Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Sunday 6 June 2004

Today we commemorate the D-Day landings of sixty years ago



The beach here in Nairn was used as one of the training sites for British troops who took part in 'OPERATION OVERLORD' on 6th June 1944.


This small commemorative cairn is visible from my home, which is less than 100 yards from the shore.


Sixty years ago today, on 6th June 1944, 'Operation Overlord' was launched, to start the process of recapturing territories in Europe which had been overrun by Nazi tyranny. A force of 156,000 was assembled, comprising 73,000 American and 83,000 British or Canadian troops, of whom 132,500 were transported across the English Channel to the Normandy beaches of France by sea, the remainder by air. All this was accomplished with the aid of 1,200 fighting ships, 10,000 planes, 4,126 landing craft, 804 transport ships, and hundreds of amphibious and other special purpose tanks.

Beach-heads were established and the process of liberating Europe had begun, but at a heavy cost in human life. Today I give thanks to the brave people who made possible the lives we all enjoy today.

UPDATE: (Monday 7JUN04 12.26PM BST) The BBC has a nice photgallery of a few moments from yesterday's day-long series of events.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Welcome to my comment area. Whilst all comment is welcome you are requested to respect the views of others. To read full terms for use of this facility, please visit my 'Terms of Use' section, linked to under the 'About this Blog' heading at top right of the blog. Note added 12JUL2010 - All comments will now be pre-moderated before they appear in this blog; this is a measure to prevent 'spam' commenting, which has become frequent of late. Thank you.