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Metropolis Reality Forums Ť D-Day: June 6, 1944 ť

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   D-Day: June 6, 1944

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Topic: D-Day: June 6, 1944 (Read 222 times)

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D-Day: June 6, 1944
« on: Jun 6^th, 2003, 2:06pm »

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030606/ FACTS06//?query=D-Day

and also see

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030606/ UMEMOM//?query=D-Day

Quote:

Churning with nervous energy as they approached the hail of mortars and shells, queasy from the rough seas that shook them violently from side to side, the soldiers of the Canadian Scottish and the North Nova Scotia regiments clung to the walls of landing craft No. 736 to prepare for battle on the shores of Juno Beach.

If they lifted their heads above the armour on either side of the small 30-man craft, they would see a vast flotilla of 7,000 other landing craft pushing toward the French coast as part of the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion of Normandy.

Above their heads, virtually endless waves of bombers buzzed the coast, dropping thousands of tonnes of explosives in an attempt to soften the shores for the approaching troops.

The sounds were deafening, the weather atrocious and the scene overwhelming, but back in Landing Craft 736, the men were able to find a temporary peace.

"A wonderful thing happened," said Lieutenant-Commander Gordon Hendery, 82, who was in command of three craft on the D-Day invasion. "All of a sudden one of the lads, a sergeant, got up and started singing Roll Out the Barrel.

"Just for a moment, the fear from their faces left, and we all sang together." He said his men began to smile as they sang.

Mr. Hendery, now retired and living in Burlington, Ont., was speaking from the offices of the Memory Project Digital Archive. He is one of 300 veterans who contributed to an on-line collection of spoken stories and memorabilia to be launched today in honour of the 59th anniversary of D-Day.

"Some of the best spokespersons for Canadian history are Canadian veterans," said Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of the Dominion Institute, which put the site together. "It opens up to you the horrors and the realities of war. It's creating a human dimension to these seemingly anonymous events."

The institute interviewed each veteran to be featured on the site and edited each story down to a three-to-four-minute audio clip posted in the digital archive.

The institute gives each veteran a page where he or she can post items of memorabilia, such as pictures, medals or letters, to go along with the recorded story.

As a collection, these pages are intended to create a personal and anecdotal picture of Canadians at war, with stories ranging from men risking their lives on the front lines to those of soldiers left behind because they were too young to fight. They document the tales of people such as Bill Renwick, 78, who was among the first Allied soldiers to be parachuted onto the beaches of Normandy at 1:09 a.m. on June 6. "Our objectives, which were scattered all about, were to try and make it easier for the ones coming in," he said.

Mr. Renwick recalls members of his company being blown up while trying to take a German garrison close to the beach, while Allied planes bombed from overhead.

"It was not a Boy Scout parade," he said. Three days after D-Day, Mr. Renwick was captured by the Germans and taken to a PoW camp on the Elbe River, where he was held for nearly a year.

Estelle Aspler also has a page on the site, where she tells of working at a 600-bed hospital that treated soldiers from the front lines on D-Day. Ms. Aspler said she thinks the Web project is important to help future generations learn of Canada's vital role in shaping world history. "I thought it was important to [put my story on the Web], because so many youngsters haven't a clue what happened," she said from her Montreal home. "If you watch television you'd think the Americans won the war. Well, they helped win the war, but a few other people were in it as well."

Mr. Griffiths agreed, saying there is an urgent need to get as many stories as possible recorded before veterans die.

"There is a window of opportunity to record these stories," Mr. Griffiths said. "Soon that window is going to be shut forever."

He said the Dominion Institute plans to document 3,000 stories by the 60th anniversary of D-Day, next year, and he hopes veterans across the country will come forward to help reach that goal.

The veteran digital archive can be reached at http://www.thememoryproject.com.

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Re: D-Day: June 6, 1944
« Reply #1 on: Jun 6^th, 2003, 10:21pm »

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http://www.dday.org/

http://www.wp21.com/dday/

http://www.keepingapace.org/html/archives/memorials/ddaybedford.html

As time goes on, we tend to forget the great sacrifices that were made by thousands of brave young men. They gave up their future so that you and I could have ours.

Here are threes sites concerning the D-Day Invasion and the Memorial to that effort.

May God continue to watch over them.

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