80th Anniversary of D-Day

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'm a little surprised at the lack of a thread on this board, so thought I'd start one. I remember the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day very well, at least from the perspective of a child. These days there are only a couple of hundred veterans left (if that), but thirty years ago there were still tens of thousands, and there would generally be a few of them in any given community up and down the country. Quite a few actually died around the time of the anniversary, enough that some people were a bit spooked. Makes sense of course: the media build-up and coverage was huge (so much bigger than now), and all that trauma and stress on people with often pretty weak hearts. There were visits from survivors to schools up and down the country (including, quite often, the grandfathers of children who had previously no idea of it at all), special assemblies and all that sort of thing. We were a society much more obviously touched by the War then than now, and to an extent that is really only clear if you step back and thing about it.

[Meclazine for Israel]

PBS News Hour just had a great episode with some new stories

Normandy Landings 1944

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m9yKB5TtOM

Amazing bravery under mind numbing conditions.

Normandy military collectibles are off the chart.

Many American soldiers who captured German soldiers took their gear - daggers, helmets, guns, medals and put them in a wooden box and sent then back to their parents farm in Kansas.

Then they got killed leaving these German military collectible items to sit in the US for 80 years.

They are called 'take-home' boxes and quite prized by military collectors.

A German camouflaged Normandy helmet could fetch anywhere between $5-$15k.

If it is a German paratrooper helmet, around US$25-45k.

If it comes in a take home box with other provenance, the sky is the limit.

The Normandy gear on both sides has shot through the roof in price in recent years. I wouldn't mind a US helmet from the Normandy landing, and an officers watch.

Anyway, here is Sen Ted Budd getting some good 'ol American sentiment flowing with some drums and aspiring cello's.

Senator Ted Budd

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C74bJtHR744/