It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
actually did defend our freedoms
PARIS – France on Wednesday dropped restrictions on live video coverage of ceremonies this week marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, ensuring that millions of viewers across the world will be able to watch the event as it unfolds.
The French president's office and two French broadcasters had earlier refused to let news agencies and online news providers distribute the live broadcast free of charge, prompting protests from international news organizations. The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, and ENEX, a news exchange for European commercial broadcasters, repeatedly requested open access to the broadcast for their 1,500 subscribers around the world.
After weeks of refusal, host broadcasters France Televisions and TF1 on Wednesday offered news agencies unfettered access to live coverage of the main international ceremony Friday. President Obama, Queen Elizabeth II and other world leaders will join aging veterans to honor those who fought to liberate Normandy from Nazi occupation.
"Because of the exceptional character of the event and at the request of the president's office, the signal will be available for free," the broadcasters' note read.
originally posted by: alldaylong
originally posted by: Xcathdra
originally posted by: MRM13
I think it's important to remember how young many of them were too. This was emphasised in BBC this morning when they were talking to a surviving veteran who said about the lads who lied about their age to sign up, so that even now some of the graves have the wrong ages on them.
Never was so much owed by so many to so few.
- Winston Churchill
Thank you for posting the quote by Winston Churchill.
The quote was actually for the pilots of The Battle Of Britain
However, it is apt also for the invasion forces on 6th June 1944
originally posted by: MrSpad
I took a staff ride to the landing beaches when I was stationed in Germany. I have been in some # but, I could not imagine what it must have been like for those guys. It is nothing short of a miracle they pulled it off.
1. MYTH: D-Day was predominantly an American operation
The Royal Navy had overall responsibility for Operation Neptune, the naval plan. Of the 1,213 warships involved, 200 were American and 892 were British; of the 4,126 landing craft involved, 805 were American and 3,261 were British.
2. MYTH: American forces were ill-prepared
REALITY: By the end of World War II the United States had the best armed services in the world. The 77-day Normandy campaign did much to help them reach this point.
3. MYTH: The Allies became bogged down in Normandy
REALITY: In the pre-invasion estimates for the Normandy campaign, the Allies expected to be roughly 50 miles inland after 17 days, based on German retreats in North Africa and Italy
4. MYTH: German soldiers were better trained than their Allied counterparts
REALITY: At the start of World War II the best German units were more than a match for their Allied opposition -- but by 1944 that had changed radically. There were a few exceptions, such as the Panzer Lehr, but come D-Day most German units were not as well trained as the Allies.
5. MYTH: The Germans had stronger tactical skills
REALITY: The dogged determination of the Germans to fight during D-Day is often confused with tactical skill. It shouldn't. The best analogy is with more recent conflicts like Afghanistan or even Vietnam, when Western forces had the best training and kit yet struggled to defeat a massively inferior enemy. As the Taliban have shown, it is very difficult to completely defeat your enemy if they don't want to be defeated. The only way to do that is to kill them all.
6. MYTH: America and Britain got off lightly in World War II
originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: Bluesma
You mean like a ban on foreign media being allowed live coverage of an event that does not solely belong to France?
I am not going to disrupt this thread any more than you and I already have but needless to say foreign media was banned unless they paid. A ban is a ban, no matter how you try and label it as a fee.