• The KillerFrogs

D-Day - thoughts, stories?

Eight

Member
my wife's parents had a very good friend who was a glider pilot who took part in the invasion.

the only thing he ever really said was that things didn't go exactly as planned, but they still found a way

i think that is the one thing that has always struck me when i have read books or watched documentaries is despite things such as the weather, the majority of the floating tanks sinking, etc..... they still found a way.

youngest daughter studied in europe 3 years ago and they took a tour of area. aside from the cemetery the area that caused a group of 25-30 college kids plus their profs to just stand in silence was a visit to pointe du hoc when their guide took them to the edge of the cliffs and told them of the rangers climb and taking of the area.

they simply found a way.
 

Frog-in-law1995

Active Member
No D-Day stories for me, but I have been obsessed w/ WWII history, and last fall got a chance to spend about 10 days in Germany. One of the day-trips we made from Munich was a tour of Dachau. It was the most gut-wrenching, sobering, heartbreaking experience I have ever had.

Normandy is very high on my bucket list. Eternally thankful for the soldiers that stormed the beaches that day in rejection of oppression, tyranny, and genocide.

There is an amazing WW2 museum in Bastogne that you need to see. The town is worth a visit on its own, too. And the American cemetery in Luxembourg City is impressive. Patton is there.
 

jake102

Active Member
No D-Day stories for me, but I have been obsessed w/ WWII history, and last fall got a chance to spend about 10 days in Germany. One of the day-trips we made from Munich was a tour of Dachau. It was the most gut-wrenching, sobering, heartbreaking experience I have ever had.

Normandy is very high on my bucket list. Eternally thankful for the soldiers that stormed the beaches that day in rejection of oppression, tyranny, and genocide.

Was in Munich and went to Dachau two years ago. Pretty remarkable/awful experience. Two things stick with me: 1) how close it is to the town. Those people knew. 2) On the back wall, where the administration building is, there are homes that are two stories that overlook the camp and people live there today. Like their view from the back of their house is the Dachau concentration camp and on the immediate other side of their back "fence"/wall that they share is where they executed hundreds of people.

On another note, my dad was in Germany in the 80's and did an Auschwitz tour. Part of the tour was going into the gas chamber and they turned out the light for about 15 seconds. Noooooo thank you.
 

Frog-in-law1995

Active Member
Was in Munich and went to Dachau two years ago. Pretty remarkable/awful experience. Two things stick with me: 1) how close it is to the town. Those people knew. 2) On the back wall, where the administration building is, there are homes that are two stories that overlook the camp and people live there today. Like their view from the back of their house is the Dachau concentration camp and on the immediate other side of their back "fence"/wall that they share is where they executed hundreds of people.

On another note, my dad was in Germany in the 80's and did an Auschwitz tour. Part of the tour was going into the gas chamber and they turned out the light for about 15 seconds. Noooooo thank you.

Behind the iron curtain? Brave man...bet that was really cool. Really want to see Auschwitz, but it’s so far from anything else I want to see...just kinda all alone in rural Poland. Even nearby parts of Czech Republic look blah.

edit: Saw Dachau couple of Christmases ago, and agree with all that’s been said so far. You just have to go, and it’s easy being a suburb of Munich, which is a top 5 Euro destination city, imo.
 

Froglaw

Full Member
I'm still in Rome.

HopeFully home on Monday.

Italian guide took us to the Jewish section of Florence.

We asked how theIr community fared under the axis powers.

He said, "They were deported".

Nice and clean.
 

Froglaw

Full Member
mrz060519-color-1-6-mb_orig.jpg

Did you even take a history class?

Those are far right national socialist about to shoot our soldiers.

Socialists all over Europe were our Allies.
 

Tumbleweed

Active Member
First hand experience: The paper drives where everyone participated! People who couldn't walk to help gather, opened their front door and shoved newspapers, magazines, grocery bags on to the porch. The paper was picked up by someone for sure.

My Dad putting black electrical tape on the front headlights. About a square inch of light is all you had to see the road at night. The reason was on multiple occasions nazi subs lurked around army camps and airfields spying on Americans. Sometimes a small band of Nazis secretly came ashore at night. Many were caught due to civil army of armed citizens. Where did this happen? Mostly Florida gulf coast and the Carolinas.

The blue stars in the window on a banner which meant your child was in the armed forces. Red stars meant you lost your son or daughter. I remember every window had a banner of stars hanging in the front window.

Try to get a tire for the car was almost impossible. Old cans, frying pans anything with metal was collected for drives.

On Omaha Beach, the majority of nazi soldiers set up cross fires by Hitler Youth Organization. These kids were as young as twelve years old killing allied soldiers. They didn't aim, they didn't have to, they just fired and fired, killing thousands of young American soldiers. Trying to escape the fire, many soldiers slipped over the sides of their boats in the rough waters and immediately sunk due to the heavy packs on their back.

Sugar was rationed as well as gas and food. But they survived and everyone worked together, I mean everyone. Very few heros, all the true heros didn't come home.

When you hear, this is the greatest generation in the history of the United States, yes that is correct.
 

Froginbedford

Full Member
Dad was at Omaha Beach on D-Day...barge he was on had no ability to shelter those aboard from German gunfire....He always said he was "the fastest foxhole digger" that day once he was ashore...his unit received a presidential commendation...he painted a big Texas-shaped Texas flag on his helmet...He conquered Hitler and then was sent through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Theater to take part in four other invasions...two in Borneo, one in the Marianas, and in Mindinao in the Philippines....
 

