6th June 2009, 65 years on from a day the world will not and should not forget, D-Day. The beaches of Northern France saw such death and destruction on such a massive scale that even today it's hard to comprehend. It was the turning point of the war in Europe, for had it not been successful, I would almost certainly not be here and if I was, you'd be reading this in German!
Regardless of where we are from, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those that gave up their lives for the freedom that we hold dear. During that day some 65 years ago, some 200,000 seamen manned 6,939 ships, including 1,213 warships to bring over the troops from England, Canada, America and the commonwealth to fight on those beaches. 4,126 landing vessels of all types, including 1,073 tank landing craft, as well as 864 merchant ships all amassed in the Channel and by the day's end, the Allies had deposited 132,715 troops and 20,000 vehicles directly on to the beaches, with another 23,490 parachutists and glider-borne troops dropped by the allied air forces. The aerial armada supported the landings with 11,590 aircraft, which flew 14,674 sorties. Whilst those numbers may seem impressive, the following are horrific, On D-Day alone, as many as 4,400 Allied troops died. Some 9,000 were wounded or missing. Total German casualties on the day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4,000 and 9,000 men. And, I'm not even going on to the numbers of civilians killed and injured during the operation - we should not forget.
It was an interesting and informative sight to see the leaders of the major nations involves, France, Great Britain, Canada and America all there in Normandy on 6th to pay tribute to those that had gone before and gave so much. They all spoke seemingly from the heart, all eloquently, well except Gordon Brown, the British PM who looked awkward and out of place and referred to Omaha beach as Obama beach! Oppps!!
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