Quote:
Originally Posted by Sanjuro
Forgive me if this has been posted here before; when you watch the movie The Longest Day; have a look for Richard Todd's character, Major John Howard.
Uniquely among the cast, Todd actually fought on D-Day; while he did not play himself, he was a platoon commander in the airborne unit led by Howard. At one point IIRC he even speaks to a character called "Toddy."
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Just being picky I think that you're very slightly wrong. Major Howard led the glider troops (who were Ox and Bucks Light Infantry) who took the bridges over the Orne river and the Caen Canal and I think that Richard Todd was in the Para unit that landed nearby to support Major Howard's troops. I don't think that therefore (technicaly) that Todd was a platoon commander in the unit led by Howard.
However I'm being seriously picky here and your point is a good one - that must have been very weird making the film the Longest Day - filming those sequences with the central character in that part of the story being played by someone who was actually there!
It's a very good film and the book by Cornelius Ryan is also well worth reading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
To the soldiers, sailors and airmen, the men and women who risked their lives and especially to those who paid the supreme price...may your sacrifice never be forgotten!
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Agreed on that - I was telling my wife recently that I plan eventually to take our two young sons on a holiday around Normandy when they're old enough to understand. I remember being taken there as a child by my parents and the cemeteries were particularly impactful. I particularly remember looking round a US cemetery and noticing that some of the graves were marked by Stars of David rather than Crosses and that seemed important to me.