War and Peace Show 1944 Project
Introduction
They came in their thousands by air and by sea not knowing
if they would survive or perish. On D-Day itself 150,000 fighting men landed in
Normandy. Many got no further than the beaches.
With them came an amazing range of mechanical equipment:
flail tanks to clear paths through the minefields, gun tractors, field
artillery, tanks, trucks, amphibious vehicles
and of course hundreds of ambulances.
To get them ashore a massive concrete and steel artificial
harbour was towed across the Channel in sections and assembled off the beaches.
By August 25 when Paris was liberated, three million
individuals had crossed the English Channel to France. Each had just one
objective – to defeat Nazism. If they had failed today’s children would be
growing up in a world of tyranny and oppression.
2009 saw the 65th anniversary of the
Normandy invasion. Survivors of the operation are a proud but dwindling group
of individuals most of whom have reached their 80s or 90s.
The War and Peace Show is paying its own tribute to these
heroes by telling their stories so that present and future generations will
learn of their courage and understand the sacrifices they made. The War and
Peace Show 1944 Project is also a salute to those who died in battle during the
invasion, and to survivors who have since died.
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