Tuesday, June 6, 1944
- Thread starter Jorge
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- d-day eisenhower
A day I always remember as my father was there, he was a British Royal Marine Commando (for US readers think Special Forces/Navy Seals). He spent D-Day itself manning an anti-aircraft gun onboard a Royal Navy destroyer standing off Sword Beach. They were providing air cover for the landing troops. On D-Day+1 he was with one of the crews tasked with blowing the bottoms out of the concrete barges used to build the temporary harbours so that troops, equipment and supplies could be landed more easily. On D-Day+2 he went ashore and then fought his way all the way to Berlin where he was demobilized in 1946.
He should have been at the infamous 'Bridge Too Far' of movie fame but his unit was one of those caught up in the massive traffic jam and he didn't get moving again until three days after the fighting for the bridge was over. He also experienced the horrors of Belsen-Bergen first hand (the only Nazi concentration camp liberated by the British/Canadians and the place where Anne Frank died). All British Forces in that part of Germany were ordered to visit the place to witness the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen-Belsen_concentration_camp). He went there about a week after it was liberated and he said the stench of the place was detectable from three miles away! There were still piles of naked, rotting, copses everywhere and the former SS guards were being forced to move the bodies by hand, without protective clothing, as a punishment for the way they treated the inmates. If anyone ever tells you the Holocaust is a hoax they are lying scumbags!
He should have been at the infamous 'Bridge Too Far' of movie fame but his unit was one of those caught up in the massive traffic jam and he didn't get moving again until three days after the fighting for the bridge was over. He also experienced the horrors of Belsen-Bergen first hand (the only Nazi concentration camp liberated by the British/Canadians and the place where Anne Frank died). All British Forces in that part of Germany were ordered to visit the place to witness the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen-Belsen_concentration_camp). He went there about a week after it was liberated and he said the stench of the place was detectable from three miles away! There were still piles of naked, rotting, copses everywhere and the former SS guards were being forced to move the bodies by hand, without protective clothing, as a punishment for the way they treated the inmates. If anyone ever tells you the Holocaust is a hoax they are lying scumbags!