Hoosierfrog

Tier 1
My wife’s father came in on D + 2 and said the water was still running red tide line and the smell was something still can sense. Interesting enough, he was in a an engineering battalion and working on strengthening and disarming charges on the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen when it fell. He didn’t go with it like many did. He wasn’t the most intellectual sons of Port Arthur. Looking at his war time pictures was one of Versailles and on the back he wrote, “some big park near Paris”.
 

EUROFROG

Active Member
I lived in The Netherlands and taught kids of the military there for 22 years from '91- '13. The Dutch still loved Americans for their part in the war and especially liberating their country. Living there gave me the opportunity to travel and see many war related places including Dachau, Auschwitz, battlefields including the Battle of the Bulge during a reenactment week with lots of military equipment, vehicles, and troops in position, and American cemeteries in The Netherlands, Luxemburg, and France. It was there in April of '94 that my wife and I were visiting Normandy with my parents at Easter Break. We were stopped at one point to allow a helicopter to film a couple of guys walking the cemetery alone. When the chopper left we walked toward the two guys who turned out to be Dan Rather and Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf filming their parts for the upcoming 50th Anniversary. They stopped and talked to us for 20 minutes.
 

Bob

Active Member
75 years ago, my Dad and his buddies in the 90th Division, also known as the Tough Ombres were on their way to Utah Beach.

They suffered one of the highest casualty rates of any Division in the European campaign, close to 20,000 men killed or wounded. Starting with Normandy, they fought for 59 straight days pushing the Nazis back through the hedgerows.

Despite the many horrors of war, in 1945 they experienced something even more horrific, and absolutely evil, when they liberated the survivors of the Flossenburg Death Camp.

Here is a link to their WWII history
http://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_booklets/90thinfantry/index.html

As the years roll by, may future generations never forget these brave men.

By the way, they trained over by Abilene at Camp Barkeley which you can still visit.
800px-Camp_Barkeley_Marker.jpg
 

West Coast Johnny

Full Member
My uncle Marc, died about 15 years ago. Was a truck driver in Europe during the war. Landed on Normandy D-Day plus 2. Drove supplies all over France and did twice weekly trips to and from Belgium. Participated in the battle of the Bulge - delivery fuel, ammo, food and supplies to the front. He didn't talk much about that. I know he had friends with him that didn't make it out.
 

AroundWorldFrog

Full Member
My grandfather "flew" a glider behind the German lines during the invasion. His brother was a bomber pilot in the European theater and was shot down and captured in Germany in early 1944. In April 1945, my grandfather was part of US led liberating force that advanced on the Kaufering concentration camp network in Bavaria just hours after the Germans had abandoned it. Most of the Jewish prisoners healthy enough to work had been forced to leave days before and marched to another prison (Buchberg). Among the roughly 1,500 prisoners remaining alive were 11 American service men, including my grandfathers brother who had been officially MIA for 16 months. They were flown to south England together and then back to Texas.
Flying coffins. Many were nothing but plywood and cloth glued together that dropped like rocks when released. Hats off to your grandfather.
 

Billy Clyde

Active Member
I just can't imagine being on one of those landing crafts having to get off, wade through water, and then run on to the beach. Meanwhile the Germans are shooting at you from every angle. Unbelievable courage.

Tom Brokaw asked one of the vets what was the first thing he saw when the door was lowered on his landing craft. His answer: "A dead medic, floating in the water."

The President's speech today cited that the landings were staged in waves, with the first wave having a rate of 92% killed under German fire. Descending percentages, until they finally broke through with the FIFTH wave.

They were scared [ Finebaum ]less, but went on and did what needed to be done, anyway. That's courage.
 

MTfrog5

Active Member
My uncle Marc, died about 15 years ago. Was a truck driver in Europe during the war. Landed on Normandy D-Day plus 2. Drove supplies all over France and did twice weekly trips to and from Belgium. Participated in the battle of the Bulge - delivery fuel, ammo, food and supplies to the front. He didn't talk much about that. I know he had friends with him that didn't make it out.
Not D-Day or WW2 but my grandfather served in Korea and he didn’t talk about it much. Selfishly I wish I was older and been able to ask questions but I don’t think the conversation would have got very far. It messed him up mentally pretty good and I’ve heard from my dad a dud grenade landed right beside him. Received shock treatments when he got back and was on/off bipolar medication until he passed. My dad has a view items that I hope to get someday from his dads time in Korea
 

ShadowFrog

Moderators
My grandfather "flew" a glider behind the German lines during the invasion. His brother was a bomber pilot in the European theater and was shot down and captured in Germany in early 1944. In April 1945, my grandfather was part of US led liberating force that advanced on the Kaufering concentration camp network in Bavaria just hours after the Germans had abandoned it. Most of the Jewish prisoners healthy enough to work had been forced to leave days before and marched to another prison (Buchberg). Among the roughly 1,500 prisoners remaining alive were 11 American service men, including my grandfathers brother who had been officially MIA for 16 months. They were flown to south England together and then back to Texas.
Was it a Waco?
One of the few good reasons to visit Lubbock — Silent Wings Museum.
 

ShadowFrog

Moderators
Do tell more. Sounds like an interesting line of work
In 1956-'58, as a Special Agent Military Counter Intelligence, in Germany, I worked closely with former members

of the Wehrmacht, Schutzstaffel (SS) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD). An enlightening experience, to say the least.
I would seriously buy a few rounds to hear those stories. Have you read W.E.B. Griffin series of books?
 
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