There being so much on the MSM plus the net, this will be a commemoration but the fine detail can be found in most western publications. For those born on the Planet Zog:
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day (after the military term), it is the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.
[Express]
Naturally we commemorate the planning, decoys, assembly and operation … especially the bravery of those participating … most westerners, plus others have at least some family connection with the event.
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Mum’s older brother had a direct connection with the D-Day landings on the 6th June 1944. He left school in 1943 age 14 and went to work in a local boatyard. Pre-war the company who took him on as an apprentice made small vessels for commercial fishing and pleasure craft of the motor variety. The War Department intervened and ordered the company to make landing craft – the smallest type – in large numbers in readiness for the invasion. Every small boatyard in Poole was involved and they made hundreds of these LCVP’s that could carry a platoon of infantry or up to three jeeps and crew. My Uncle thoroughly enjoyed his work and was proud of his war effort at such a young age. Post-war he qualified as a marine electrician; was conscripted into the RAF; took part in the Berlin Airlift, fixing aircraft as they flew.
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JH: My dad didn’t speak much of it though he did have photo albums. He must have started as infantry but moved to anti-tank, I know he was in North Africa, saw Monty too one day.