Greetings:
I know, I know - this is NOT about rules nor rulebased systems nor
anything like that. But, sometimes, we need to reach as many people
as possible who may or may not be interested in what we need to say
and please forgive me for this minor indiscretion. (But, I'll
probably do it again in December)
OK, what’s so special about June 6th? Next Sunday morning at 0600 GMT
- NOT Daylight Savings Time - will mark the 66th year since the
invasion of Europe by the Allied forces at Normandy, France, on June
6, 1944. Remember, the war in England and the rest of Europe had been
going on since September, 1939, when this happened.
Unless you are over 40 (or had a father figure in the military) you
probably don’t know about Normandy and D-Day. I asked 10 or 15 people
at Best Buy the other night and got all blank looks except for one
future-Marine (just enlisted) who knew it had something to do with a
war or a battle or something like that. Look up “D-Day Normandy” on
Google. Or, better yet, go watch “Saving Private Ryan” [there is a
brief blurb is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrjNEReJI2Q&feature=related
] or "The Longest Day” (terrible acting but far more vivid than
anything up until that time) [another brief blurb at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-hzm6lkQPI&NR=1
] - the stuff on YouTube or watching the movie will give you a WAY
more graphical and personal point of view than just reading about it
on the computer screen.
Regardless, having a “Monday in May” (that's what we did in the USA)
for all veterans of all wars doesn’t seem to cover the carnage of D-
Day and Omaha Beach. The U. S. Army Center for Military History
claims over 60,00 USA dead and wounded at Omaha Beach on that one
day. If the Germans could have had another six months to prepare, the
British and Canadians would not have walked ashore at Gold and Juno
beaches nor the other Americans at Utah and Sword beaches, although
the Allies at Utah beach did receive a pretty warm welcome. We can
also be thankful that Adolph totally ignored his Generals and kept the
15th Panzer division locked up at
Total dead (mostly dead – not much in the way of medical aid that day)
and wounded for the USA that day was over 135,000 US Army and
Marines. The UK (a much smaller nation) lost 65,000 of their finest
that day. the Germans lost 320,000 men (30K killed, 80K wounded, 210K
MIA) in the Heer or Wehrmacht regular army, not so much the Waffen SS
who were stationed elsewhere at the time. In addition, there were
12,000 civilian casualties killed or missing. All total: a number
that was over 500,000 humans died in one battle that one day. Please,
try to remember all of them on Sunday morning; USA, UK, Canadian,
French, Polish, Austrian, German, Russian, all of them.
SDG
jco
CoFounder DRG 2000
CoFounder ORF-2008/ORF-2009
http://www.DallasRulesGroup.org
http://www.OctoberRulesFest.org
http://www.RulesFest.org
