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Thread: 6/6/44

  1. #26
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    Some pretty cool then-and-now (well, then-and-2013) photos. Click on images to shift between them..

    https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/20...nd-now/100752/

  2. #27
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    Thanks for that Iceman. I'll have to sit down and take a second look at that on my computer. It's bizarre seeing such significant/striking photos of what is now a neighborhood street. It makes me wonder how places in Iraq/Syria will look in 75 years.

  3. #28
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    "Now" on the picture of the wounded soldier being helped onto the beach. Interesting art in several ways.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    A few people feel the rain. Most people just get wet.

  4. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by iceman View Post
    Mt Uncle was there. Said they hit a sandbar far off the beach. The gate dropped, he ran across the sandbar and off the other side, and with 60 pounds on his bank he sank like a stone in the deep water just past the sandbar. Said he ran across the bottom and up the other side as it got shallow.

    My father landed 2 weeks later. He was a B.A.R. man, carried that thing across France and into Germany. How many Germans he killed with it we'll never know, as he never talked about it. About all he did say was that the Germans were much better soldiers than us, better-trained and with better equipment. But they were exhausted and "we just overwhelmed them".
    Awesome


    I just grabbed a new Omaha beach book today. Apparently many were so seasick they were already delirious when they got to the beach. Makes sense, rolling around for hrs first on a flat bottomed boat.

    So many little details that just amounted to the most frightening experience imaginable.


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  5. #30
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    You might have seen me write the phrase " Too white "

    Where that comes from is my grandfather was American, he was an engineer at the opium factory, when the Japanese occupied Singapore they rounded up the people who looked too white, my mother remembers her father running into a field where they surrounded him, took him away, he was never seen again, they figure he may have died on the Burma railroad but who knows?

    fortunately my uncles all looked un-white enough to fly under the radar and survived the war

    war is hell eh
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  6. #31
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    6/6/44

    My father was born in ‘41, in Wesel. Most of the men in his mother’s family were killed in WW1, or had aged out of active service for WW2, so those still around served in the equivalent of the home or regional guards. He has a burn scar across his chest from a pot of boiling water falling off the stove from a bomb drop when he was a toddler. Stories as a young boy after the war, and being severely disciplined by the schoolmaster when he and his buddies were caught playing football with a human skull they had discovered. And stealing with a friend a duffle from an recent american GI arrival - it was full of cigarettes. They split the loot and his grandpa bartered so they could have cream and sugar for coffee, among other household basics we take for granted. Coal was rationed so severely that even in winter, there was just enough for cooking; the house was otherwise unheated and he has memories of the severe cold. The family lost everything and rebuilt twice over the two conflicts. I can’t even begin the empathize what Europe was like during and immediately after those conflicts.

  7. #32
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    My Grandparents were from Ireland, so my Uncle and my Dad were first-generation Americans. They both enlisted at 17, so '41 for my Uncle and '42 for my father. Like everyone else in the almost-entirely Irish neighborhood, they tried to join the Marines. But at that point the Marines were still able to be picky (later they weren't) and they wouldn't take them because they wore glasses, so they joined the Army.

    It was kind of fortunate for them, apparently the Marine unit the local guys were all put in was almost completely wiped out at Tarawa. I wish I knew what Marine unit it was but I don't.

  8. #33
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    al soria is still alive, tenth mountain division skier.

    gave him my reserved parking spot, thought it right.

    no one wins in war.

  9. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by old goat View Post
    A few years ago I heard an interesting piece on the boats--they were designed after Louisiana bayou craft and built down there. They were shipped by rail to the east coast on flatbed cars and painted while they were on their way. They were plywood except for the steel ramp so none survive today.
    The LCVP “Higgins Boat” designed and built by a guy named Higgins, who was a Louisiana boar builder. He did build a lot of shallow draft boats for use in the bayous. However, the front ramp was an idea he copied from the Japanese, who had been using landing craft with front ramps for years in China.

  10. #35
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    6/6/44

    Just read “the dead and those about to die”.

    It covers the landings on the eastern section of Omaha beach. The west tends to get a lot of Hollywood attention.

    Just amazing what a failure it all was, and how those guys survived.

    The pre dawn bombing had zero effect. As did the pre naval gunfire. Completely missed their marks.

