D-Day.

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy: fear and cruelty in sun-dappled orchards
Charles Moore reviews ‘D-Day: The Battle for Normandy’ by Antony Beevor.

A timely book for the 65th anniversary of D Day. [I can remember it! I was eight years old and can remember writing the date on my bedroom wall in a little square stuccoed farm house with 12 inch thick walls, that was at Wiblings Farm just outside the village of Graffham in West Sussex.]
Much in the book about the ‘heroic’ resistance of the Germans and the consequences of that resistance, inc delaying the inevitable end of the war thus giving the Russians more time to advance into Berlin and the heart of Germany. If the Germans were as smart as they think they are they would have surrendered as soon as the Normandy landings were successfully accomplished and let the allies take over before the Russians got anywhere near. Sometimes you can understand the peaceniks’ revulsion of all things military except they are even more stupid than the Germans were since by their lights the Germans would have had free rein and then they’d know unending horror.
I like this from the comments recognizing the contribution of the Canadians. In too many accounts you’d think they weren’t anywhere near Normandy in ’44.

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I would like to pay tribute to the Canadians who fought in the Battle for Normandy.

All too often their contribution is lost – or forgotten – although the battle could not have been won without them. The Falaise Gap could not have been closed without them. In consequence Paris would not have been liberated in August and the war in Europe would have dragged on past the following May with potentially disastrous consequences.

The Canadians have always been with us. They are the most valiant, honourable, steadfast allies and we all too often forget that.

It is time that we remembered and honoured their sacrifice.

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