The beach from a German machine gun post, visible at bottom right. These German MGs fire 1200 rpm. A host of them raked the beach to welcome the Americans
At a German strong point overlooking Omaha Beach. This one fought for hours until an American tank blasted it. Above the door you can see a tank hit... and there is one hit inside!
This cemetery houses almost 10,000 US combatants. These include 44 pairs of twins, and one case of three brothers out of four, which inspired "Saving Private Ryan", the opening frame of which was shot here.
Also buried here are two sons of President Theodore Roosevelt; and three Medal of Honour winners, America's highest gallantry award. One of Roosevelt's sons, a brigadier-general, won the Medal of Honour for his action during the landing. He died of a heart attack a month later.
The Worst part - We only can picture ourselves in the cemeteries for the Martyrs of other Nations. Our Govt. does not find land for those that have fallen while safeguarding our mother land, our India.
ReplyDeleteA great experience for you! Spielberg's motion picture was very moving.
ReplyDeleteThose wanting to know more about the Niland brothers, who inspired the post, the Sullivan brithers, all five of whom perished when USS Juneau sank at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, or the movie itself, may find this blog post of mine interesting reading :
http://thebutterflydiaries.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/saving-private-ryan/
I have never been to Normandy, but I have been to Arlington National Cemetary and a local one too. All these places just reminds me of an ignorant comment I read sometime ago "Americans do not understand the cost of war". I think the person who wrote that didn't visit any such place that fills us Americans with pain and pride, both at the same time. If they did there is no way they would have even thought of it, let alone putting it in black on white.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the pictures and other details.
That was a googly!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Col Shukla,
ReplyDeleteThere was nothing in the picture to suggest that it was Omaha Beach, of Normandy. How could anyone guess the correct answer? Even if I happened to be a military and a strategic buffs who visited Broadsword often I could find no clue to suggest its location.
NRP
Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on during World War II.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous 11:41
ReplyDeleteYup, you're right, there is nothing on Broadsword to give a hint of what beach that was.
When I said that "the military and strategic experts who visit Broadsword" would home in quickly onto the answer, I wasn't referring to some small sign in the corner of the beach saying, "Omaha Beach".
As you can see, several people answered correctly... how do you imagine they did that?
teddy roosevelt loses two sons for his nation, and manmohan singh seeks to name a building for a guy who gave up bhagat singh and other freedom fighters to the british. what a difference between american and indian leaders. shameful.
ReplyDeleteObama is a President of America.I am very impress with obama.
ReplyDeleteYaah you did a right job in this post.I like it very much.Please keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete