Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
#1
At 0016hrs 6th June double summer time 1944 a glider borne force from the OX and BUCKS landed at Pegasus bridge to open the offensive.It is due to them that we have the freedoms we cherish so much.
beer the food of the gods
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#2
Well said Guzzler. This is a very important weekend in historical terms. Many of the veterans are getting very old now so each event to mark their courage is very important. I believe the royal family will now be represented by Charles. It was initially intended as a politics only roadshow.. Sarkozy, Obama and Brown, but whatever anyway I hope the celebrations will be very appropriate. There was some massive loss of life on the 6th of June. There was an old sailor on TV yesterday talking of the horrors...
almost everyone in his landing craft was killed the minute they left it. The powers that be had underestimated the German defences. Some of the guys near death or about to die called to him to
"save me sailer"
but he wasnt allowed to pick anyone up. They were left to their fate.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
#3
Indeed, we owe them so much.
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
#4
We will honour and remember them. Those who are still with us and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. As you say Jeane, we owe them so much.
Guest 650- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 542
#5
We remember.
Killed on 6 June 1944: John Murphy (aged 37) and Harry Suckley (23), both now commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial, and Leonard Gates (26), Francis Hughes (28), and Morgan Price (just 21), now lying in the Bayeux War Cemetery.
"Went the day well? We died and never knew.
But well or ill, Freedom, We died for you."
Guest 686- Registered: 5 May 2009
- Posts: 556
#6
We MUST remember them.
Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#7
watching the news item tonight, it is still unclear how many died in the first two days.
there must be people across the atlantic that lost someone in a war far away but have never had the chance to pay their last respects.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
#8
There are Howard, many of them.
Gradually, they make the pilgrimage to England to find their GrandFather, Great Uncle or who ever. Many stay in Dover, then go on an organsied "Battlefield Tour".
Roger
Guest 650- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 542
#9
Normally quoted is the figure of 2,500 Allied deaths on the first day - later research suggests that the number was over half as many again.
There are a lot of people across the Atlantic who lost someone in a far-away war. Many have, over the years, been able to come across to pay their respects; those who look back to Dover as their Old Country home also choose to record respects through the Dover War Memorial Project. Equally, we have Dovorians who returned to their new countries, to die there from their wounds.
In Dover itself, while the Allies were sweeping up the coast, the last desperate raids on our Frontline Town intensified. Over a fifth of our civilian casualties died in that one last month of September 1944, when the enemy guns across the Channel were finally silenced.
We have so much to be thankful for, and must never forget our debt to those whose brave hearts were so early stilled.
