A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
Through their extraordinary bravery and sacrifice, they played a key part in bringing an end to one of the most deranged and murderous regimes that ever haunted this planet.
Canadian soldiers move up a Juno Beach heavily defended by Nazi trooops in Normandy, France on June 6th, 1944.
They are the more than 130,000 soldiers from Canada, the United States, Britain and other allied countries that charged through a hell fire of Nazi bullets on the beaches of Normandy, France, 70 years ago this June 6th on what will forever be known in history as D Day.
They were mere kids in their late teens and early 20s then – many not old enough to be served a beer in a tavern back home. Yet in the eyes of their leaders, they were man enough to serve on the frontline of the largest and one of the dangerous invasions of a coastline ever planned.
Most of those who remain are in their late 80s and early 90s now – old people with blood-and-gut memories more horrific than most of us who followed could ever imagine.
America troops land on Omaha Beach to wall of Nazi machine guns on D Day in June, 1944.
Talk to them and, unlike so many of our political leaders today who have never experienced the carnage on a battlefield, you will hardly find one who thought that invading Iraq, for example, was a good idea. Some of the most moving words I heard at peace rallies during the Vietnam War era 40 some years ago were delivered by Second World War veterans.
This 70th anniversary of D Day provides one more opportunity to honour them and one way to do so is to not take for granted the freedoms, including our right to vote, that they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for.
(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
My cousin Garnett Trimble landed with Canadian D Day forces and was killed by a tank a month later in France. Three of his brothers also served overseas. My father was in the RCAF 410 Mosquito Squadron. I had a total of 5 first cousins that I know of and 4 uncles who fought in Europe or participated in convoy duty. One uncle became an alcoholic after horrors in Italy but I didn’t know the reason until after his death. The women at home worked in the factories. Europeans saw their homes destroyed & were constantly terrorized. I know several Dutch people who saw their families starve to death or be shot. You cannot go anywhere in the low countries that Canadians are not revered to this day including by generations who weren’t even alive!
This generation will soon be gone completely. Meanwhile we now have a generation growing up who feel entitled & are spoiled brats who bitch if the internet isn’t fast enough or they don’t get a car for graduating high school. Imagine them (or myself) charging into fire on an unprotected beach? It would be frightening to think that my generation or the generations since could or would do what the WW2 generation did. Perhaps I underestimate them but I doubt it. Few of us now alive know deprivation or hard work. Thank God for the WW2 generation.
That being said, have things improved? Our governments talk the talk but are a bunch of self satisfied pansies & have no respect beyond lip service for the brave men & women who served & died or were left forever scarred physically & mentally. They fought for us in a war that was probably the last “just” war in the world. The only one I respect is Romeo Dallaire & he just resigned. Now people can’t even bother to educate themselves enough to know current events or get off their fat asses to vote. Why did millions of Canadians, Americans, Brits, Russians, Poles, French, Aussies, Dutch, Belgian, Kiwis & others die? The waste of humanity was awful enough but to let their sacrifice & ideals be passed on to apathetic descendants is sad indeed.
LikeLike
WOW – Look at all the comments! So much for respecting history & our vets.
LikeLike
Way to go Linda. I agree completely with your comments, I am a post war child born in 1948 in Manchester, North West England. My home City was badly bombed during the War.
My father was in The Royal Engineers and lost most if his Company defusing bombs and boobytraps. He spent time in Malta, Gibraltar and Africa. He taught me how important understanding why the War happened and always to be involved in fighting for truth and justice.
To quote Edmund Burke, “For Evil to Flourish all it takes is for good men and women to do nothing.” Unfortunately I feel we are living in that day. Most of the people I work with and friends I know know nothing or very little about the War and worse don’t care. My children in their forties told me I am in the last generation that gives a damn. Sad but also dangerous!
LikeLike
Thanks for your comment Linda P. I play pipes yearly at Remembrance Day and, at least in Ridgeway, the school kids attend & are made aware of the sacrifices they made. One teacher has each student study the stories of individuals who served, whether they lived or died & when they realized these people were not much older than them it makes a big impact! Last year we were invited to the school the next day & Joy Russell spoke of her experiences & I spoke of my dad’s. They also go to the Legion afterward and meet the vets. There is also a war plane flyover. I think our town does it right.
I recall being in Coventry and London in the 60’s and still seeing bomb damage. We in the west have no clue what Britain and Europe suffered. Unfortunately “never again” rings hollow.
LikeLike
For many like myself, it’s a quiet respect, and solemn remembrance, in adoration of those who have sacrificed for the freedoms enjoyed and often taken for granted today. I didn’t have any close relatives in the great world wars or any other conflicts, but I did have a great-uncle who survived Vimy Ridge in WW1 and an uncle who drove truck on “retrieval” during WW2 in Europe. I had an acquaintance ahead of me in school who died in Viet Nam in 1967, and that was the war prominent in my generation, when the Buffalo Evening News I delivered as a kid daily printed the horrors we saw on TV in the evening. To the present day war on terrorism, politics has become increasingly involved in a world where the enemy is more obscure, radical, and unpredictably dangerous in their quest to sabotage free world interest and mentalities. The mechanics and physical manifestations of war have totally changed, but the new generations must be continually taught and reminded of the courage of those who have gone on before us on our behalf.
LikeLike