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[caddyman]

It's not fashionable these days to celebrate the exploits of the Forces, but I have to say that I rather wish I'd been able to go over to Normandy to watch the 60th anniversary commemorations of D-Day.

I've done the tour of the battlefields - though not as yet, Pegasus Bridge, where the 6th Airborne Division secured the invasion's left flank.

Watching the celebrations on the TV has brought a lump to the throat of this old softie, watching the time-thinned ranks of the veterans as the Old Boys march with quiet dignity through Arromanches with the invasion beaches in the background.

I tend to think we can always be proud of the British Serviceman, even if we can't always be proud of the politics that send him away from home. But 60 years ago today, these men embarked on the first step of the liberation of North-West Europe, and we should be proud of them, because as trite and clichéd as it sometimes sounds now, the world in which we live would have been a very different and darker place had they not done so, and won.

It is the anniversary of something which has helped shape the modern world, and represents a feat unparalleled in history. The beginning of the end of the last, and arguably only, just war in Europe.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I was reading an account by a journalist in the Daily Mail during the week about taking his father back to Normandy each year for the D-Day commemorations. He wrote really movingly about how he'd always seens his dad as just his dad, until they went to Normandy and he saw how well respected he was, because he had the campaign ribbons.

It didn't matter how old the french were - even school kids treated him with respect - it's something they're brought up with.

Something missing here, I fear.

It was a very moving piece.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I agree. I think it's because we were lucky enough not to have to undergo an occupation like they did.

And that's largely because of geography.