Thursday, June 6, 2024

80 Years Ago

The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it is the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.


It’s more important than ever that we remember the sacrifices made to liberate Europe from the grips of fascism. While fascism in Spain and Portugal did not end with the Allied victory in Europe, it did end Italian and German fascism. With far right politicians are using violence, fear, and hatred to make political gains. Whether that is through outright lies and propaganda, changing to voting laws making it harder for people to vote, or passing laws to brainwash young minds by forbidding the teaching of history they disagree with, these right wing politicians are using the same tactics and rhetoric that led to the rise of fascism in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. They completely ignore facts, twist the words of others, and believe laws only apply to other people.


During the Second World War, over 61 million soldiers and civilians died resisting fascism. We can’t allow fascist governments to gain control again. Remember the sacrifices made to liberate Europe. Remember the men who died in the largest seaborne invasion in history eighty years ago today.

3 comments:

uvdp said...

France will be eternally grateful to the Allies ( American, English, Canadian... ) for having liberated it from the Nazis. Among these heroes there were frenchs : commandos Kieffer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1er_Bataillon_de_Fusiliers_Marins_Commandos .
On this day, President Biden, King Charles III , german Chancellor Olaf Scholz and many presidents came to Normandy. The russians were not invited.

JiEL said...

We must all remember the sacrifices of those then young men who went to serve and liberate Europe from the facist nazis.

There is here in Province of Québec a new book to tell the stories of those French Québécois who went there filled with courage to do their duty with courage en enthousiasm.

One of them as the youngest soldier to be killed few days after the D Day. He was only 16yo.
Gérard Doré was 15 yo when he enroled in the army without telling his father and cheating on his real age saying he was 19yo.

See here. https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/69330/Dor%C3%A9-Gerard.htm

Anonymous said...

Soy español. Me ha tocado vivir los últimos años de una dictadura fascista en la España de los años 70. Por favor tengan en cuenta no solo los 61 millones de soldados que han muerto por culpa del fascismo y que se merecen todo mi respeto y todos los honores, también han muerto en los campos de concentración cerca de 60 millones de judíos, gitanos, homosexuales y españoles, entre otras nacionalidades.
También quisiera recordar a la "Novena", una unidad de republicanos españoles que lucharon en Francia y que fueron los primeros contingentes en entrar en la ciudad liberada de Paris.
Hay que luchar por nuestra paz y contra las políticas de la extrema derecha que tan solo pretende revivir los 13 años de terror de Hitler y con la ayuda del fascismo europeo de aquellos tormentosos años. Son fascistas que no evolucionan, se han quedado en el pasado y pretenden dominar, que es muy distinto a gobernar democráticamente respetando a todos y todas.

Ángel