D-Day 60 Years
Out of context: Reply #74
- Started
- Last post
- 92 Responses
- ********0
Air cover was vital during D-Day to take out German fortifications on Normandy's beaches. Most of the beaches were more or less clear of German resistance by the time the Allies landed. However, at Omaha beach, Allied bombers over-ran German positions by several Kilometers, and took out benign French towns/villages instead. Moreover, due to gross naval incometencies on the allied part; the attack on Omaha beach was instructed far too early to allow time for the Parachute regiments that had landed in France earlier - to attack German troops from the rear. Instead the naval vessels anchored themselves miles off the coast of Omaha, and forced the soldiers to wade into shore - leaving them easy pray to German defences: an inexplicable move that to this day hasn't been satisfactorily explained. A botched operation that led to the needless slaughter of thousands. With little or no knowledge of what to expect at Omaha, allied soldiers were thrown into the gates of hell. Expecting the invastion would be as straightforward as the ones that had occured on Gold beach, Juno, and Utah (where little more than 200 men out of 20-30,000 had lost their lives), allied soldiers were not prepared for the slaughter-house they confronted. Less heroes, more sheep to the slaughter - orchestrated by Commanders and Generals far removed from the action. Nothing so rudimentary as tanks and artillery was provided for them (which were present in numbers at the other, less heavily fortified, beaches). Through bewilderment and chaos they fought through the German lines - it was either that, or drown out at sea.
My grandfather fought for the British. Growing up in a poor village in what was then India; the war offered an opportunity to find work and to provide for his family. And so he joined the Punjabi regiment. He was mainly operational in North Africa where he fought the Italians, and many of his relatives were out in Southeast Asia fighiting the Japanese. Must have been strange for them. Not loving the people they fought for, not hating the ones they fought against. Fighting Italian and Japanese Empires so that they cud defend the Empire of Britain - just as opressive and tyrannical. But they did what they were told to do, and didn't ask questions. They weren't brave, or heroes. Just poor peasant farmers engaged in a war whose size and nature they couldn't possibly understand. My grandfather used to tell me how the "brown" people were always involved in the most dangerous operations; and often felt that they were being used as cannon fodder - always going in before the white troops. They were told by the British that they were the bravest and fiercest fighters they had seen. But they had to be. They had no choice. When you're thrown into the deep end of suicidal missions with no possible way out, it's either that or curl up and die.