This day.
OMAHA,SWORD,JUNO,GOLD.UTAH
The beaches.
Remember them.
You bet…thanks for the reminder.
You forgot Utah.
In my home office I have two prints by Nicolas Trudgian. One is a 1st day postal cover from Gurnsey, Spitfires over “the beach”. The other is P-47’s over a small town in Normandy.
I am reminded every day I go to work.
UTAH added.
I’m in the middle of re-watching Band of Brothers. AND, I found out a couple of weeks ago that Dick Winters is getting a monument in Normandy.
http://www.witf.org/regional-a-state-news/sneak-peak-major-dick-winters-monument-in-normandy
When you think about it, June 6, 1944 was a victory of the Boy Scouts over the Hitler Jungen.
Boy Scouts were taught to think for themselves, and the Hitler Jungen were taught to act only on orders from higher authority.
Yeah. Wow! Young men thrust into battle and many knowing they wouldn’t ever see their families again. Pretty impressive and something that should never be forgotten.
http://www.robswebstek.com/2012/05/crossword-puzzles-revealed-d-day-code.html
Interesting side note to the D Day activities
Vic, you always have the most interesting side notes. Wherever do you find them?
Steve, my wife refers to me as a Cliff Clavin, I’m a “repository of highly detailed but ultimatly useless (in everyday life) information” and that like Cliff that I should apply to go on “Jeopardy” and “cash in my memory chips” just don’t apply the “Clavin Rule” during Final Jeopardy. 
Cliff: Its a little known fact that everyone in Switzerland owns a Swiss Army Knife. That’s why no one messes with the Swiss.
Ross, yes I know them and I have been there. I stood in the Cenetery at Omaha look out upon the many meny markers and shed a tear or two. All those men to pull Europe from the brink!
Paul
Victor Smith said:
........................Cliff: Its a little known fact that everyone in Switzerland owns a Swiss Army Knife. That’s why no one messes with the Swiss.
Vic,
Among Swiss there is a slightly different version in circulation: All the combatants have assets in Swiss banks. 
I once read a short story called “Swiss Movement”, (Author unremembered, but well-known in his day) whose premise was that every Swiss citizen was trained in methods of assassination. The story is basically just a conversation about hypothetically beating the system. At the end he is presented with a small gift. It may have been a fancy watch, can’t exactly remember, anyway, when he opens it there’s a note inside which says’ “Bang! You’re dead.”
The idea is that nobody can take over a country where every free citizen could kill you ast any time… I’ve always wondered if there were any basis in fact behind that premise about all Swiss Citizens.
John Le Forestier said:
I once read a short story called "Swiss Movement", (Author unremembered, but well-known in his day) whose premise was that every Swiss citizen was trained in methods of assassination. The story is basically just a conversation about hypothetically beating the system. At the end he is presented with a small gift. It may have been a fancy watch, can't exactly remember, anyway, when he opens it there's a note inside which says' "Bang! You're dead."The idea is that nobody can take over a country where every free citizen could kill you ast any time… I’ve always wondered if there were any basis in fact behind that premise about all Swiss Citizens.
That is why Yamamoto advised against invading the West Coast of the US. His reason: “There will be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
Steve Featherkile said:John Le Forestier said:
I once read a short story called "Swiss Movement", (Author unremembered, but well-known in his day) whose premise was that every Swiss citizen was trained in methods of assassination. The story is basically just a conversation about hypothetically beating the system. At the end he is presented with a small gift. It may have been a fancy watch, can't exactly remember, anyway, when he opens it there's a note inside which says' "Bang! You're dead."The idea is that nobody can take over a country where every free citizen could kill you ast any time… I’ve always wondered if there were any basis in fact behind that premise about all Swiss Citizens.
That is why Yamamoto advised against invading the West Coast of the US. His reason: “There will be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
John, I do know that all Swiss adults are required by law to join the Swiss Army and learn military defensive tactics, until only recently it was a closely guared secret that almost all of the villages and towns along the roads and railways leading into Switzerland were in fact armed to the teeth with hidden gun implacements, thats a major reason the germans never dared to invade their neighbor, this defensive perimeter continued as a deterance to the Soviets, they are now tourist attractions.
