A Little D-Day Salute!

[Jason_Williams]

78 years ago today the Allies landed in northern France and made their way inland. My grandfather served in the 9th AF in England and France in B-26s and was a very tiny part of it all. Here is a small D-Day salute with a couple images of our AI B-26 that is coming soon for Battle of Normandy and the Great Battles series.

 

 

  

 

 

Jason 

[YouBet]

Oh come on.

 

You have to let us fly this one. I don't really get jazzed over the bombers... but this one caused butterflies.

 

Salute to your Grandpappy, Jason.

[Voidhunger]

Really nice medium bomber and finaly a valid target for my Me262.

[SYN_Mugue]

Looks great!

Hope we can fly it someday.

[Trooper117]

Very nice!...

[Rjel]

Such a sleek looking airplane, especially in its NMF. Hoping that gets implemented on release. 

[Gambit21]

Looking good!

My grandfather jumped with the 101st.

 

 

[Noisemaker]

[Ala13_UnopaUno_VR]

Make it flyable by god,!!!! B25, b26, B17... more bombers, fewer fighters!! Pleaaaaaaaaaase

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, Jason_Williams said:

What's the co-pilot doing down there?

 

But yeah... would *love* a flyable B-26. I used to like the B-25 more, but the more I see the Marauder, the more I prefer it to the Mitchell. She's quite the looker, isn't she?

(Would still love a Mitchell too!)

[BlitzPig_EL]

Thanks Jason.

 

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those souls who took part that day, no matter their role.

[CraigNT55]

Thanks for sharing, Jason! 
You must be very proud of your grandfather's life and legacy.  What an exciting and probably terrifying experience to go into harm's way in such an aircraft as a B-26.  The fact that a person was with a few of their comrades in each ship probably help with encouraging them to wade into the fight.  And I'm not sure anyone's part in that great endeavor was "tiny".  

Kind regards,

- CraigNT55

Edited June 6, 2022 by CraigNT55

[TheFace]

Looking great!  I will reiterate It's odd the B25/26 are not getting the piloted versions yet we have stuff like the He111 and the Ju88. Need to fly it!

[dannytherat]

Beautiful B-26! Would love to see it flyable one day ?

 

I'd love it if the flyable B-25 sees the light of day too, due to a family connection. My great-uncle was a navigator on Mitchells in 98 Sqn, 2TAF. His a/c was shot down in August 1943, ditching in the Channel. He rescued one of the gunners (who couldn't swim) from the sinking aircraft before they and the rest of the crew were picked up by an RAF Rescue Launch. They were flying again a day or two later.

 

Huge respect to your grandfather. 

[PainGod85]

I have to admit, bombers generally aren't doing it for me, but ***** I'd fly the B-26.

[DN308]

@Jason_Williams: Your grandfather owes the work to make this beauty flying and to let us celebrate his memory in a Flyable one

[Voyager]

I wonder, do AI only planes get the option for custom skins?

[Hoss]

Would love to recreate the B-26 flying down the deck of a Japanese Carrier just before Midway.....................

 

I had Uncles everywhere during WWII, one was a tail gunner in a B-17, was shot down and was a POW. a P-47 Mech in Italy, a Boat Coxswain on landing craft in Pacific, one at the Battle of the Bulge, 101st Airborne suffered frostbite, and others I'm not completely up on where they were at.  And five Rosie the Riveter Aunts. Dad was in USN (AMS) for Korea. Had cousins in Vietnam, Army, Air Force, Navy. I spent 20 in the USN 77-97. No kids or Grand kids in the military now, may of come to an end with me.

 

But I will definitely be a squeaky wheel for a flyable Marauder, and Mitchell............. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK..... rinse, repeat.... guess they might get around to it someday.

 

[Majpalmer]

Back in 1993 I was a historian on a two-week tour of Western Europe for a bunch of tourists, among whom were several vets.  One guy was a B-24 pilot who flew over fifty missions. Another was this guy who was with the 1st Division at Omaha and went in on the first wave. 

 

It took me a while to get him to talk. I assumed his reluctance was related to the horrors that he had seen. To my surprise, he related to me his entire recollection of the hours spent on the beach in about three minutes. I'll never forget it. 

 

I also met and interviewed years ago Jack Hoffler. He was a big-boned 13 year old kid who managed to convince the Navy that he was 17. He was on one of the landing craft in the first wave that day at the ripe age of 14! 

 

I actually met him at a symposium on Iwo Jima, where I was involved with a bunch of Marines who had landed on that shithole. After the end of their talks, when I met Hoffler, he said that D-Day was nothing like what they had gone through. He said it was really bad, but it was a day. Iwo lasted weeks. 

