D-Day for us...

[D2shooter]

Hello,

For us French peoples, today's the D-Day, the day when too many youngs soldiers fallen in Normandie for our Freedom against the nazi stuff ...

Today is the Day when my Grand-Pa used to cry in silence because he was there like a civilian resistant and he had seen the Freedom come to him and talk English language ... It's just too much in a man's live, too much happiness.

I wanted to thanks the USA who give us so much.

In Memory of those who fall in France.

Thank you...

 

[Forum Boss]

D2,

Thank you for remembering. There are still a few of the men who stepped off the landing craft left. My father went in later in the Southern French landing and I still have his invasion Arm Band.

"The Normandy American Cemetery in nearby Colleville-Sur-Mer contains the graves of 9,386 American military dead and inscriptions of the names of 1,557 missing U.S. soldiers whose remains were not located or identified."

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach.

Citation: "On 8 June 1944, the 3d Battalion of the 116th Infantry was advancing on the strongly held German defenses at Grandcampe, France, when the leading elements were suddenly halted by decimating machinegun fire from a firmly entrenched enemy force on the high ground overlooking the town. After numerous attempts to neutralize the enemy position by supporting artillery and tank fire had proved ineffective, T/Sgt. Peregory, on his own initiative, advanced up the hill under withering fire, and worked his way to the crest where he discovered an entrenchment leading to the main enemy fortifications 200 yards away. Without hesitating, he leaped into the trench and moved toward the emplacement. Encountering a squad of enemy riflemen, he fearlessly attacked them with handgrenades and bayonet, killed 8 and forced 3 to surrender. Continuing along the trench, he single-handedly forced the surrender of 32 more riflemen, captured the machine gunners, and opened the way for the leading elements of the battalion to advance and secure its objective. The extraordinary gallantry and aggressiveness displayed by T/Sgt. Peregory are exemplary of the highest tradition of the armed forces."

Six days later he was killed in action.

---------------------

"We do not forget, we shall never forget, the infinite debt of gratitude that we owe to those who have give all for our freedom."
--René Jules Gustave Coty, President of France, 1954 to 1959

 

[shcal]

Thanks D2 and thanks Moderator for the D-Day remembrances. Here's a good link to a speech Ronald Regan gave in 1984 at the June 6th ceremony in Normandy.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/06/the_boys_of_pointe_du_hoc.html

 

[D2shooter]

Dear Moderator

A member of the main shooting forum,TirMaillyForum.com) here in France, live near Colleville-sur-Mer at approximatly 5 Milles...

I ask him to go looking for your's Father grave and put down some bleue white and red flowers from you. Just a little thing than we can do with a lot of emotion...

He may take some pictures of the grave with the flowers if we have the permission.

I'll post you the picture if you agree with it.

Your father was a real Heros like many others soldiers who give their live after a long way from home... He surely save a lot of live with his act of bravoures.

Best regards.

Laurent. FRANCE.

 

[Forum Boss]

D2 --

Thanks for the thought, but if it wasn't clear, my Dad is still living, though he has cancer and, sadly, he may not see another birthday.

I just posted the Sgt. Peregory grave photo because I felt his story was worth telling--he's no relation to me. But maybe it would be right to put a flower on Sgt. Peregory's grave just the same... as a remembrance.

My father, after serving in Africa, went in with the amphibious landing in Southern France,Marseilles area), and was part of the campaign that chased the Germans through the Falaise Gap. After the war he studied art at the Sorbonne, and married a French lady. They were divorced, later, but his first-born, my brother, is half French. He served as a medic in Viet Nam.

Here is one of my father's works:

And here is one of my brother's paintings, "Team Leader", part of a series inspired by Viet Nam.

 

[D2shooter]

Ooops ! I think I'd make a mistake, :crazy:

So, glad to know that your Father's still alive, and you can tell him than the French people will always remember the amazing work they did this June 6 1944 ...

The Freedom, the Victory and nice looking GI's was irresistible for a lot of pretty young woman, the result was : Love. The better way to forget all this years of war.
Surely the best medecine for all.

No doubt that the Sgt Peregory deserved a flowered grave ! We'll make that possible.

Have a nice day.

 

[D2shooter]

The heart of a great nation rests here...

 

[Forum Boss]

Wow,

Did your friend put those flowers there?

What a very nice way to honor a real hero--and all the soldiers,and partisans) who helped liberate France.

Merci Beaucoup.

- - - -

Here's some more interesting history on Sgt. Peregory:

1944
Grandcamp, Normandy, France — Technical Sergeant Frank Peregory, a Guard member of Company K, 116th Infantry,VA), 29th Infantry Division earns the Medal of Honor by single-handily killing or capturing more than 20 Germans manning a trench that blocked the regiment's advance along the Normandy coast...

But Peregory had demonstrated his quick thinking under pressure even prior to leaving the United States for combat. In early 1942, as his unit was moving along an icy road in North Carolina one of the trucks slipped down an embankment and plunged into a small river. Two men were trapped under the canvas cover and would soon be drowned. Peregory borrowed a knife from another soldier and jumped into the freezing water to cut the top and brought each man to the bank safely. For this deed he was awarded the Soldiers Medal, the Army's highest decoration for valor, at the risk of one's life, but not related to combat. Unfortunately Peregory never saw his Medal of Honor, he was killed in action ten days later.

 

[D2shooter]

Yes, that was a whole history...
After all, my friend go there and find the grave. There is a lot of tombs and it wasn't easy to find.
The avg. age of the GI was 23 years .... So young.
Which courageous fighters !

Respect.

PS: C'est avec plaisr.

 

[Forum Boss]

Thank you and your friend so much for making that gesture.

 

[M700]

With enormous respect for the young men who fought so hard.

Semper Fi, Guy