Men in Battle

Thursday, May 13, 2010

D-Day video

This video will give you a more accurate idea of what D-Day was like, in the perspective of soldiers.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

June 6, 1944 marked the start of D-Day, one of the largest amphibious invasions of all time as I’m told. A great deal of preparation went into preparing this. Of course, they wouldn't tell what they were, since I was considered a "lowly soldier". All they told us was that we were responsible for taking over Juno Beach, one of the five sections along the coast of Normandy.

The skies were a mess; a mixed-up chaos of paratroopers, gunfire, and bombs.

Being a paratrooper, my job in particular was to parachute down behind enemy lines a little past midnight and control one of the eleven German batteries, no matter what the circumstances were. I was already nervous when I boarded the plane with my friends. My friends and I didn't say anything during that ride. We were praying. It was clear that this was a huge battle and that many of us would not make it. By the time we reached the designated point, the bombers had already started dropping their payloads and transports had already released paratroopers.

The skies were a mess; a mixed-up chaos of paratroopers, gunfire, and bombs. Joe and Steven, two of my closest childhood friends, died while we were parachuting towards our landing site. Suddenly, fear and panic gripped me. I realized how vulnerable I was in mid-air, with gunfire all around me. I had no mobility. I was so certain, that at any moment, a bullet would come flying towards me and take my life. Every second turned into minutes.

By some miracle, I finally touched that beautiful ground with the rest of my squad. After a few hugs and tears with the rest of the group, we proceeded to successfully capture our assigned battery, this time without losing anyone. My panic and fear finally completely left me when our main force arrived in what seemed like hours. Though we were successful that day, I’ll never forget extremely lucky I am to be alive. How was your life changed by the battles you've taken part in?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Remembering the day that Canada declared war against Germany

The first day Canada declared war against Germany didn’t come as a surprise to me. Everyone was making too much of a fuss out of it. I mean, c’mon. Hitler had already raised an army illegally, tore up the treaty of Versailles, and took over several areas of Europe including Austria and Czechoslovakia. The way I saw it, the media only wanted to find something to talk about and generate money. They followed everything extremely closely, turning every political conversation into a speech, and every political movement into an apocalyptic one. Informing us on political movements were good enough, but were guesses and predictions on what Germans are doing really necessary?

As for joining, I should have listened to my father. He had joined World War 1 and would have known all about it. War is horrible, and I was too blind to see that. I only cared about being with my friends and signing up to be a soldier; a paratrooper specifically. I mean after all, which one sounded more attractive to a teenager, a job at a desk, or one where jump off a plane with the thrill of landing in enemy territory with your friends?