had a full school assembly and prayed.

Then VE day came and we had a street party with a bonfire in the road.
Click to expand...

Where was the US Army base?
 
Pedrocut said:
Where was the US Army base?
Click to expand...
In was on the Pheasey Estate see

US Base Pheasey Estate

Are these the remains of the US Army Base that was here in the 2nd world war? North of Chantry Crescent was the place where the picture of the baseball game was being played. The HQ on Collingwood Drive may have been the building at the traffic circle S.E...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
and soldiers from the base
index.php
 
Edifi said:
Told my G/son when I was 5 one day looked up in the sky and saw loads and loads of planes in the sky.Was this the start of D Day would love to know.Why was I not at school ,was it a weekend.Would anyone know when D Day was in 1944
Click to expand...
It was a Tuesday ....:)
 
I have talked about this before there was a US Army base around Fillongley off the Cov Rd before Meriden I use to ride my bike there and the Yanks very friendy
 
One of my aunts was lucky, she managed to get aboard the last ferry boat back to England. Her Norman home town was devastated during the 1944 invasion and she did not want to go back there to see it after the war had finished. As the invasion got under way her father managed to get everyone in the town out onto the surrounding hillsides and they made markers for the RAF aircrews so that they would not be bombed or attacked. It worked.
 
Radiorails said:
One of my aunts was lucky, she managed to get aboard the last ferry boat back to England. Her Norman home town was devastated during the 1944 invasion and she did not want to go back there to see it after the war had finished. As the invasion got under way her father managed to get everyone in the town out onto the surrounding hillsides and they made markers for the RAF aircrews so that they would not be bombed or attacked. It worked.
Click to expand...
I presume that the last ferry was around 1940 when the Nazis conquered France and before the D-day invasion by Allied troops. I can understand her reluctance to return to a war devastated home and I hope that her father was duly recognised for his heroic actions both by the British and French authorities.
 
Yes, I should have mentioned The Fall of France. Her father was acknowledged and as far as I know was M. Le Maire for a while.
 
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I’ve just looked at them, brilliant and amazing how they do it so well. Being ‘hi-res’ originals always helps.
:)
 
So i am here at the desk then on the news comes a story about the first American on the beach D Day, it turns out he lived local to me, the tv station here had interviewed him in the past but he still had the boots he was wearing he left us a couple of years ago but from the Smithsonian on down every museum wants this guys boots
 
Southwick House just outside Portsmouth in what was once HMS Dryad. It is where the planning for the D-Day landings was carried out. In one of the rooms is a very large map of the Normandy Coast where the landings took place.
The map was made by a Birmingham company called Chad Valley Toys, and was made like a jigsaw, it was made to cover coastline from Spain to Norway.
Two blokes came to Southwick House from the company to assemble that jigsaw style map, and once it was up they commented 'So you are invading Normandy then'......
They were then told 'Yes......and you're going to jail'....
With secrecy being paramount, they were jailed from April until September...
I wonder if they were paid overtime....
 
Edifi said:
Told my G/son when I was 5 one day looked up in the sky and saw loads and loads of planes in the sky.Was this the start of D Day would love to know.Why was I not at school ,was it a weekend.Would anyone know when D Day was in 1944
Click to expand...
The 6th june 1944 was a Tuesday Edifi maybe you were home sick from school. It would have been a sight to see the sky full of planes.
Wendy
 
That might be the reason Wendy.But remember my father brining me out of the house to see them but don't think he knew why.Strange how we remember certain things from childhood.The next thing is V J night bonfires
 
I know its the Daily Mail and you can read their article only if you want to. It probably did not 'spark outrage' just disappointment.
www.dailymail.co.uk

Royal Mail airbrushes D-Day hero out of iconic Normandy image

Brave veteran James Leisk who took part in the Allied invasion in June 1944 and was caught unawares on camera as he landed on Sword beach at Normandy was airbrushed from the image.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
The gist of the story in the Daily Mail is that the Royal Mail apparently used this photo to produce a commemorative stamp

14489308-7115081-image-a-11_1559895061247.jpg

They removed a brave soldier in the foreground and produced this first class stamp
14489310-7115081-image-a-1_1559891780553.jpg
The lady who's father was removed from the photo was upset ...
A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: 'Unfortunately, due to the limited space available on a stamp it is sometimes necessary to crop an original image. 'We appreciate that this is a disappointment to the family of the soldier in the foreground of this original photograph but wish to assure them that no offence was intended.'

In about 15 minutes I produced this and if I took more time I could do better
UU14489310-7115081-image-a-1_1559891780553.jpg
 
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oldMohawk said:
I know its the Daily Mail and you can read their article only if you want to. It probably did not 'spark outrage' just disappointment.
www.dailymail.co.uk

Royal Mail airbrushes D-Day hero out of iconic Normandy image

Brave veteran James Leisk who took part in the Allied invasion in June 1944 and was caught unawares on camera as he landed on Sword beach at Normandy was airbrushed from the image.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
The gist of the story is the Royal Mail apparently used this photo to produce a commemorative stamp

View attachment 134831

They removed a brave soldier in the foreground and produced this first class stamp
View attachment 134832
The lady who's father was removed from the photo was upset ...
A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: 'Unfortunately, due to the limited space available on a stamp it is sometimes necessary to crop an original image. 'We appreciate that this is a disappointment to the family of the soldier in the foreground of this original photograph but wish to assure them that no offence was intended.'

In about 15 minutes I produced this and if I took more time I could do better
View attachment 134833
Click to expand...

There must have been several involved and it seems none were able to reduce it to fit. Shame!
 
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Pedrocut said:
There must have been several involved and it seems none were able to reduce it to fit. Shame!
Click to expand...
Apparently the Royal Mail had to withdraw another D-Day stamp design after historians spotted that the image chosen showed US troops landing in what was Dutch New Guinea, nearly 8,500 miles from France.

Captioned 'Allied soldiers and medics wade ashore', it was said to depict the Normandy landings but was actually taken in what is modern-day Indonesia.
 
And as Ronnie Scott recounted in a biography written before his death, those musicians of the AAF Band were a great inspiration to the UK's budding jazz musicians, at that time working in the bands in clubs in the West End, eg. Tito Burns & Oscar Rabin.

Maurice
 
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