Every year on the anniversary of D-Day, they show that black and white footage of the soldiers running up the beach, and one of them is hit and falls. I always wonder who that man is, and whether he made it after all.
They were still practically babies.
How’s this for a neat story…soldier’s dog tags returned to his family exactly 63 years later.
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sniffle
Sorry, I had something in my eye.
We took 24,000 casualties in a few hours at Omaha beach alone. I look at the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, with the guys who know they’ll be machine gunned the moment the Landing craft’s door drops. I wonder if we could do that today. I doubt I could.
What’s that post from Coldy that sees annual resurrection?
Omaha was certainly the very worst place to land that morning, but losses for the day were not as high as had been feared during planning.
"Total Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. British casualties on D-Day have been estimated at approximately 2700. The Canadians lost 946 casualties. The US forces lost 6603 men. Note that the casualty figures for smaller units do not always add up to equal these overall figures exactly, however (this simply reflects the problems of obtaining accurate casualty statistics).
Casualties on the British beaches were roughly 1000 on Gold Beach and the same number on Sword Beach. The remainder of the British losses were amongst the airborne troops: some 600 were killed or wounded, and 600 more were missing; 100 glider pilots also became casualties. The losses of 3rd Canadian Division at Juno Beach have been given as 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner.
The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach.
The total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4000 and 9000 men."
From this page:
http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm
The same page mentions that 12,000 Allied airmen were lost in the two months prior to D-Day with the preparatory bombing and recce.
It’s from May, 1945, I think…the day Holland was liberated? God, I’m so embarrassed that I can’t remember. It’s a lovely thread.
Does anyone know if there are any D-Day soldiers not accounted for to this day? Still listed as MIA?
Quite right, but I took it from context that the OP was one of the non-Americans, and though you’ll see me pop up tediously often to rebut any suggestion that the Americans won the war, I for one hold it perfectly proper to thank them for what they did do.
And of course, if it hadn’t been for the Russians, it’s hard to conceive how much more hellacious D-Day would have been, if it could ever have happened at all.