SHANGRALA'S

NORMANDY THEN AND NOW!

      They called it 'D Day' in America or 'Operation Overlord'. The rest of the world knows it as the invasion of Normandy. Normandy today is a quiet coastal area, the signs of the worst war ever to visit humanity are hidden between the cracks of history, and the towns and villages of this area continue on.

Here's a look at it during and after that great war. Enjoy! :)
Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      It was 1944 and WWII was finally shifting in favor of the allied forces. Hitler was expecting an invasion but he didn't think it would be Normandy, he thought the allied forces wouldn't attack such a well defended post.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      But they did. They took the beach of Normandy on June 6th to defeat Nazi Germany. It is estimated that nearly 2 million soldiers, sailors and airmen were involved in Operation Overlord, including U.S., British, and Canadians who were scheduled to fight after men on the ground secured a Normandy bridgehead. It was the largest amphibious operation ever to take place.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on June 6th came from Canada, the Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
      Until the very last minute, the place of invasion - Normandy - was the most heavily guarded secret on the planet. Even the units conducting the initial assaults did not know the locations of their landings.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      In the weeks following the invasion, Polish forces also participated, as well as contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. Most of the above countries also provided air and naval support, as did the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the Royal Norwegian Navy.
      195,000 naval personnel manned 6,939 naval vessels including 1,200 warships and 15 hospital ships.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      Air-support operations - often overlooked in the success of D-Day - sustained significant losses: Between the 1st of April and the 5th of June, 1944, the Allies flew 14,000 missions losing 12,000 airmen and 2,000 aircraft.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      127 more planes were lost on D-Day. By the end of the Normandy campaign, 28,000 airmen were dead.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      There are 9,386 graves in the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. Each grave faces west, toward America.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      307 of those graves contain the remains of "unknown" soldiers. 1,557 names are listed in The Garden of the Missing for those who were never found.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      4,868 British dead are buried in the Bayeux Cemetery. 1,837 British names are listed at Bayeux for those who were never found. There were 946 Canadian casualties in the Normandy campaign.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      21,500 German dead are buried at LaCambe.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      Had it not been for the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming (in 1928) and further research and testing by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain (in the late 30s and early 40s) - proving that penicillin could successfully treat infections, the death tolls would have been far greater.

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      Five years before he died, General Eisenhower (who was a conquering hero at war's end and later served two terms as America's president) came back to Colleville-sur-Mer. It was the first, and only, time he made that journey after the war. Looking over Omaha Beach, he spoke from his heart:

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      These men came here - British and our allies, and Americans - to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom. Many thousands of men have died for such ideals as these, but these young boys, were cut off in their prime. I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as these. I think and hope, and pray, that humanity will have learned. . . we must find some way . . . to gain an eternal peace for this world.
("Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life," by Carlo D'Este, p. 705.)

Shangrala's Normandy Then And Now
      Decades after D-Day, even though humanity seems farther than ever from finding 'some way to gain an eternal peace for this world,' everyone can agree on at least one point. Those who fought, and died, to free Europe on that day altered the course of history.

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SEE ALSO: Sands Of Normandy!






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