80 years ago? July 31st, 1944
Hooray! At last. My webpage is finally complete – well, except for the ability to request addresses of those who would be interested in receiving my weekly blogs or newsletters and hearing the latest from me. So, I’m going to say, it’s still a work-in-progress. But what I’m going to do is continue with WWII blurbs by date of the writing and add perhaps stuff from my brain that gets tossed around like a swirling bowl of spaghetti in a boiling pot of water on a stove – if you’re not watching it, that is, because we all know it won’t dare boil if your eyes are on it. (How does it know? is the question I always asked my mother when she scooted me away from the stove!)
So, let’s see. Now, it’s 80 years later. That’s the time, folks. And one of the places was France – Avranches, to be exact, near the village of Brécey — where fierce fighting continued to take place. This was once we saw the brutal happenings of D-Day. (You know, as I was learning about this obnoxious war, I also learned to hate all those generals and so-called important people, those leaders with their puffed-out chests. This hatred grew the more I saw their pictures of them sitting together and smoking whatever it was they had in their hand. They had been planning this aggression for a good year and even longer and they were discussing a D-Day’s launch before that first paratrooper or marine set foot on that beach. But you – yes, You, my readers, what they were really doing, I decided, was talking about all the deaths of those young men that would occur as they carried out each country’s program that was beautifully knit together on their drawing boards. I don’t think they saw it like a killing game, though. They had it in their minds that they were scheming to end the atrocities set forth by a man wanting to take over the world.) However, — and sorry for the digression — because of that combat, rough as it was, thanks to the British and the Americans, the Canadians and all the countries who took part in the attack beginning at Normandy, the Germans were being hit from every which way and were on the retreat.
What else was happening here on this date, Guys, was the British and the Canadians were slowly moving inland around Caen and forcing these Germans to bring in their best troops –(what? they sent their worst troops in first to get killed, and if that didn’t work, their best went next to get slaughtered? Like, really?) and even their most super equipment (now, that’s downright stupid) to hold the allies back. It didn’t work because, besides all the killing, all the deaths they caused, and that Caen was practically destroyed, almost totally in this allied victory, this now permitted the Americans to “break out,” as they called it, on the 31st of July.
But it wasn’t all happening in France. Germany had their own plans that were devised years previous for all over the Europe. Where are the photos of those leaders sitting around and making their plans? (I remember in the – what was it, the ‘70s? – driving back from Greece, heading East with my Italian cousin, through Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, and seeing all those gigantic billboards with the maps on them, and the countries covered in blood red over the territory being taken over. The red coloring on those billboards grew bigger with each mile we traversed as shown on those maps, until all of Europe was engulfed with the red dye. I sent a post card back home once reaching Trieste to my family, my brother. They claim they never received it. I don’t understand because all I wrote on it was, “Now I understand what is meant by the Red Badge of Courage. Like, thank you censors!) I mean, look at those bunkers they built – above and below the ground, look at those Dragons Teeth, land and water mines, barbed wire, and other obstacles of defense.
On the same day, July 31st, 1944, in Florence, Italy, the Germans destroyed all their bridges – all except one. So, all wasn’t lost to them. The spared bridge was the pedestrian bridge, the historic Ponte Vecchio. There was a story told about this magnificent bridge, that the Fuhrer himself ordered it saved, that it was too beautiful to destroy. This destruction in the city included many other buildings, palaces, and the Uffizi Gallery. (Germans loved to loot.)
The Ponte Vecchio “Old Bridge” dates from the 10th century, a somewhat rickety wooden structure. Photo source: 7 Fascinating Facts About the Ponte Vecchio in Florence – Through Eternity Tours
Florence, Italy, 14 August 1944
Civilians clambering over the ruins of the Ponte Alle Grazia, one of the bridges over the River Arno destroyed by the Germans before evacuating Florence on 11 August 1944. With the arrival of the British forces, the civilians were returning to the north side of the river. Public Domain
Don’t forget how the war was raging on in the Pacific Seas also. Our Marines were pursuing the Japanese during this time, July through August of 1944. In towns like Guam, especially, Japanese snipers were hiding, like all through the towns and being sought after by our allies. The Marines were tasked with searching for them and stopping their continual torture and killing of civilians.
Have you heard about the invasion of Tinian from July 24-August 1, 1944? Our Marine Task Force 52 landed on Tinian while our ships were continually under attack and severely damaged. And by August 1st, we were able to finally secure the island, although the enemy soldiers still fought and were committing suicide rather than being captured (unlike the German boys who looked forward to being a POW for the Americans. What’s that tell you?). Can you believe this invasion was declared “the most perfect amphibious operation in the Pacific War”? And then, almost a year later, the attack to drop the world’s first atomic bombs over Japan was launched from an airfield on Tinian Island, one of a chain of islands in the Marianas. This was during the final states of WWII. Thank you, Enola Gay, an American B-29.
Today? 80 years later? We’re watching on television events of the World Olympics, this time in France — Paris, to be exact. We’re also watching the 2024 U.S. Presidential campaign, debates, etc., that are well under way. And, also, on television we’re all watching how wars are progressing in various places of the world. I don’t know about you, my dear readers, but, personally, unlike my Author’s Webpage that “still a work in progress,” it’s these latter televised events I do NOT want to see progress. I cross my fingers and wish to see them de-gress.