D-Day Anniversary

Unbelievable but today is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Even if you joined up at the minimum age of 17 right after the bombing at Pearl Harbor in 41’, you’d be 90 years old.

Harder still to believe in a few short years there’ll be no more WWII veterans around


Hotwater

 

time is starting to go quick

 

My granddaddy is still alive and kicking. I estimate he'll be around a few more years at least.

 

Time Has Marched On, But "Lest We Forget"...eace:



Cheers Glen.

 

going to watch some of the commemorations today.

war is hell, those soldiers were very brave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1NTWcAN1k"]Berliners by Roy Harper

 

Was he fighting the allies?

 

Yep, all the vets will be gone before many more years have passed.
I guess there isn't a single one of those guys who hasn't thought about their role in D-Day everyday since then.
And in those days, things like PTSD weren't understood.

 

Doesn't say much where he was on D-day though. He could have been on the eastern front too (or somewhere in between)

 

yeah cos that's when the war started 1941 !

My grandad is still going, was there on d-day too.

 

My grandfather fought in WWII. I have a map my aunt cross stitched tracing his journey through Europe.

He passed away when I was 10 or 11. We were never close, he was a really grumpy old man and apparently had been like that as long as my mom could remember. He probably suffered from ptsd.

 

I had a grandfather who was involved in that war. It was something that he pretty much wouldn't talk about. I think something about it bothered him very much.

 

The war started for the USA in 1941, as it did for Russia. For Britain it began in 1939 when we declared war on Germany after Hitler's invasion of Poland.

 

Bearing in mind so many of the countries there today either:-
surrendered to the Nazis on day one
supported the Nazis
WERE the Nazis
or support modern day Nazis
etc
you'd think they'd think today was a good day to keep their heads down.

I was hoping Putin would win the vodka drinking contest and headbutt Bathhouse Barry or Prince Bigears during the after dinner speeches..

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/touching-photos-of-normandy-veterans-then-and-now

 

I keep staring at that one old guys eye.

 

My grandfather was a surgeon in the war in the south pacific. He died 2 years ago. He'd be 100 right now if he would've kept on living. He told me a few things about his experiences there, and showed me a photo album of pictures he took while he was there. He wasn't much of a talker or a story teller though.

 

Back then they called it shell shock


Hotwater

 

Yeah, glass eyes are not that expensive


Hotwater

 

Before we moved we had a neighbour who was in the war. He was the loveliest, spriteliest old man I've ever seen. He used to tell us some stories, one I remember is how he put an open matchboxe over a boil on his hip to stop his pants from rubbing. He died at about 87. Definitely made up for my lack of grandparents.

 

Most impressive vet of WW II I ever met was a guy i worked for many years ago. He'd been a wing commander in the RAF in the war, flown pathfinder missions over Germany, and been shot down over Hamburg and subsequently a POW.

An old school English gentleman who could drink just about everyone under the table. Someone you just had to respect, and was a great person to work for.