80th Anniversary of D-Day

We'll take a bit of a break from domestic politics and the election campaign as much as that has been rumbling on with the first televised debate on ITV 1 from Salford, Lancashire for something that also matters and to which is a one off.

June 6, 1944 is one of most important dates of the last century, the day in which Operation Overlord came into affect and the most audacious attempt to land on a beach from beyond deploying sea, air and land based transportation both implemented and won

This country, our Country had by a hairsbreadth and very much against all odds had survived the Battle of Britain and major bombing not least in our ports and industrial centres becoming a hub in the battle against Nazism that had France to the then U.S.S.R. taken so much of Europe over with the appalling, inhumane even, treatment of millions.

You can argue and I would that by having taken much of western Europe, being caught up in campaign in the U.S.S.R and North Africa German forces had been spread thin and by 1943 with the move from statement in the U.S.S.R to being forced back and being driven back in North Africa, the tide was turning.

The 1,000 year Reich would of imploded at some point or other from the pressures but just imagine what damage might of been done had it of taken a decade to fizzle out.

Whole races would of been eliminated, many more just killed for standing for freedom and your own countries independence. It had to be sped up.

What Operation Overlord was a attempt to push back from the Normandy coast, France and onwards to liberate Europe including Germany where there was increasing opposition to how things were going not that those who tried to change things met anything but death themselves.

It was not easy, thousands died on the beaches of Normandy on that and other days apart from those who having made their way had to  make their way to Cherbourg and  Caen very much under fire and we ought not to forget those French people who lost their lives  both in assisting them and in the bombing raids needed to drive the German forces to the point of surrender.

It was achieved - but at  a high price.

War is traumatic. Many did and are still living with scars of seeing comrades killed in front of them and having to crawl past the dead and injured as there was no time to do anything else lest you be the next dead man.

Eventually they moved on to Paris and on the Low Countries as the U.S.S.R forces moved from the east culminating in May 1945 with War being over in Europe and Nazism defeated.

Freedom was restored but that freedom was paid for in blood. The freedom they sacrificed their lives for is what gives you that freedom today.

And remember to be vigilant from those who either cheapen or threaten to remove it today.