 

Kids think they have it tough today. OMG! TIK TOK is down! And here were these two guys, one 14 and the other 18 surviving D-Day. 

 

Hoffler gave me a little signed framed memento. I've attached below a photo (I found on line) of the landing that he signed. 

 

 

[Avimimus]

5 hours ago, Voyager said:

I wonder, do AI only planes get the option for custom skins?

 

Yes they do!

[Yankee_One]

Too beautiful!

 

It would be a shame not to fly her, so much work put on this beauty.

May be in the future? ?

 

Never mind

Great detail, she looks fantastic. Well done.

Love the camo.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Yankee_One

[TheSNAFU]

Missed this yesterday. My Uncle was in the first wave on Omaha with the 16th regiment of the Big Red One division. Won the Bronze Star that day and fought all the way until wars end. We owe all of those boys a debt of gratitude. 
 

When Normandy comes I will do my best to help my uncle and the rest get a shore and stay alive. ?

Edited June 7, 2022 by TheSNAFU

[Majpalmer]

Talking to WWII vets has been interesting. My father and his brother both enlisted. My Dad was in the North Atlantic, the Med, and the South Pacific. My Uncle never got out of the country. Another guy whom I knew as a "Canal" veteran turned out had been on the island with an Army unit after the Marines secured it. He only saw captured Japanese or rotten corpses. But then you had the Marines who'd been on Iwo, another guy who'd been on Saipan, and they went through hell. The guy with the actual worst experiences I ever met was an old guy I worked with in the '60s and '70s who had been with a Black regiment in New Guinea. My God! Talk about hell in the Pacific. 

 

The tour I mentioned in a post above, the one guy was first wave Omaha Beach, and all that entails. The other guy, who also didn't want to speak about his experiences was a B-24 pilot, Fifteenth Airforce, who flew over fifty missions over Austria, Germany, and a few over Czechoslovakia. Once, over some beers, when he balked at talking again, I asked him if it was that bad. He shook his head. I was surprised. I said something like "I can't imagine what it's like to be sitting in that cockpit watching a Messerschmidt or a Focke Wulf coming at me head on, cannon spitting fire. He smiled and said that during his 50+ missions he never saw a German fighter. He had started flying in very late 1944. He said the only fighters he ever saw were American. They hadn't even bothered to camouflage his unit's Liberators. Shiny aluminum. 

 

And one night in the mid-80s, my boss took me to a reception at an art gallery in DC and I met, and shook hands with, Adolf Galland. He still looked about the same. Hair slicked back and all black, unlit cigar, mustache, looked great for someone in his early 70s. Unfortunately, no time to discuss anything. If only....

 

The most interesting air combat discussion I ever had was at a conference in Pensacola in 1992 to mark the 50th of the Coral Sea. At our lunch table were two men who had been there. An American named Leonard who was flying Wildcats, and a Zero ace, whose name I have forgotten (he was scarred from burns suffered later in the war), who had flown off one of the Japanese carriers. That was interesting as hell. 

 

There was so many people floating around DC in the 80s, but I had so many other things to do. And now they're almost all gone. 

[w00dy]

I had a great uncle who was part of the force that captured Pegasus bridge. Unfortunately by the time I found out he had died.

 

So many questions I would of liked  to ask him.

[[F.Circus]MoerasGrizzly]

My mom's side grandparents lived in Antwerp so they just got bombed a lot.

[Irishratticus72]

8 minutes ago, [F.Circus]MoerasGrizzly said:

My mom's side grandparents lived in Antwerp so they just got bombed a lot.

But they had chocolate, right? 

[mudgnome]

I live very close to the airfield that 101st flew from Smeatharpe(Upottery).

https://www.southwestairfields.co.uk/page17.html

[[F.Circus]MoerasGrizzly]

15 hours ago, Irishratticus72 said:

But they had chocolate, right? 

Not until after the liberation, where they got both their chocolate and became the new V1 target.

[Irishratticus72]

42 minutes ago, [F.Circus]MoerasGrizzly said:

Not until after the liberation, where they got both their chocolate and became the new V1 target.

 

[IckyATLAS]

In 2030 or 8 years from now a young kid 10 years old and having some memories in 1940 would be 100 years old. Not many will be in an enough good shape to still recount some events. It will all depend where they lived. In Hawaii they could have witnessed Pearl Harbor, with all the destruction. In USA dramatic memories could be the loss of a father or a much elder brother KIA or MIA. In Europe, USSR,  and in the Pacific region the kids with terrible or traumatic memories are in the millions.

