The ordeal of Omaha Beach

[Valin]

Power Line:

Scott Johnson

6/6/13

 

Professor David Gelernter of Yale University is a man of formidable learning with little patience for phonies. He has detected a tidal wave of phoniness in the celebration of the greatest generation, as he wrote in his 2004 Wall Street Journal column Too much, too late.

 

As a remedy for the phoniness he detected, Professor Gelernter prescribed the teaching of our children the major battles of the war, the bestiality of the Japanese, the attitude of the intellectuals, and the memoirs and recollections of the veterans. Complying with Professor Gelernters prescription, I am currently reading the late Dartmouth English Professor Harold Bonds moving Return to Cassino.

 

(Snip)

 

In 1960 the Atlantic Monthly published Marshalls essay on Omaha

Beach based on the field notes he had compiled during his service as combat historian. The essay First wave at Omaha Beach is available online. Marshalls essay was the original source for some of the telling details that Stephen Ambrose lifted for his account of Omaha Beach in his book on D-Day.

 

Please read it. Then print it out and save it for your kids as part of the required reading for the course Professor Gelernter has prescribed. (First posted in 2004, updated in 2013.)

 

 

On the History Thread....Shameless Plug.

D Day: The Price of Freedom

[Valin]

Research The 29th Infantry Division

 

The purpose of this section is to provide researchers online access to the World War II records of the 29th Infantry Division from D-Day, June 6, 1944, to V-E Day, May 8, 1945. These records have been held since 1946 by the Maryland National Guard at the historic Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore and are currently under the care of the Maryland Military Historical Society. In 2007, the Maryland Military Historical Society was a recipient of a generous grant by the Middendorf Foundation of Baltimore to help preserve the 29th Division archives. Thanks to this timely financial support, the Maryland Military Historical Society was able to scan all the 29th Division's World War II records with the ultimate goal of placing them on this website.

 

During its 11-month campaign from Omaha Beach to Bremen, the 29th Infantry Division generated thousands of paper records, including daily operation summaries, transcripts of radio and telephone conversations at division headquarters, maps, monthly after-action-reports, lists of casualties, and a daily division newsletter entitled "29 Let's Go". In late 1945, just prior to the 29th Division's return to the United States from Germany, Col. William J. Witte, formerly the division's chief operations officer, carefully stored those records in boxes for trans-Atlantic shipment to Baltimore. Thanks to Colonel Witte's diligence, the 29th Division returned stateside with one of the most intact and thorough collections of combat records of any U.S. Army division in World War II.

 

(Snip)

 

The 29th Infantry Division was one of the most illustrious U.S. Army outfits of World War II. It was in combat almost continuously from D-Day to V-E Day and suffered 20,111 battle casualties in eleven months of combat 204.2% of it normal manpower complement of approximately 14,000 men. It gained four campaign ribbons for service in the European Theater and was awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre Avec Palme by the French government for its exemplary service on Omaha Beach on D-Day.

 

(Snip)

 

That was then...

 

 

 

This is now....

 

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[nickydog]

Thanks, @Valin. Great videos.

[Valin]

Thanks, @Valin. Great videos.

A couple of years ago it occurred to me that the Vietnam War (aka our generations war) ended in 1975. I'm talking to this guy (late 30's) no recollection of it. This year marks the 40th anniversary of America leaving that war, that means if you are under (?) 50 you have no recollection of it, that's something grandpa did (if people even get that). Point being we have to talk about tell these stories or we lose a huge part of who we are, and how we got here. I strongly suspect there are people out there (our betters) who want this. It allows them to rewrite our history to fit their worldview. Do they have a military history course at the University of Colorado? I'd be surprised if they did. Why is this administration fighting GWOT the way they apparently are? I would say it is because they've never read a book on War much less taken a course on military history.

/rant!

[Valin]