very few of the soldiers left, ABC news with David Muir just had a wonderful segment on a few of them
80th anniversary of D-Day
- Thread starter kurt cloverdales
- Start date
Any good documentaries on D-Day?
I've watched the WW2 in Color docs on Netflix.
Most interested in the planning stages and information networks, if such content exists.
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I really don't know if you can find it streaming, D-Day Remembered from PBS' American Experience was great. I haven't seen it in years which makes me think it doesn't stream.
The movie The Longest Day was fairly accurate. For some unknown reason, the director wanted a bizarre scene of nuns marching through combat to assist the wounded added in, it in no way happened. Other than that and a horribly miscast John Wayne (way too old), they did pretty well. Though it is weak on the planning.
Probably 30 years ago I met with an elderly gent in his apartment who wanted me to take his case. I declined but I must have spent four hours or so with him talking about his WWII combat experiences. He was very proud. He was in the First Infantry Division ( Big Red 1) from North Africa to the day Germany Surrendered. He was among the first to land at Omaha, except his Higgins boat sank, they fished him out of the water and he landed later in the day. He was never wounded. The only time he was in the hospital was for malnutrition. He carried a B.A.R. for a while which required him to have ammo belts over his shoulder. Something set off one of the rounds while he was wearing it. He showed me his Bible he carried with him the whole time. It survived D-Day because he had wrapped it in wax paper. He had hundreds of stories. Looking back on it, I wish I would have thought to have him meet with a writer to document his experiences. He was there the whole time.
The father of a good friend was in Patton’s Third Army. He drove supply trucks often through German positions to reach the advancing units. I asked him if he ever saw Patton and he said he was standing on the shore in France welcoming his troops as they disembarked.
I ran into a gentleman at the base of the Jackson Hole Ski area that was with the 82nd on the night jump just prior to D-day..
He was the owner of the Hostel X (sort of a youth hostel turned hotel that had extraordinarily reasonable rates given its location). I was checking in and noticed his hands had severe scars and filtering everything through my climbers viewpoint on the world in general I asked him if he got those scars climbing (the Teton granite can chew up your hands when using a technique called "hand jamming" where you put you hand in a crack then either make a fist and twist it to lock it in, or just expand it a bit with the same result)... Have a few of those types of scars myself...
He looked at me like the idiot I was (in regard to this encounter) and said: "I was with the 82nd at Normandy..." (in a tone that made clear that was the End of our conversation [you f-ng moron]...)... I said: "I'm glad you survived it" and never saw him again, only dealt with his son from that point on (I got the impression that his son was actually running the place and that he was retired)...
Ran into a several original 10th Mountain guys in an elevator at either Aspen or Vail (memory is fading on that).., Different area of the war but they were interesting fellows. I was a little more eloquent and effusive in my thanking them for their service that time around... (They had their wives with them so I made it clear how much my generation appreciated the freedom they had paid for).
Had family members and family friends in both Europe and the Pacific but none at Normandy... The common thread with all of them was Not talking about the war... All I could usually get from the Marines was "it was rough"... My uncle the Naval Aviator was a bit more expansive but my other uncle who was at the Bulge was clearly affected by his experience and wouldn't discuss it with anyone but my father (a Marine veteran of the Pacific)...
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Have you seen the museum in Vail about the 10th Mountain? Excellent and the hour long movie is also excellent. One of the more impressive exhibits is about the ski equipment they used and combat gear they had to carry. Accomplished skiers of today have tried to ski with that equipment and carry that load and couldn’t do it.
The 10th Mountain veterans had quite an impact on the American Ski industry and ski area development in the Rocky Mountains.
I own a pair of those old skis for decorative purposes and I guarantee you I would have had a tough time skiing on them... Definitely couldn't have done it with the types of loads those guys were carrying...
To fast forward to today... I came across several soldiers evidently doing some training at Arapaho Basin a few years back...They were clearly neophytes and I wanted deep down to give them some pointers but I didn't know what their instructions were or what their command hierarchy was so I stayed out of it and simply observed...
I assumed that they were either regular Army from Fort Carson or Colorado National Guard which in either case, was going to allow them more slope time than they'd ever need to get up to speed so I didn't feel too badly about it (not trying to help them).
