D-day 2007

[hawk10314 0]

Today is D-Day if you guys forgot. I myself did until I saw the flag at half mast at my school and I rememberd. Let us not forget this day for it was that day and the people who died then and now that allows us to play our WW2 games FPS RTS alike.

[killakanz 0]

My god June 6th already?!

 

I lost track of days...

[IconOfEvi 0]

Its that day...

 

I wanted to play a TA match with two friends on Shore to Shore to symbolize D-Day, something wasn't right between our compys...so maybe today, maybe tomorraw. Still, today is the day...kinda hard to believe. God Bless em.

[BoB 0]

I remembered this morning, but i watched BBC News 24 most of the day (revision) and they didn't even mention it once, it was totally disrespectful.

[flyby 0]

And yesterday it has been 40 years since the "6 Day War" started, between several Arab countries and Israel...

DDay was not in the news today, but the the 6 day war was...

 

Reason?

 

It has nothing to do with disrespect and everything with the fascination of rounded numbers...Or did you already forget the enormous DDay memorial event of 2004, celibrating the 60th aniversary of the landing?

[Rattuskid 0]

To be fair, I think the British only had one beach on D-Day, as opposed to three or four a piece for the Canadians and Americans... so maybe that's why the BBC didn't have a moment of silence or whatever.

 

Of course, the people who should really be showing their respects today are the ones who have the dead from D-Day buried in their nation. They seem to conviently forget what was done for them left and right though.

[Wittman 0]

According to the book Band of Brothers, the French were ungrateful even during the war after the allies had landed.

[Monkey 0]

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?...e&rg=blsadstrgt

[dave1001 0]

According to the book Band of Brothers, the French were ungrateful even during the war after the allies had landed.

Reminds me of how Omar Bradley mentions in his memoirs about the war that after liberating Paris, Leclerc's 2nd division had to be rounded up and forced out of the city to continue the fighting. But I think that's understandable, if given the option between staying in a city full of wine and appreciative women, or getting back in a tank and risking my life against an enemy already retreating, I'd probably hide my tank and go get laid too.

[IconOfEvi 0]

What bugs me is how on Earth they got a fourth of Germany and Berlin when France was pwnt from the get go and the contribution of the Free French was at best...overestimated. I would have to think that they were about as contributing to the war effort as the Dominion forces, if less so. <_<

[Feuersturm 0]

As much as we remember the Allies soldiers who lost their lives, we must remember the German dead aswell.

[hawk10314 0]

indeed. except for that hitler guy I hear he was a total ass.

[Feuersturm 0]

I thought they were rumors!

 

 

 

 

But yea, him and Himmler, and countless others, should be excluded from rememberance.....

Edited June 7, 2007 by Feuersturm

[k4l4sh 0]

shit I forgot

I'll play COD tonight to make up for it

[killakanz 0]

To be fair, I think the British only had one beach on D-Day, as opposed to three or four a piece for the Canadians and Americans... so maybe that's why the BBC didn't have a moment of silence or whatever.

Goes to show what you know doesn't it?

 

Americans took 2 beaches; Utah and Omaha. (some of the Omaha group split to land at Pointe du Hoc, so some argue they had 3 beaches)

Canadians took 1 beach; Juno

British took 2 beaches; Gold and Sword.

 

[IconOfEvi 0]

I thought they were rumors!

 

 

 

 

But yea, him and Himmler, and countless others, should be excluded from rememberance.....

Unless to be kicked in the shins...

[Rattuskid 0]

Goes to show what you know doesn't it?

Probably, but then again I'm not the type of guy to remember the exact details of battles, mainly because I know wars don't work that way anymore. It's like when you talk to some old Beardo who spent his life studying every minute detail about Washington or Cromwell, stuck in some idealistic nostalgia, wanting to so badly to believe men like them still exist.

 

Meh.

 

Also, DeGaulle was probably more racist and nationalist than the leaders of the Vichy. Christ he was an asshat. The French people were okayish, maybe... but boy do they pick pea-head leaders. < On topic

[flyby 0]

Racist? No

Nationalist? Very! To a point it got problematic...

 

The problem with De Gaulle was that he was a very difficult person to deal with and refused squarely to act according his position: that of a leader of a minor ally.

His difficult character was totally dominated and driven by his incredible (and blind) nationalism.

 

His greatest fear was that France would come under control of the Americans and British. So great to the dislike of the Americans and Brits, he did manage to establish the authority of the Free French Forces right after setting foot on French territory, and as a result avoided the implementation of the Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories in France.

 

To the credit of De Gaulle is that he did manage to bring his badly damaged country back to the front and it became the 4th nuclear power in the world under his leadership.

 

But even after the war, his inflexible behaviour with regards to NATO (SHAPE) and the formation of the EU did cost France dearly: most of the decision centre moved from Paris to Brussels, because he refused to be a team player.

 

for a more neutral insight on the obnoxious person : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle

[Count von Phoib 0]

Only fitting they name the most craptastic carrier ever in his honor, eh?

[Eradicator 0]

So its not just Canadians that thing DeGaulle was an asshat :P

 

In July 1967, de Gaulle visited Canada, which was celebrating its centennial with a world's fair, Expo 67. On 24 July, speaking to a large crowd from a balcony at Montreal's city hall, de Gaulle uttered Vive le Québec ! (Long live Quebec!) then added, Vive le Québec libre ! (Long live free Québec!). The Canadian media harshly criticised the statement, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson, a soldier who had fought in World War I and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, stated that "Canadians do not need to be liberated."[4] De Gaulle left Canada of his own accord the next day without proceeding to Ottawa as scheduled. He never returned to Canada. The speech caused outrage in English Canada; it led to a serious diplomatic rift between the two countries. However, the event was seen as a watershed moment by the Quebec sovereignty movement.

 

Keep in mind this was during a time when there were bombings, riots, kidnappings and assassinations over Quebec sovereignty.

[k4l4sh 0]

Only fitting they name the most craptastic carrier ever in his honor, eh?

lol

 

and as usual FlyBy is making it difficult to add anything that hasn't been said <_< ;)

[Korona 0]

The two bits of De Gaulle trivia that amuse me are that firstly, Eisenhower hated him, even to the point of prefering to deal with the Vichy government than De Gaulle.

Secondly De Gaulle hated the british so much he kept them from the EEC. The reason? They had so many interests abroad and he didn't want non europeans to be represented by the fledgeling EU... Of course French claims in South America and Africa are different!