    The first wave were floating tanks, and only 2 made it.

    The men were over loaded with useless shit and seasick beyond all comprehension. The ones that weren’t blown up in the surf were huddled up without weapons on a rock shingle to the point where there was no more room for any more men or vehicles on the beach and additional waves of reinforcements had no where to go.

    Basically all the heavy weapons and gizmos failed and the whole battle hinged on some gutsy NCo’s and low ranking officers.

    A complete slaughter house on that beach until some men went over the bluffs and around, plus a destroyer that came to within 1000 yards to knock out a pill box.

    Interviews with surviving Germans said that just between barrel changes on MG’s, some of them could account for 50 kills with their rifles. Mostly head shots since they were so well sighted in.




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  11. #36
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    I used to work with a guy who was in the invasion of Normandy and lost his right thumb, they took his right big toe and made him a thumb. It didn't look perfect but it worked and he was still right handed.

  12. #37
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    My grandfather was a career military man. Served in ww2 and Korea. He also was involved with the white sands nuclear projects in NM.
    His best friend was in the 2nd wave at Omaha. My dad and my uncle would be playing army and my pops said he asked the man if they were playing it right. The old man responded, " i wont tell you that, but what i will say is this: not if, but when you go to war dont join the Army: you eat in the mud you sleep in the mud and you die in the mud, dont join the Navy the enemy will sink your home out from under you,
    He said join the Airforce because at least you will have had a hot shower and a hot meal beforw you are killed. "
    My father joined the air force in 68 and was soon sent to Tuy Hoa vietnam

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  13. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by SirVicSmasher View Post
    My grandfather was a career military man. Served in ww2 and Korea. He also was involved with the white sands nuclear projects in NM.
    His best friend was in the 2nd wave at Omaha. My dad and my uncle would be playing army and my pops said he asked the man if they were playing it right. The old man responded, " i wont tell you that, but what i will say is this: not if, but when you go to war dont join the Army: you eat in the mud you sleep in the mud and you die in the mud, dont join the Navy the enemy will sink your home out from under you,
    He said join the Airforce because at least you will have had a hot shower and a hot meal beforw you are killed. "
    My father joined the air force in 68 and was soon sent to Tuy Hoa vietnam

    Sent from my H3223 using Tapatalk
    The tide was rising, so the later the wave the more likely you’d hit a beach obstacle with a mine, or drown. Shit was just insane for about 6 hrs. All the supporting troops and equipment was sent in too early and just got wasted.

    This German gunner said he fired 12,000 rounds by lunch! And 400 from his rifle.


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  14. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by SirVicSmasher View Post
    My grandfather was a career military man. Served in ww2 and Korea. He also was involved with the white sands nuclear projects in NM.
    His best friend was in the 2nd wave at Omaha. My dad and my uncle would be playing army and my pops said he asked the man if they were playing it right. The old man responded, " i wont tell you that, but what i will say is this: not if, but when you go to war dont join the Army: you eat in the mud you sleep in the mud and you die in the mud, dont join the Navy the enemy will sink your home out from under you,
    He said join the Airforce because at least you will have had a hot shower and a hot meal beforw you are killed. "
    My father joined the air force in 68 and was soon sent to Tuy Hoa vietnam
    Seems like good advice but I think I'd join the Coast Guard myself.

  15. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cono Este View Post
    This German gunner said he fired 12,000 rounds by lunch! And 400 from his rifle.
    He probably only took a half-hour for lunch that day.

  16. #41
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    My college roomie in the frat house joined the CG to stay out of Nam. Did a tour on the Mekong in a CG gunboat before getting to college. Serious guy as I recall.
    A few people feel the rain. Most people just get wet.

  17. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by wooley12 View Post
    My college roomie in the frat house joined the CG to stay out of Nam. Did a tour on the Mekong in a CG gunboat before getting to college. Serious guy as I recall.
    Never get out of the boat.

  18. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by iceman View Post
    Seems like good advice but I think I'd join the Coast Guard myself.

    Coast Guard has stations all over the world. They used to be in charge of the coaling stations when the Navy still used coal. They still have all those stations because we never give up anything. When the Libyans attacked us with a rocket barage, they were attacking the Coast Guard station on the island of Lampedusa

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