Memories of World War II were still recent when I was young. I played
with plastic toy soldiers of World War II. I watched reruns of
Hollywood movies on the local New York City TV Channels - everything
from Guadalcanal Diary to Twelve O'clock High to Thirty Seconds Over
Tokyo.
As an adult, I made the acquaintance of more movies - Casablanca, The
Best Years of Our Lives,and even the German Das Boot made long after the
war was over.
On June 6, 1944, over 160,000 Allied troops landed on a 50 mile stretch of French beaches at Normandy to begin one of the greatest invasions of all time.
There are many stories written by survivors of World War II. Possibly
few of those stories would ever have been written if not for D-Day. On that day, some 160,000 Allied soldiers
stormed beaches on the coastline of France. Although some 9,000 Allied
soldiers were killed or wounded on that day, others began the march
across Europe to liberate the people. Today is the 77th anniversary of that landing.
Now, the surviving soldiers of World War II are elderly, and dying. We lost many survivors last year during the COVID epidemic.
Many of the remains of the combat dead remained in France, where one of my cousin's spouses (of part French ancestry) makes a point of visiting cemeteries to honor them. These are memorials to American dead but there are other graves and memorials for British, Canadian, Australian, French, Greek, citizens of New Zealand, Norwegian, Polish and others who gave their lives that day.
Some of my relatives have been to those cemeteries. I have never been to Europe but I intend to visit these, too, if and when I go.
Women? American women worked in various war factories back home, and we need to remember them. My spouse's 107 year old aunt, who died in 2019, was one of them. My late mother was another.
In my lifetime, the last Civil War veteran died (1956), the last
Spanish-American War vet (1993), the last World War I veteran (2012)
passed away. (Note, there are some veteran claims that are disputed -
these dates seem to be the most reliable). If I live long enough, I
will see the last member of the Greatest Generation pass from our Earth.
That makes me sad.
On what anniversary of D-Day will there be no more of the Greatest Generation left to remember?
We, the succeeding generations, have that burden now.
That really is very sad. I had never really thought about it in those terms.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Alana. We need to pay homage to those who fought the good fight on behalf of the world.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was covering that 8th grade class, they watched videos on what women did during WWII. Did you know there was an all African-American female unit that cleaned up the mail backlog in the waning years of the war? And some flew fighter planes. (I can point you to the videos, if you're interested.)
ReplyDeleteThe class was assigned four videos:
DeleteRecruitment film for WACs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnjKPy0-vEY
6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmLH1dlh7RE
Rosie the Riveter (about the artwork): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04VNBM1PqR8
Honoring the Female Pilots of WWII: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_vcEkelV3I
Start with the 2nd one. The 3rd is dreadfully dull.
...and Trump called servicemen suckers.
ReplyDeleteMy father was so proud of his Army service during the war. And one of his best friends in the Army was my mother's cousin. That's how he met my mother. Both men are gone now...
ReplyDelete