D-Day +63

June 6, 2007 9:28 AM

“All patriots, men and women, young and old, have a part to play in the achievement of final victory.”
posted by NotMyselfRightNow (16 comments total)

Select Daily Telegraph Crossword Answers:
Overlord
Utah
Omaha
Mulberry
Neptune
posted by absalom at 9:43 AM on June 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh, and shouldn't it be D-Day +23010?
posted by absalom at 9:48 AM on June 6, 2007

America's greatest generation had balls. Thanks for reminding us.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 9:49 AM on June 6, 2007

Oh man, that crossword story is great. Thanks, absalom.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:59 AM on June 6, 2007

Compare with other calls to patriotic duty like:

"Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America's great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed," from the president and

"We need to respond quickly so people regain confidence and consider it their patriotic duty to go shopping, go to a restaurant, take a cruise, travel with their family," from the President's brother.
posted by deanc at 10:01 AM on June 6, 2007 [2 favorites]

God bless'em.
posted by MarshallPoe at 10:02 AM on June 6, 2007

"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

Not only was Eisenhower a pragmatist (carrying both a success and failure note on his person that day), he was also willing to give the glory to the men landing on the beach and take all their blame. That's true leadership.

Meanwhile, our government blames the liberals for their failure in Iraq. That's cowardice.
posted by dw at 10:03 AM on June 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Of course it couldn't have happened without the aid of Hobart's Funnies
posted by Gungho at 10:36 AM on June 6, 2007

The dummy tanks were just as important, maybe?
posted by absalom at 11:08 AM on June 6, 2007

"Casualties on the OMAHA beach for Demolition personnel were 31 killed and 60 wounded, a casualty rate of 52 per cent."

Back before there were SEALs, before there were UDTs, there were NCDUs (Naval Combat Demolition Units) to clear some of the heaviest build-ups of beach obstacles and mines in the history of amphibious warfare. Clearing paths through that was not the healthiest of ways to earn a pay check.
posted by pax digita at 11:28 AM on June 6, 2007

Thank you.
posted by castironskillet at 1:59 PM on June 6, 2007

Also, a prior post of mine about Band of Brothers and an AskMefi post on cinematic D-Day portrayals.
posted by rzklkng at 2:04 PM on June 6, 2007

It's funny, normally I remember that it's D-Day but I didn't remember until late today. I was wondering why my Grandfather was talking about Caen and Carpiquet Airport when I called him yesterday.
posted by smcniven at 2:27 PM on June 6, 2007

Hour by hour radio news broadcasts of D-Day.
posted by Dave Faris at 2:34 PM on June 6, 2007

The Red Army's D-Day, June 22, 1944:

Precisely at 0500 hours Soviet guns opened fire, heralding a giant offensive, with six main thrusts launched across a 450-mile (730-kilometer) wide front involving 1,245,000 men, 14 combined-army armies, one tank army, 124 out of 168 rifle divisions committed to the attack, 2,175 tanks supported by 1,355 self-propelled guns, 24,000 guns and mortars, four "air armies" with 5,327 aircraft, plus a further 700 heavy bombers of Long-Range Aviation.
...
On July 2 all hope of extricating the encircled 4th and 9th Armies was extinguished. The German defensive system on the central sector of the Eastern Front had cracked wide open, obliterating 25 to 28 divisions with the loss of 300,000 men. The Red Army had achieved its greatest single success of the war, visiting on the German Army a catastrophe eclipsing even that of Stalingrad, quite as decisive as the fighting on the Western Front.

This was preceded by a diversionary attack against Finland with 41 divisions, 800 tanks and 10,000 guns. This was after Stalingrad in 1942/43 and Kursk in 1943.

Eastern Front: Soviet Gains July 1, 1943 - June 1944
Map of Soviet gains on the Eastern Front from August 1943-December 1944.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:04 PM on June 6, 2007

One remark that resonates with me is Andy Rooney's characterization of 6 June 1944: "It was one of the most monumentally unselfish things one group of people ever did for another."
posted by pax digita at 4:07 PM on June 6, 2007