06-06-2003, 12:09 AM | #1 | ||
College Starter
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Henderson, Nevada
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June 5 1944 . 59 years ago tonight .
June 5th 1944 On this day all over the coast of Southern Britain hundreds of thousands of men boarded LST's amd boarded c-47's
towards what Eisenhower called ''The Great Crusade.'' Right now 1007 pm pct .....Paratroopers are on their way towards the Cotentin Penninsula to drop behind the lines and clear cause ways and gun eplacements to help the seaborne troops succeed in the invasion .
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06-06-2003, 04:53 AM | #3 |
Hockey Boy
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Royal Oak, MI
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I spent last weekend in Normandy. Another advantage of living in Belgium, it's close to lots of cool places. I did an afternoon D-Day Tour, hitting Pointe du Hoc, Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, the national cemetery, and a few related museums. Lots of great stuff. The cemetery is as moving as you'd well expect, lots of dust in the air there.
Pointe du Hoc is excellent. There are a still a number of ravaged bunkers left as well a ton of craters left by extensive bombing. You look down over that cliff and see how high and steep it is and think about the Rangers scaling this (the first using hands and knives only) in horrible weather, in the middle of the night, under enemy fire, and you realize the true meaning of "Hard Core." The tour was interesting. The guide was a Frenchman. Needless to say an interesting perspective on some of the events.
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Steve Yzerman: 1,755 points in 1,514 regular season games. 185 points in 196 postseason games. A First-Team All-Star, Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Selke Trophy winner, Masterton Trophy winner, member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Olympic gold medallist, and a three-time Stanley Cup Champion. Longest serving captain of one team in the history of the NHL (19 seasons). |
06-06-2003, 05:49 AM | #4 | |
Lethargic Hooligan
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing
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Re: June 5 1944 . 59 years ago tonight .
Quote:
Perhaps the bravest men of the war.
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06-06-2003, 08:45 AM | #5 |
The boy who cried Trout
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: TX
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I feel bad for the poor grunts who had to stay on those crappy boats all day during the storm. That must have been a little slice of hell.
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06-06-2003, 09:17 AM | #6 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cinn City
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I'm not sure if I remember this correctly, but wasn't the invasion originally planned for June 5? If I'm not mistaken, they were already on the boats when June 5 came and they had to sit in them all day through bad weather. If that's the case, even more props to them. (If it's possible to earn more than they did)
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06-06-2003, 10:03 AM | #7 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Join Date: Oct 2002
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Ambrose's D-Day is the best WW2 book I have read (so far).
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06-06-2003, 11:33 AM | #8 |
College Starter
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Henderson, Nevada
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Honolulu - you lucky dog you ...being in Belgium you have to be close to all those battlefields and historical places from past wars too . Right now .....on the faithful day the fate of the invasion and thousands of men were still undetermined and fighting rages
along the Peninsula as well as th whole world .
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06-06-2003, 11:57 AM | #9 | |
Lethargic Hooligan
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing
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Quote:
I need to get you a reading list
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06-06-2003, 11:58 AM | #10 | |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cinn City
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Quote:
Heh Heh. Look at Fritz responding to himself. |
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06-06-2003, 12:00 PM | #11 | |
Lethargic Hooligan
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing
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Quote:
Oh, even on acid I would not have said that about an Ambrose book.
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06-06-2003, 12:04 PM | #12 | |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cinn City
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Quote:
I'm just saying, I'm not convinced you two are not the same military history loving person. On topic, I've enjoyed reading Ambrose. Who would you suggest? I'm not doubting your opinion, If there are better people to read, I'd be happy to investigate them. I do enjoy how Ambrose breaks it down to a personal level more than reading grand discussions of strategy. |
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06-06-2003, 12:20 PM | #13 | |
Lethargic Hooligan
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing
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Quote:
If you enjoy Ambrose then try Keegan. They are similar. If you like the personal narratives, try The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two by Studds Terkle. If you want some stellar "with the units" type of stuff, check out anything by Ernie Pyle. Pyle's pre-war stuff is great too. Mr. Ambrose was in the business of pop-history. I just think there are better works covering the same matter. I even prefer work by others that is not as well written if the book provides better documentation.
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06-06-2003, 12:38 PM | #14 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Newburgh, NY
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Don't forget "The Longest Day".
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06-06-2003, 12:44 PM | #15 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cinn City
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Thanks. I'll check out The Good War. Maybe I'll pick it up this weekend when the wife goes to pre-order the next Harry Potter.
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06-06-2003, 01:33 PM | #16 |
General Manager
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: The Town of Flower Mound
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What's the name of Senator's book again? I always mean to give it a look but forget the damn name of it...
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06-06-2003, 03:36 PM | #17 |
In The Penalty Box
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What people need to remember about Stephen Ambrose is that he didn't plagarize The Wild Blue (story about B-24 crews). He just didn't cite a quote or passage properly, personally, I don't consider that plagirism.
Anyway, I don't think we'll ever see anyone else who had so much passion about reminding the American public of the sacrifices that these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines went through. Today, I can see more people pay attention to World War II and other parts of history not just because of our surge of patriotism brought about by this new war but by the books Mr. Ambrose wrote. More books need to be written about the pathfinders, they've in a sense been the long-forgotten guys in D-Day. The pathfinders were the first to parachute into Normandy and had to secure beacons and clear out German squads before the main airborne and seaborne forces arrived and the veterans are starting to fade away as we speak. |
06-06-2003, 05:09 PM | #18 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Iowa City, IA
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That day must have been some pretty scary shit.
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06-06-2003, 11:20 PM | #19 |
In The Penalty Box
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Imagine, some men trained for three years learning to paradrop but never even got to fight the Germans because their C-47 was raked with Anti-Aircraft gunfire. Poor guys......
Last edited by Happy29 : 06-07-2003 at 12:32 PM. |
06-07-2003, 12:20 AM | #20 |
In The Penalty Box
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Dola ....Apparently alot of paratroopers drowned because vast acres of fields were flooded weeks before the invasion .
A big reason resistance in Normandy wasn't as tough is because many of the germans were Russian POW ,Conscripts and Ukrainian POW'S. |
06-07-2003, 07:47 AM | #21 | |
Lethargic Hooligan
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing
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Quote:
that would have been some freaky shit since the C-17 was not delivered until the 90's..
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06-07-2003, 10:32 AM | #22 |
The boy who cried Trout
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: TX
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I'm sure he meant C-47's...mean ol' Fritz.
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06-07-2003, 11:07 AM | #23 |
Lethargic Hooligan
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing
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the 47s were delivered before the 90s.
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06-07-2003, 12:32 PM | #24 |
In The Penalty Box
Join Date: May 2003
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Yes thats what I meant. C-47s...
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