June 6 , 64 years ago

[lt632ret]

"Almighty God, our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity."

With these opening words, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt informed America of the of the Allied Invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. Hitler's "Festung Europa" was to be breached. The cost would be high, very high. The average age of Americans who flew sorties, glided, jumped, or waded ashore on Omaha and Utah Beaches that day was twenty years. Many would not live to see their twenty first. The same is true of the British and other allies who stormed ashore on Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches. Those who did survive that ghastly day, and the war, who are alive today, are no longer young men. They are in their eighties and departing this earth at the rate of one thousand and five hundred each day. Soon, all of them will be gone. We must never forget what they did for us. Never forget. Never.

On the day, on the other side of the world another great battle was raging. British and their Indian Allies were in a desperate fight for control of the Indian border area near "Kohima", a key entry point for taking Burma from the Japanese. Our allies, the British prevailed, suffering over seventeen thousand casualties. The Japanese suffered more than sixty thousand.

Many of those British, and their allies, lie beneath a stone monument at Kohima.
Upon it, are engraved these words:

"When you go home, tell them of us -
And say -
For your tomorrow, we gave our today."

Those are profound and fitting words for all the casualties of World War Two, the greatest conflict in the history of the world. What was the cost? Impossible to quantify, except in terms of humanity. Among the dead and missing are these military and civilians: Great Britain 500 thousand, China 22 million, France 425 thousand, Germany 6 million, Japan 4 million, Poland 7 million, United States 300 thousand, Soviet Union 20 million.

Germany and Japan were defeated. The United States and Soviet Union emerged
as superpowers.
Thus was set, the stage for the "Cold war." Speaking of the cold war checking my archives I found this picture I wonder if any of you might recall these scenes. The sentiment on the bottom was written at the time and was quite heartfelt however if it needs to be censored feel free. I once heard Gen G Pattan ( the III the son of the WWII GP ) speak at West Point one of his comments was that as long as there were people there would be the need for service academys for as long as there were people there would be war . It is truly a shame that he was, it would seem absolutely correct. Why we never learn from there sacrifices is beyond me so much so, that with what we have done to ourselves and how we have abused the stewardship of our planet ( we treat it like we had a spare in the trunk ). I am often ashamed to be a member of the human race. If only we could remember history and the price paid . LT PS I also included some factory (promotion) photos of the Schrade WW II memorial set. Just for some knife content. PPS the first part of this post was a quote from an email I received from a friend of mine who is a retired Captain from special forces. Courage take from the green beret. ( from the song ) thankyou for the words RAY

[johnnierotten]

June 6th 1938 is my Fathers Birthday.

[Paladin]

They were clearly "The Greatest Generation".