D-Day 6th of June 1944

[Buccaneer]

This thread has nothing to do with rifles but everything to do with the men who carried them. Seven years ago I traveled to Normandy with a group of "British Normandy Veterans" to pay respects to the thousands of men who did not come home, today the surviving veterns now in their eighties and nineties still return to remember their fallen comrades.
Whatever country you may come from it will have special commerative days for the armed forces because of my association with the "Normand Veterans Association" this just happens to be mine.
Sixty seven years ago today 150 thousand men from many countries were put ashore, many never made it off the beach.
In this forum we discuss "Enfields" in every way shape and form but seldom if ever do we give a thought to the young men many still in their teens who carried them into battle.
Next time you take your "old soldier" from the gun cabinet to take it for an outing to the range look at it and say a quiet thankyou to the many thousands of men who have carried these rifles through countless conflicts around the world and did not come home.
"THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD, AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD;
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM, NOR THE YEARS CONDEM.
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

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[browningautorifle]

Rememberance day and D-Day come once a year for most, I think of those guys every day. My dad went ashore on 6 June at Juno beach. Second wave of assault craft with support weapons. He was wounded three times during the war and made it from 39-45. De-mob'd with the rest at war's end and never got over it.

[RCS]

There is a man that I often talk with, his name is Mike Mason. He lost his right leg at the hip on D Day, he was only 19 years old. He went back to France in 1979 on a trip. After the war ended in 1945 he was still in the Army Hospital for another year. Always lived by himself and still drives

[Alexisrq]

By far, our greatest generation. Big “cojones” to do what they did in Normandy. I humbly salute them and gave them my respect and admiration. Hooah!

[spinecracker]

I too think of them every day. The more I read, the more respect and awe I have for those who landed in Normandy, whether by landing craft or from the air. Few came back unscathed, whether physically or mentally, and some are still fighting the war and seeing the fallen. Leading up to D-Day, my home town was a staging area for the 101st Airborne (several of the "Band of Brothers" of Easy Company, 506th, were stationed on the grounds of an Elizabethan mansion 7 miles from where I was born), and elements of the 101st flew out of the nearby airbase for both D-Day and Operation Market-Garden. De Havilland Mosquito parts and No.4T transit chests were made in local carpentry shops. My home town gave husbands and sons to Normandy, some never to return.

I asked someone at work the other day what significance the 6th of June had for them - they had no idea, even after I dropped some bloody big hints. Lest we forget...

[canuck98k]

I used to cut grass for a gentleman who went ashore at Juno on June 7th. He was an artillery observer. After each cutting I had to sign papers from Veterans Affairs. He'd always give me a treat, juice and a cookie, before he got to the paperwork. I'd go inside, but as a young high school kid I just wanted to get going and hang out with my friends.

I'm so thankful my parents raised me well, because I stayed; as I was taught to respect my elders. I learned so much from this man about what words like freedom, sacrifice, and courage meant, that pretty soon I couldn't wait for the grass to grow again. Every June 6th I think about this man, and what he did.

Smellie, probably knows of whom I speak, as he and I are from the same town.

I guess all I can say is thanks to Mr. D. and all the others.

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