Steve, conversly that is why the US Admirals and Generals were so wary about any invasion of the Japanese mainland, that same fear darkened the planners of Operation Downfall, that there would be a rifle in every building, a bayonette behind every “every blade of grass” as Yamamoto said. The dropping of the A-bomb while horrific in its own right, actually saved the futures of thousands of Americans and likely millions of Japanese alive today because their parents and grandparents were not killed during the pending invasion of Japan. Controversial opinion for some, bloody logical conclusion to me.
I’m sure the Swiss would like to believe they alone struck fear into the heart of Nazi Germany but in truth they were more valuable as a neutral “banking” facility than an occupied land. Many warring nations relied on Switzerland as a “go between” or arbiter.
Completely surrounded by Axis controlled countries (France, Germany, Austria, and Italy) they were hardly a threat.
ABOUT TRAINS: The Swiss carried out economic trade and allowed trains to run through Switzerland between Italy and Germany.
If you can find it, “Strangers in a Strange Land” is a great light reading book on the Swiss air force during WWII. A “Squadron" book, lots of great historical photographs.
Your joking. As if the Swiss could stop the Panzers… They were not invaded because being neutral they stored the gold etc that the Gestapo and the SS thieved from the concentration camp victims and anywhere else they could They still have billions stored away and refuse to talk about it. For example…they took all the gold and money from the Greeks…that’s why the Greeks hate 'em even now --as well as their brutal treatment that was handed out to the Greek population). Every country they took over they raped.
Mark was right about allowing the trains from Italy to Germany. They carried thousands of allied prisoners of war to the Stalags in Germany and Poland.
Now invading Japan was a different kettle of fish.
I have been shooting in Switzerland since the late 1970’s, and staying with the same Swiss family, too. Although every male member of that family - even the great-grand-children of my original host - has served in the Swiss military, I’ve never heard of this premise that each and every one of them is an assassin.
It is true, though, that regardless of their arm of service, each and every one of them is also a rifleman, about that there is no argument, but this story of civilian assassins is a new one on me.
The ‘hidden’ gun emplacements and roadside firing points is anything but secret, and indeed, are very well-known to everybody in the local neighbourhood, as indeed they should be. Their existence is neither myth nor legend, but simple fact. As Steve points out, many of them are now open to the public as museums and curios, but there was never any doubt that IF anybody had been ill-advised enough to invade a country that is for the most part inclined at 45 degrees, and accessed mainly through a multiplicity of tunnels by road and rail, they were going to pay a horrendous price to do it.
Alleged conversation between the German head of the military [GHOM] and his Swiss counterpart SHOM], sometime in the years before WW1, at the location of a border crossing point between Germany and Switzerland. the German, was watching the Swiss militiamen going through the motions of defending a small village against ‘an agressor’.
GHOM - Tell me, Mein General, how large is the Swiss militia?
SHOM - It comprises some 300,000 trained men.
GHOM - So small? Why, my command alone has 600,000 men in it! Tell me, what would you do if we were, hypothetically, you understand, to invade you tomorrow?
SHOM - Well, General, we would all have to shoot twice.
tac, ig & The Boys from Bern
Ross Mansell said:Not a contest I'd like to see.
.... As if the Swiss could stop the Panzers....
Whether the Swiss Army could beat them off I don’t know, but I’m quite certain that Switzerland the country could. In any case, IF every Swiss citizen were trained as an assassin, the Panzer masters couldn’t actually hold the place, that is, occupy it. By the end of WW2, of course, they occupied less than they began with.
It occurs to me that any US Marine or UK Commando would have considerable training in assassination techniques; the short story added the twist that Swiss craftsmanship could also be put to the service of defending their sovereignty.
Now, to get back to railroads, in 1891,Mark Twain wrote a story or essay of sorts called ‘Switzerland, the Cradle of Liberty’ which starts with railroads - cog railroads, I believe he means… it’s amusing - and goes on to other matters… a geography lesson, a legend, an idea for using a mountain as a sundial, an odd conversation… not his best work, but a tolerable read…
http://www.americanliterature.com/Twain/SS/SwitzerlandtheCradleofLiberty.html
Oh, and yes, on D-day let us remember by all means the great sacrifices of our troops. Never does a June 6 pass here in Canada without a review of the dreadful massacre on Juno and the small toehold finally gained that day. And to our beloved allies, Yank and Brit alike, may our alliance endure in peace forever…