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Today in History: 5 June

June 5, 1944 – Weather concerns delay the scheduled beginning of the D-Day Invasion of occupied France. The start of the invasion gets pushed back by 24 hours, which meant that the actual invasion started on June 6. Most historians believe that the D-Day invasion signaled the beginning of the end of the second World War.

From D-day through August 21, the Allies landed more than two million men in northern France and suffered more than 226,386 casualties: 72,911 killed/missing and 153,475 wounded. Between 13,000 and 20,000 French civilians died, and many more were seriously wounded.

Here is a great article discussing the invasion, the planning, and the operation in detail.

The Funnies:

On the Menu Today – Half Moon Cookies

These cookies are an Upstate New York favorite. Not to be confused with NYC’s Black & Whites, this website not only explains all the differences, it also gives a great recipe for how to make them!

Quote of the Day

“The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity – or it will move apart.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Comic of the Day

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Image Credit: XKCD

Inspirobot Sometimes Controversial Inspirational Quote of the Day:

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Heavily Grounded InspiRobert of the Day:

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Yesterday’s Spark! by the Fantastic Mr. @jimender2 can be found here.

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The Stephen Ambrose book “D-Day: 6th June 1944” is an amazing read. I took it one a trip to Normandy, and undoubtedly bored everyone else in the car senseless with reading something out loud every five minutes, but I found it fascinating, especially as we were driving through some of the areas mentioned in it.

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Heavily Grounded InspiRobert of the Day:

But what if you REALLY need to hear the answer…

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Sorry InspiRobert, I NEED the answer to that question.

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The answer is 9 beers.

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Watched a documentary on Amazon the other day about the 2nd Rangers’ assault on Pointe-du-Hoc. 225 Rangers climbed a 100-foot cliff, under fire the entire time, only to find the guns that were their objective had been moved (two Rangers on patrol later stumbled across them and the guns were destroyed). So many things went wrong with the operation, but they fought through them and succeeded.

When they were finally relieved on the 8th, only 90 men were still able to fight.

Amazing story and only one of many from those incredible days.

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Apologies if I’ve shared this before:

In high school, my daughter went on a trip to Europe which included a visit to the cemetery at Normandy. The local tour guide said there was not enough time to go down the the beach. The chaperone of my daughter’s group could not accept this and promptly led my daughter’s group down to the beach. That lady will pretty much forever have my respect and gratitude.

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I’ll disagree with Insirobert… while you may not need the answers to … live you’re life or do your job, sometimes getting “irrelevant information” is important to the future. We cannot truly grow without “new” information and experiences. Questions are important.

Besides… I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t disagree with Robert5205 at every opportunity.

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I am forced to ask if @bob-13 ​ is a prototype of @rhummel ​ or a competing line of products with a similar name hoping for copycat sales?

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I’m sure it’s not 100% historically accurate, but ‘The Longest Day’ is one of my favorite movies. As for issues with the landing remember yesterday’s quote: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower

But, that was ONE landing, granted a HUGE landing, but something pretty similar was done 100’s of times in the Pacific, where my father served, piloting one of the landing boats.

Yes, I’d like the answer to that question too Robert5205, as it doesn’t look like something I’d want to emulate.

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9 beers lets you turn a normal car into a flying car?

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If you disagree with everything I say, you’ll probably be correct about half the time. More, if it involves horse racing.

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I find it amazing the huge logistical hurdles the Allies faced on D-Day and managed to overcome them.
The creation of the Mulberry harbor sticks out the most to me.

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My mothers uncle was a bomber pilot in WWII. He flew several missions over Normandy that day. The cockpit of his plane, Flak Bait, is in the Smithsonian. Every year he would go out for drinks on 6/6 to remember that day. It was awesome to hear his stories. My oldest son was supposed to be born on 6/6. I wanted to name him Norman with a middle initial of D. My wife wasn’t having it though.

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Mr._Fusion.jpgYes!

@drewlubken0647

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Okay so do you actually have to drink them or could I just buy them and stick them in the back somewhere to be ready in case I suddenly want to try my hand at flying?

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InspiRobert is on point. Inspirobot is questionable

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Both! Buy a case, put 9 in the back, and drink the other 15.

By the end of that 15th beer, you’ll be more than brave enough to dump 9 beers in your car and attempt to fly it around! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Mr. Roosevelt sharing wise thoughts.

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I’d love to see some of the WW2 places in Europe. I didn’t get to see anything on deployment, so it would be nice to get to go back on my own.

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