Andy reminded me…
…that I almost forgot.
June 6, 1944, Allied Forces began the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. Freedom was won, democracy had its best years to come, enemies became economic wonders and best allies all because of blood shed on this day 77 years ago. Almost forgot, too, the Soviet Union arrived in Germany from the other direction, fought for another ideology with a loss of more than 26 million soldiers and citizens in WWII, the exact number not known. Total military and civilian deaths from that war are estimated to be from 70 to 85 million out of a world population at the time of approximately 2,300,000,000.
Thank the heavens that you were one of the lucky humans to have survived the war, Mr. Doug.
I spent my military time in a good country.
Thanks for the military facts, Doug. What a waste of human lives. They each saw themselves on the good side with a horrible foe. When you think these young guys had families, friends, pets, occupations etc., it is a shame. All these lives lost for an ideology!
Jean
Exactly. The cannon fodder, erm, young men who fight on the front are 17-20, typically, ages where they are easily convinced of the nobility of their need to fight. It is no accident.
And people think times are hard today.
It wasn’t a given in the early months of the war which side would win. “Of course we won!” We, of course is the USA, citizens of which forget the armies, navies, and air forces of many nations combined efforts with the US to win back the world from fascistic countries.
It’s hard to imagine today how difficult that was.
My mother wouldn’t talk about it. Try raising three young children with wartime rationing! The family had a large garden and did a lot of canning, a typical response to limited availability of many basic foods. Of course, the worst of it was in war zones.
I think my parents were too young to remember. My mother was born in 1944 and my father was born in December,1939. My grandmother said that they learned of the attack on Pearl harbor during my father’s birthday party. That must have really dampenened the celebration.
Thank you for the reminder on June 6th, Doug. Best to you and Andy, today and every day.
Thanks to you – and Andy – for reminding us.
Thanks for a lovely post. I agree with what you say. Then it was the holocaust, and now more worse things happen. And virtually nothing is done about it.
We have a United Nation, which is absolutely rubbish.
Yes, the idealism of the founders has been replaced with the cynicism of those who see the UN as a means to their ends, not some happy stressless peace.
Today’s is a sad remembrance indeed. It’s important to remember, although it’s so terrible to think of the horrors and losses of war.
Andy’s fur and his tail are just grand!
The human cost of WWII is staggering.
(Andy says to tell you “Meow!” He gets a spa day at the end of the week…stay tuned!)
Humans have been killing each other since recorded history began. What is wrong with humans!! I detest violence and would never fight a war.
Precisely how I feel. When I joined the US Army in 1969, it was to improve my chances of not ending up in Vietnam, where a war I couldn’t understand, defend, or pretend to want to be in was in its end stages. Because I volunteered, I had options not available to draftees, and ended up in West Germany as an 84C20 (Combat motion picture photographer). Ironically, the specialty was developed to cover wars, and photos and film you see of WWII, for example, originated from still and motion picture photographers assigned to Europe, just like me, only in earlier times. There was a film library in my company of their work, and it was humbling to see what my mopic predecessors witnessed and filmed and the conditions they worked under. My time was nearly like a two-and-a-half year vacation in Europe, why when people thank me for my service, I remind them others actually pulled the heroic duty, and I salute them instead!
I understand, thanks Doug.
I’m glad I missed out on my generation’s war, though I am glad I did serve in the US Army as a motion picture photographer in then-West Germany.
I missed all the following wars, Amen. Thank you for your service, Doug. 🙏🏻
As noted, I had a vacation-like service and prefer not to be thanked for having a pretty good time when others were getting shot at.
I understand.