 

Someone 20 years old meaning potentially being enlisted and having seen combat would be 110 years old. He may have dramatic, tragic memories whatever the country at war he came from and whatever the theater. If we take global population statistics not sure any will still be there and if yes still able to talk about what he witnessed. But there may be some exceptions.

 

Conclusion in a few years no more direct witnesses will be there. It is dangerous because all the events for WWII will be become prone to interpretation and reconsideration.

It is already WWI where there are no more direct witnesses that saw combat.

 

[Majpalmer]

Until 2020, I taught history at a US university. I often would give quizzes on day one to see what they knew about history. UFB! 

 

The majority of American college freshmen didn't know whom we fought in the American Revolution. They thought that we fought the Blacks! Most couldn't place WWII in the correct century. I taught in NC. Of 48 students, one young woman knew who the President of the Confederacy was. Six thought it was Lincoln. Seven named US Grant. I even had four who told me it was Sherman! In one entire class, no one could identify ""The Great War." 

 

I asked "what was Pearl Harbor?" Most had no idea. Of those who did, the most common answer was that it was some place in the Pacific where the US began WWII by dropping a nuke on the Japanese. I am not kidding! 

 

In another class, two-thirds of the students couldn't identify the US on an unlabeled map of the world, with the boundaries drawn.

 

Anyone think they know where Ukraine is?

 

But, damn, if they don't know their pronouns! 

This was one of my favorites. I was teaching War & Society, nicknamed Plato to Nato and beyond. First day a Black student tells me "Wars never solved anything." I asked him why he thought that. He answered that in every class he'd been in, that's what his professors had said. 

 

I asked him how slavery had ended in the US? This puzzled look came over his face, then he smiled and nodded. 

[DBFlyguy]

14 minutes ago, Majpalmer said:

Until 2020, I taught history at a US university. I often would give quizzes on day one to see what they knew about history. UFB! 

 

The majority of American college freshmen didn't know whom we fought in the American Revolution. They thought that we fought the Blacks! Most couldn't place WWII in the correct century. I taught in NC. Of 48 students, one young woman knew who the President of the Confederacy was. Six thought it was Lincoln. Seven named US Grant. I even had four who told me it was Sherman! In one entire class, no one could identify ""The Great War." 

 

I asked "what was Pearl Harbor?" Most had no idea. Of those who did, the most common answer was that it was some place in the Pacific where the US began WWII by dropping a nuke on the Japanese. I am not kidding! 

 

In another class, two-thirds of the students couldn't identify the US on an unlabeled map of the world, with the boundaries drawn.

 

Anyone think they know where Ukraine is?

 

But, damn, if they don't know their pronouns! 

Not surprised.  Society is driven by what directly affects them on all sides of the spectrum.  "Not my problem" has led US society (and the rest of the world ain't much better off) to where it is now.  Its not only the younger generations fault.  Who taught them to be this self centered, who taught those parents & teachers?...and so on and so on....but hey...

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by DBFlyguy

[BMA_FlyingShark]

23 minutes ago, Majpalmer said:

Until 2020, I taught history at a US university. I often would give quizzes on day one to see what they knew about history. UFB! 

 

The majority of American college freshmen didn't know whom we fought in the American Revolution. They thought that we fought the Blacks! Most couldn't place WWII in the correct century. I taught in NC. Of 48 students, one young woman knew who the President of the Confederacy was. Six thought it was Lincoln. Seven named US Grant. I even had four who told me it was Sherman! In one entire class, no one could identify ""The Great War." 

 

I asked "what was Pearl Harbor?" Most had no idea. Of those who did, the most common answer was that it was some place in the Pacific where the US began WWII by dropping a nuke on the Japanese. I am not kidding! 

 

In another class, two-thirds of the students couldn't identify the US on an unlabeled map of the world, with the boundaries drawn.

 

Anyone think they know where Ukraine is?

 

But, damn, if they don't know their pronouns! 

This was one of my favorites. I was teaching War & Society, nicknamed Plato to Nato and beyond. First day a Black student tells me "Wars never solved anything." I asked him why he thought that. He answered that in every class he'd been in, that's what his professors had said. 

 

I asked him how slavery had ended in the US? This puzzled look came over his face, then he smiled and nodded. 

That's unbelievable, I've never been a bright light but I do

know those things and I'm not even from the US (I'm from Belgium).

Hard to believe that that happened on a university.

It's kinda funny and sad at the same time.

 

Have a nice day.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by FlyingShark