D-Day - June 6, 1944

[Police Moderator]

D-Day: Former paratrooper carries memories, scars of war to this day
Mario Patruno dived into World War II as a young paratrooper in 1944. His experience stays with him in scars and vivid stories of survival.
Posted: June 6, 2011

Army Pfc. Mario Patruno was 23, tough and fit. He'd fought in the ring as a youth boxer, and in the streets of Holyoke, Mass., with a brawling gang called the Bond Street Rovers.

On the dark morning of June 6, 1944, he'd need all the toughness he possessed if he wanted to see June 7.

Flying over Normandy under heavy fire, his plane was going low and too fast when he jumped from 400 feet, landing far from his intended landing spot. His parachute riddled with holes, he tumbled to a rough landing, all alone.

It was 1:20 a.m. on D-Day. Patruno - nicknamed Gus - was a member of Company F of the Army's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, recently a focus of HBO's "Band of Brothers."

Read more: jacksonville.com

[Police Moderator]

Ike’s D-Day lessons still ring true
By: Arthur I. Cyr 06/07/11
Examiner Columnist

From ancient times to the present, amphibious military invasions have been rightly regarded as particularly challenging. The greatest such operation was in World War II with the Allied movement into France on D-Day, June 6, 1944 — 67 years ago today.

The Normandy invasion combined thorough planning, mobilization of vast material and great imagination. When the operation already under way was publicly announced, a U.S. newspaper highlighted a front-page drawing of Allied soldiers cascading into Europe, as a terrified Hitler fled. Almost a year of very brutal almost continuous combat lay ahead, but the end of Nazi Germany was in sight once the beaches were secured.

The leadership of supreme Allied commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was crucial. Ike demonstrated great executive ability in supervising an unprecedented logistical challenge, and his remarkable interpersonal skills welded and held together the most diverse military alliance in history. Related to this, he was able to establish overall unity of command. This was never achieved even among the American military in the Pacific, where Gen. Douglas MacArthur pursued one strategic vision, while Navy admirals implemented a different approach.

Extensive bombing of transport routes and supply depots in France was viewed by Eisenhower as crucial preparation for the land invasion. Such air action would bring an estimated minimum of 60,000 civilian casualties, and perhaps far more. For that reason, many American and British air commanders resisted this widespread destruction, arguing for a much more limited effort.

Read more: sfexaminer

[Police Moderator]

A Great and Terrible Day
D-Day showed the greatness of the American people.

“Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.” — Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Four days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler committed one of the most monumental blunders in history. Rushing back to Berlin from his Prussian headquarters on December 11, he went before the Reichstag and, in a short 334-word speech, declared war on the United States. In this single act of suicidal hubris he sealed the fate of the Third Reich.

Despite still being locked in a brutal war against Great Britain and the Soviet Union, when presented with the opportunity to declare war against a nation capable of producing as many munitions in one year as Germany could in five, Hitler did not hesitate or flinch. Hitler was certainly aware of America’s production potential, for he had written about it in Mein Kampf. Despite this knowledge, he remained unimpressed with American military potential. In 1940, he had told Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov that the United States would not be a threat to Germany for decades — “1970 or 1980 at the earliest.” This was a colossal misjudgment, but not Hitler’s only one. Not unlike other dictators, Hitler believed it was impossible to transform pampered American youths into formidable soldiers.

Only two a half years after Hitler’s war declaration, a mighty American army was poised to cross the English Channel and bring Hitler’s “Thousand Year Reich” to an end 988 years ahead of schedule. At Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s disposal was a superbly trained American and British army he believed capable of fulfilling Gen. George Marshall’s order to “reenter the continent of Europe and defeat the Nazi enemy.”

To accomplish this task, American industry, which an earlier German general had called the “pitiless beast,” had provided everything American and British forces required. On June 5, 1944, a vast armada of more than 5,000 vessels carried some 150,000 troops and 30,000 vehicles across the English Channel and onto the Normandy beaches. In the air, 800 aircraft, launching from nine British airfields, deposited more than 12,500 paratroopers onto flooded fields and towns behind the Normandy beaches.

Read more: national review

[Bob]

My late friend Hubert Watkins was there, rode in on a landing craft. His stories were heart wrenching. He broke into tears anytime it was mentioned.

I hope we never forget

[Warkitty]

My Great Uncle Andy was there.

He's going senile and no longer remembers much of anything, but when he did he wouldn't talk about the action.

My late friend "The MacKenzie" lied about his age and went. He too was reluctant to describe anything he saw.

[rstewart]

I for one am glad there were such brave men as those who went ashore on Jun 5/6 1944 to liberate Europe. They have my undying respect and grattiude.

[Felix]

When you read some of the accounts of that day, you realize how my father's generation acquired its name. Unbelievable that human beings could do what they did this day 67 years ago. Thank God they did.