D-Day, 75th anniversary
- Thread starter Cypress
- Start date
Minister of Truth
Practically Perfect
Nothing like landing on a beach and working your way uphill with Kraut gunfire and artillery raining down on you. It can't be overstated what a hellish nightmare that is. I used to have a good grasp only of WWI battles (still the worst, IMO), but Spielberg did a good job painting a picture for me.
I cannot even imagine what Omaha beach must have been like. The Spielberg production is undoubtedly one of the greatest WW2 movies ever made.
Gutsy call by Ike, given that the weather, the tides, the conditions were touch and go.
Fortunately, the Germans had been bled dry on the Eastern Front, otherwise the Atlantic Wall would have been impenetrable.
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
What movie you talking about? I want to get it.
Saving Private Ryan, undoubtedly you must have seen it.
Here is my current top five list of WW2 movies.
Saving Private Ryan – best D-Day movie by a country mile
Enemy at the Gates – Sniper duels between Russian and German snipers at Stalingrad
Downfall – Hitler’s last days in the Reichstag underground bunker
The Zookeeper’s Wife – Polish zookeepers in Warsaw save many Jews from Nazi war criminals.
Patton – Tour de force performance by George C. Scott.
that and the fact the Germans were spread thin -not knowing the landing point
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
Of course.
The trickery and misdirection by the Allied armies to fool the Germans were a work of art.
Still, if the Red Army had not already killed/maimed millions of German soldiers and tied down millions more in the Eastern Front meat grinder, I do not believe that the Atlantic Wall would have been penetrable by any Anglo-American amphibious invasion force.
Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
My favorite WWII movies are Memphis Belle and Das Boot. Both Horrifyingly accurate portrayals of the two most dangerous military services during the war.
Minister of Truth
Practically Perfect
I keep re-watching Inglourious Basterds. The way is should have gone! 
You didn't like "the Longest Day?"
So was FDR and Churchill brilliant by delaying the second front or mercenary allowing the Russians to take the heavy toll?
I think there is a kernel of truth to what you are saying, but I also think it is unfair to compare the kids who were sent to fight in Iraq War, Gulf War 2, Vietnam, et al. to fighting against Hitler.
The argument can be made that fighting Hitler literally was fighting for freedom and the soul of western liberal democracy. Hitler was a unique and dangerous threat. The type of threat that only comes around once in a millenia. Ghegis Khan was probably the last threat on the scale of Hitler.
Fighting to defend the Kuwait royal family in Gulf War, 1, getting involved in a civil war in Vietnam, or invading Iraq under false pretenses were not "fighting for freedom". They certainly were not comparable to the type of threat Hitler represented. And I doubt that anyone genuinely thought that those Middle Eastern and southeast Asian conflicts were really the kind of existential threat worth American dying for.
The Americans wanted to invade France in 1943.
Churchill was cunning and wise in getting the invasion delayed, much to the outrage of Stalin, who's Soviet Union was taking most of the punishment and inflicting the most damage on the Wehrmacht .
I do not think there is any doubt that Churchill considered the fact that having the Red Army bleed the Wehrmacht dry would make an Anglo-American invasion later in 1944 easier and more feasible.
To this day, I believe the Russians think that the Americans and British purposefully delayed the invasion of France so that Russian boys would die bleeding out the Nazis, rather than American and Brit boys.
I really do not remember it, I may have seen it decades ago.
I am referring to a global war. I have nothing but respect for anyone that fights for this country, no matter what the conflict is. Civilians in this country and our allies today do not have the stomach for a necessary but horrible sacrifice the greatest generation did. There is not enough pride in being an American today for everyone to fight for it or make sacrifices to a war effort to succeed. Our political leaders certainly would not lead this country through it.
Ought to watch it, over romanticized as most war films of that time were, but good, has some great scenes and gives the viewer a feel for the immense scope of the operation
signalmankenneth
Verified User
I am not sure we have the evidence to say that.
The nation our grandparents lived in had literally been attacked, bombed, and torpedoed by armed forces of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Those two nations were great powers that pre-emptiveily declared war on us, and our nation's well-being and perhaps survival were at stake. Everyone in 1941 knew that Japan was bent on dominating Asia and the Pacific, and that Nazi Germany had intention as well as the ways and means to subjugate Eurasia with direct consequences for the welfare of people in North America and around the planet.
Those are profound and existential reasons for people to be motivated and prepared to fight.
Sending a kid to kill Vietnamese in a jungle in southeast Asia in a civil war that is no significant threat to our country - or sending American kids on false pretenses to invade an Arabic country that poses no substantial threat to us are not exactly the types of existential threats that make people feel morally obligated and motivated to fight for.
If our generation of kids ever had to face the kind of threat that Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan represented to the welfare and safety of the citizens of our nation, we cannot say what would happen - it would be speculation....we simply cannot speculate how they would respond. They might well respond in ways that are just as admirable as the "greatest" generation.