What's so fantastic about d day I know it was a major event in history but it's old now.
If your truly anaware of why those men are heros of the largest kind rent the hbo miniseries called Band of Brothers , its the story of the usa's 1st attempt at airborn troops parachuting behind enemy lines , the 101st airborns easy companys exploits are shown .
From the second they hit the ground they were surrounded on all sides by the SS & Whermacht , they had to fight their way over 100 miles in enemy territory to link up with the men storming the beaches , the 12 men of E company attacked heavily fortified german positions that were firing four 105 mm artillery directly into the soldiers srorming the beach causing mass slaughter , the 12 men overtook the 4 artillery squads along with 2 mg 42 machine gun positions ( fastest machine gun in the world ) & destroyed all 4 artillery guns making the beach landings much safer , their mission should of took 50 men but they did it with 12 .
Later in the war in whats known as the Battle of the Bulge Hitlers SS started a feirce counter attack along a 100 mile front & was killing americans & taking huge amounts of US held terratory , it was one of the feircest battles of ww2 , E company was sent in to hold the line in 20- zero weather with no winter clothing & very little ammo , they suffered huge losses by the SS shelling their position with their deadly 88 mm versitile artillery guns using tree burst shells , the men of E company were shelled by high explosives hitting the ground & landing in trees sending shattered peices of trees thru the air that cut men in half , they were surrounded by the SS without food , medicine or ammuntion to fight back & when the germans offered them an honorable surrender they told the germans to fuck off & held the line .
WW2's most famous general George Pattons men had been fighting for 30 days straight on a rampage that covered more miles of attack than any other battle group in the history of war , after fighting non stop Patton ordered his army to head for Bastogne where E company was surrounded & being slaughtered , Pattons men marched for 3 days 24 hours a day non stop to reach Bastogne in time to rescue E company , after 3 & 1/2 days of non stop travel pattons army reached the lines , beat the germans back & rescued E company .
General Pattons rampage was so feared by the germans the us army used Patton as a decoy in another area so Hitler would think Patton was attacking Callis & allow our forces to storm the beaches at Normandy , when general Patton did pick up the attack his 3rd armys attack of the germans was so fast & dealdy when the leader of our armies ( Ike ) toured the battle zone left by Pattons men he was horrified at the death , his memouirs say he thought he could walk for miles stepping on nothing but dead bodies , Pattons armored Battle techniques & E companys assult of a heavily fortified fixed position are still taught at west point military academy today .
And the war in europe was the easy war, the war the marines fought in the pacific against japan was the largest assembly of men , machines & ships ever assembled in the history of war & even larger than the force used in Normandy on D day , marines fought & died for inches of ground on islands like Tarawa , in the battle of guatacanal the us navy lost well over 5,000 men from japanese fighter pilots who flew their planes directly into the decks of US navy ships like flying bombs , once marines did hit the beaches they faced the japaneese army who would rather die than surrender , most had to be burned alive using flame throwers or grenades thrown in caves & underground tunnels , at that time the japanese navy was the best naval force in the world with the most firepower & our navy had to slug it out with them , the death toll of marines fighting japan was so horrific it dwarfed all deaths in the war in europe , us command expected atleast 1 million casulties if we invaded the home island of japan , thats when the decision to drop the atomic bomb took place .
The death toll of rhe russians caused by german soldiers was well over 2 million men & germany came within miles of capturing moscow , the severe russian winter saved them from certian defeat .
Thats ww2 in a nutshell .
Watch the movie titled Patton , then the follow up The last days of Patton as well as the mini series Band of Brothers & you'll understand why men like my father were the greatest generation , many fighting the war of all wars as young as 14 yrs old .