An Encouragement To Remember Our Servicemen And Women

Good evening from Scotland. I hope I'm posting this article in the correct part of this Forum however as I';m sure you can see by the title, it's a subject which has affected and still affects so many of us today so i hope and pray you feel free to leave your comments, prayer and kind words for our courageous men and women of our Armed Forces. God bless....

We all feel the effects of fear at times and many believe that courage is the absence of fear however, true courage, is when there is a presence of fear but stepping forward in the face of danger to overcome so, I thought it would be very fitting today on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, to share a little article about remembering the courageous men and women who paid and still pay, the ultimate price for freedom.

For those younger who might not know, D-Day was the turning point in World War 2 and an operation where great nations united together, in the face of a deeply evil foe. On the 6th of June 1944, the UK, US and Canadian forces along with contingents of other nations, stormed the beaches of France, in a move which would see them later reach deep in to Germany liberating families, towns, villages and nations along the way, in a continuous sweep until the final surrender of the Nazi's to the Allied Armies.

This war's outcome rested on the efforts of the Allied Landing Forces consisting of hundreds of ships and planes and tens of thousands of soldiers with orders to take the beaches of Normandy France. This was to secure a beachhead so that the Allied soldiers, vehicles and supplies could amass in France to push through to Germany. The day began with an awesome display of firepower as the Allied Navy's pounded the Nazi beachheads, to soften the defences as the troop ships landed the soldiers and as Paratroopers landed behind enemy lines. But despite all of the shelling, the Nazi's remained firmly entrenched on most of the area of the coastline.

Some of the soldiers on some of the beachheads received little resistance and took their objectives quickly however on others, the resistance was fierce indeed and what lay ahead for most of those soldiers, was disembarking their landing craft onto a beach with no cover. The results we're for us I think, unimaginable and many soldiers lost their lives as blankets of bullets and mortar fire as the German Army hit the beaches killing and wounding many however, the soldiers pushed on and wave after wave of courageous soldiers, some as young as sixteen, fought through the bullets to cover.
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As the morning wore on, more and more men were landed and the determination of the Army began to overrun the German defences securing the beaches but, it was at a heavy toll at the cost of thousands of soldiers lives. With the beachheads secure and with the Paratroopers having taken the first few miles inshore, the remaining Allied soldiers, vehicles and supplies began to come ashore to prepare to liberate the occupied nations and ultimately go on to win the war.
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The stories even in that first day alone, number in the thousands of contacts with the enemy, battles and solider's personal accounts of their experiences and when you've heard many of these courageous moments, you begin to see just how important this mission was and what it cost the men and women who served during that time. My Grandfather was a WW2 Navigator within the RAF Bomber Command and served three tours of duty over the course of the War and I grew up hearing his many stories, some funny, some heartwarming and others just unthinkable but the people who knew him well, knew he was never truly the same again.
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My little article and my account is the same I'm sure of hundreds of thousands of Son's, Daughters, Wives and Grandchildren who were affected in some way of this War which killed 55 million people worldwide and my hope always is, that we never forget what it took that day and the many others like it, to win our freedom as we know it today. So much good was done and so much good remains today but it all cost, it cost the blood of young men and women and I pray we never forget.
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God bless and I hope you've enjoyed this article tonight and please feel free to comment or make prayer messages as part of this thread, to bless those who pay and have paid dearly in wars both past and present. Whatever our opinion or viewpoints are about war, there's still the boots of our family members who hit the sand, so let think of them tonight and ask God to bless our Christian brothers and sisters who are in a trench tonight on a distant land, and for their family's back home.
 
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