TheQM – Lest We Forget

[TheQM]

78 years ago, young men of 18 and 19 left their safe spaces and stood up to evil.
They stormed the beaches from landing craft into a withering wall of bullets or jumped from aeroplanes into hail of anti-aircraft and machine gun fire.
Yet they leapt.
At the time I don’t believe any of them was thinking about their impact would have on the world for generations to come, they were trying to stay alive and keep each other alive.
Many never returned, but evil was crushed by their deeds.


"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke


We will Remember, Reflect and Respect.


Normandy. 6 June 1944
Lest we forget

[MSW2]

Eighteen and nineteen. And in the case of my grandfather 15 when he ran away from home to join the Navy. He used an older brother's details :)
A different breed from most we have today.

[oafpatroll]

Few understand what we owe them and sadly fewer and fewer even know that they did what they did. It's staggering to think that the majority of them had never been in combat when they hit the beaches on a coast prepared for them by Erwin Rommel.

[Peter Wells]

Thanks for reminder. Was away but drank a toast on Monday.

[Welshman]

In 1943, four years into WW2, the British government faced a terrible predicament – it was estimated that there were only three weeks of vital coal supply left. With an urgent need for more coal to fuel the war effort, and unable to attract enough workers to meet this demand, a large workforce of men were conscripted to work in the coal mines. They became known as the Bevin Boys.

We remember them too each year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Conditions were horrible, and a lot of them died on the job and before their time due to coal dust inhalation.

[Welshman]

We remember Gunner Thomas Hawkley, Royal Regiment of Artillery. He made it through the landing at sword beach on D Day, only to be KIA a few days later. May his sacrifice help bring the peace and freedom for which he died.

[TheQM]

Thank you all for your comments

Lest We Forget

[Caliph]

@TheQM do you have a personal connection to any of these people who died?

[camouflage762]

Personally: Not on D-Day.

Had an Uncle who fought in North Africa. I was quite young when I met him. Apparently he was a raging alcoholic and the family linked it to his experience of the war.

On my wife's side, her grandfather was also up north for most of the war.