The old Paratroopers in attendance at the 80th Anniversary of D-Day probably just got a surprise (and a chuckle)... What appeared to be a French military choir just sang "Blood on the Risers"...🤣
Here's a version:
Here's the actual lyrics:
genius.com
And the song with the lyrics:
Here's a version:
Here's the actual lyrics:
U.S. Paratroopers – Blood on the Risers (Gory Gory What a Helluva Way to Die)
[Verse 1] / He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright / He checked off his equipment and made sure his pack was tight / He had to sit and listen to those awful
genius.com
And the song with the lyrics:
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On the 75th Anniversary, a classmate of my daughter did the D-Day re-enactment jump. He's with the 75th Ranger Battalion.The old Paratroopers in attendance at the 80th Anniversary of D-Day probably just got a surprise (and a chuckle)... What appeared to be a French military choir just sang "Blood on the Risers"...🤣
Here's a version:
Here's the actual lyrics:
U.S. Paratroopers – Blood on the Risers (Gory Gory What a Helluva Way to Die)
[Verse 1] / He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright / He checked off his equipment and made sure his pack was tight / He had to sit and listen to those awful
And the song with the lyrics:
I met an Omaha Beach veteran (+40 minutes) who was in the 149th Engineer Battalion. Our seats were next to him and his wife. We were friends for 20 years before he passed. He not only survived his time in France, but then was sent to Okinawa in the first wave, which the Army was part of (not well known),
Warren E Breniman was quite a guy and I've posted his interview here several times in the past. He was credited in he Ambrose book (although Ambrose got his middle initial wrong, which pissed Warren off. lol). RIP, Warren.
I had a newspaper route in my hometown of Columbus Indiana and was especially aware of the war from the daily delivery of papers with headlines and stories each day. I would pass the houses delivering the paper seeing the blue and gold stars in the windows.
Now 90, I was 11 years old on 6-6-44, approaching 12, and have a memory of listening on the radio to a broadcast of the invasion. The broadcaster was describing the sky black with planes and are ships everywhere as far as you can see. The actual words have faded but the memory of that morning is clear as yesterday. My turn to serve came a few years later and while never in harm's way has given me an even greater appreciation for the men who went ashore on those five beaches that terrible day.
Now 90, I was 11 years old on 6-6-44, approaching 12, and have a memory of listening on the radio to a broadcast of the invasion. The broadcaster was describing the sky black with planes and are ships everywhere as far as you can see. The actual words have faded but the memory of that morning is clear as yesterday. My turn to serve came a few years later and while never in harm's way has given me an even greater appreciation for the men who went ashore on those five beaches that terrible day.
Walking Among Heroes has put up some good content on social media.
That has to be quite a memory. My mom is 94 and she remembers Pearl Harbor pretty well. She lost 2 cousins - 1 in the Battle of the Bulge and his brother in Korea.
Did you work for Cummins? I worked there in the early 80s.
Thanks for your service. And this post was awesome. I had no clue they broadcast a portion of the invasion.
I worked with an 86th Airborne trooper who jumped on D-day … he didn’t tell war stories either.
WW II and the greatest generation did change the world.
It’s sad Russia and China didn’t become better places, lake Japan and Germany.
WW II and the greatest generation did change the world.
It’s sad Russia and China didn’t become better places, lake Japan and Germany.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
You are just a little younger than my father. He said that on Dec 7 41 he was passing special edition newspapers. His brother served in WW2 and got hurt which ended his baseball career. He was in the Dodgers minor leagues before the war. He later went to IU and became a Geologist. My father served during the Korean Conflict.
And the unit rivalry from D-Day between the 82nd and the 101st lives on:
taskandpurpose.com
😂
82nd Airborne paratroopers cut down a 101st flag from an iconic bar on D-Day
It’s an ongoing rivalry between the 101st Airborne and the 82nd Airborne Division dating back to World War II.
taskandpurpose.com
😂
I saw this yesterday and thought this thread was as good of a place as any. "At age 35, men must choose between becoming deeply engrossed in world war two, or smoking meat."
Today…is Baby Back Ribs
Address? I can be there by early afternoon.
Had a patient (died recently at 99) who I noticed had some gnarly legs and asked him what happened. He was a POW and was marched 90 miles thru Belgium without shoes and had serious trench foot. I was mesmerized as he was reminiscing. Needless to say my schedule went to hell that day. Those guys were truly cut from another cloth and have zero understanding of why our society is full of a bunch of pansies now
One of the best descriptions of small unit actions on Omaha I've read.
Thanks for posting.
