doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com D-Day, 2025.

If you know a serviceman, try to use the occasion to thank them for their service. Remember those brave American souls who liberated Europe for the second time that century.

Best,
Ted

Never forgotten.

(And I still think about some of the stories that came to light in last year’s D-Day thread)

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/world-war-ii-veterans-travel-normandy-emotional-d-day-commemoration

I can remember WWII when I was a youngster and when they were young men. I had 5 uncles who served. All of whom survived. And my hometown (Waterloo, Iowa) was home to the 5 Sullivan brothers. All of whom enlisted in the Navy and died when the Japanese sank the cruiser Juneau. Only one of them was married and had children. A granddaughter represents the family in any official events, especially when the latest Juneau puts to sea for its maiden voyage. Their death resulted in regulations making sure that at least one sibling of a family should survive. Most people my age can remember several teachers and coaches who were WWII vets. I think we were lucky to have them.

Some were still around and serving, like our platoon sergeant, when I went through Basic Training in1963. There were also a few in my National Guard unit. Those much younger than I am (and I turn octogenarian inAugust) will have missed serving with them. Also had WWII vets, some of whom had served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the forerunner of the CIA) when I went to DC as a CIA recruit. Once more, our good luck to have been exposed to those vets. It's sad to think that very few of that generation still survive.

I doubt we will see their likes again. We're the worse off for it.

Hero’s are where and when you find them. There is no expiration date on courage and service to country:

https://www.greyteam.org/two-marines-in-the-path-of-a-truck-bomb/

Best,
Ted

Yes, indeed, and there’s no expiration date on stories from D-Day of “ordinary” men who rose to extraordinary levels of courage through toughness and determination. This story just came across my desk.

https://gunsamerica.com/digest/joseph-jumpin-joe-beyrle-american-paratrooper/

And Doc Dabbs is right: in his POW picture Joseph Beyrle most definitely “…looks like the sort that might cause trouble.”

It wasn't just American servicemen (God bless them) that liberated Europe. There were many nations represented by the armies that fought across Europe in 1944 & 45 to rid the world of the Nazi Reich.

Tim
British Army veteran

The Brits and Canadians were definitely there as well. And behind the lines, the British SOE and American OSS working with groups resisting the Nazi occupation. Setting Europe Ablaze as Prime Minister Churchill put it.

Max Hastings recently published a very well researched book about the French resistance, different and often adversarial groups, that blocked German troop movement to Normandy in the days before, during, and following the invasion. The German reprisals against local citizens was nothing short of a horror. Everyone contributed to the event what they could. They all were the greatest generation.

The greatest generation? That were those of the Great War. None else.
WW II bears no comparison.