D-Day

[Gemmill 43266]

One of my mates from school is a paratrooper and he's been involved this week, jumping out of planes and the like. Reckons the parachutes are terrifyingly small compared to what they use these days.

[Meenzer 15199]

Different species these blokes like. Unbelievable stuff.

 

Aye. You can't imagine anything like it on that scale nowadays, but then it's thanks to the likes of them that we don't have to. Well, technically it's thanks to advances in technology too, but you know what I mean...

[trophyshy 7066]

Have you seen the shonky wooden and canvas gliders they slipped over in and ditched in the dark? Mind blowing.

[Monkeys Fist 41525]

[Gemmill 43266]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/06/d-day-anniversary-emotional-swansang-for-uk-veterans

 

Seventy Normandy summers ago, as the ships and planes and gliders disgorged 156,000 on to beaches and into the smoke, flames and barrage of mortar fire, victory was uncertain. So was survival. No-one escaped unscathed. In his wheelchair, watching the Queen, Peter Downey, 91, from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, who landed on Gold with the Durham Light Infantry, was "really overcome". A stroke has affected his speech, but the emotion of the day was evident in his red-rimmed eyes.

 

After Normandy, he was one of the first men into Belsen, the concentration camp, then found himself on guard duty during the Nuremberg trials. "He's been on sleeping tablets ever since," said Jeanne, his wife of 65 years. "Wakes up in the night thinking he is being gassed. He's not been so well recently, but he really wanted to come here. This time it's been very emotional. This time has been the hardest for him. But he wanted to come even if it is the last thing he does"

 

It's impossible to get your head around what these blokes went through. You can only hope that days like yesterday convey at least some measure of the gratitude that they're owed, although it can never be enough.