On this day...

Happy OBZ day everyone.

 

Oh Bobby Zamora

 

Goosebumps moment....

 

30 years ago today

 

30 years on from this amazing and non-violent economic and political transformation (prior to the fall of the Berlin wall!). Little did I then know how this event would change the shape of Europe and my personal life .... plus physically distance me from LR.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/world/europe/poland-election-anniversary-solidarity.html

OK. Hands up! I posted one day late!

 

75 years ago

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Get it right...that's tomorrow (even in your world!)..... Airborne assault was first in and started today!



As a former member of the Airborne Forces, I'm quite pleased to see all the attention they are getting leading up to the 75th anniversary celebrations. The beach landings would never have been the success that they were without their sacrifices......but every man who landed in France, by air or sea, is a true hero and we should never forget them.

 

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bloody time zones
the 6th was what i grew up with
still sticks in the mind no matter where you are

and thinking about it it will still be the 6th here so i am right
i think

how many jumps did you do steelsy
do you ever fancy a base jump off one of those towers you work on
be a quicker way down

 

The airborne assault left the UK on night of 5th, landing 6 hours before the beach assault on the morning of the 6th. Stranded behind enemy lines, they secured several strategic bridges, thus severly delaying the armoured back-up to the German defence, as well as numerous other key positions - holding them whilst the Allied troops secured the beachhead and then took the ground to meet up with their compatriots.

When you serve alongside the Paras, they drill the regimental history into you. I took part in the 50th anniversary celebrations, which was special as there were still a lot of the old boys alive and ready to pass on a few stories. Now there's not that many of them left, which is a pity as the stories they tell are amazing!

 

look at the age

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Pte Robert Johns, was KIA as A Coy, 13th Para Battalion, 3rd Airborne Brigade, defended Le Mesnil crossroads Normandy.

 

5 June 1944.
The day before D-Day.
#OnThisDay 75 years ago the Bagg family were photographed in their garden on Hill Lane, Southampton.
Behind them in Rockleigh Road an American field howitzer unit is ready and waiting for the invasion.

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Some very interesting D-Day facts.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48215675

 

No, don't really fancy that - too many antennas sticking up that would hit you on the way down!! Maybe one of those flying suits though.....

Spent three and a half years with the Paras before moving to the jungle and other posts, did about 30-35 jumps I think. Balloon, Chinook, Hercules and some mad American plane when I did some jungle warfare training in Malaysia. Most jumps were from about 700 feet so you had no time to think about it, but night jumps were the scariest by far........

 

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What a fantastic story! D-Day veteran Harry, 95, is re-enacting his skydive into Normandy to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. All funds raised are going to The Salvation Army's Victim Care Fund. Please retweet and give generously. Good luck, Harry!

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#DDay75

 

While it is absolutely appropriate that we are spending this week commemorating the incredible bravery and planning behind D Day, and that should be the prime focus, I was rather stunned this morning to hear Nick Robinson, talking quite awkwardly from a script, pay homage for what felt like 20 minutes without even a passing reference to the Russians. There was a brief (two second) mention of the Italian front, which was dismissed, but absolutely nothing on Russia.

The invasion of France definitely hugely reduced the length of the war, but it’s pretty clear to me that without D Day the Russians would have ended up as the liberators of all of Europe, with allied support of course. At the same time that the Americans, British and Canadians were consolidating their beach head in Normandy, between 23 June 1944 and the middle of August, the Russians took the Eastern front from 250 miles west of Moscow to the outskirts of Warsaw.

It was a team effort.

 

Probably the reason huge gratitude is not showered on Russia is the fact that at the start of the war, Russia signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, and was quite prepared to divide up Poland. Two wolves tearing the prey apart. Russia came in to the war when it was attacked. Although the same could be said of the US after Pearl Harbour, Roosevelt didn't have a dog in the fight until the Japanese attack.

 

I wasn’t expecting a shower of gratitude. I just thought that an acknowledgement that they were also fighting in the war would have been appropriate.

 

Agree, a mention would have been apt. Modern day politics comes into play here too. Even BBC executives are averse to Putin (well, most of them)