Thread: D day 6 June 1944 - Why not just talk

Lest We Forget

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

This Canadian Vet says it so well



3000 Australian Air men as our troops came back to save our bacon here after the poms left us in a mess. Please excuse my distraction from D day with that last comment.

Respect and remeberance for the men and women who helped change histroy. Horrors of D day is true - Courage of those who fought is also true and a gift we owe for ever.

Lest we forget.

I object to that, being a "Pom", and also a proud Aussie, and a person whose family lost family members & relos in WW11, we did not "leave anyone in a mess".
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, & I'm definitely not saying everything was ideal, or went to plan, or could not have been done better or differently, but I believe everyone did what they thought was right. I would not have been liked to have been responsible for decisions in those days, decisions that could cost thousands of lives, be those decisions right, or wrong.
The same reaction comes from me when it comes to talk about the U.S. I get well & truly sick of all the knockers (not saying you're one of them!) when the truth is that you & I would not be talking were it not for the tens of thousands of U.S. Troops who fought & died in the Pacific theatre.
Pickles.

Originally Posted by Pickles2

I object to that, being a "Pom", and also a proud Aussie, and a person whose family lost family members & relos in WW11, we did not "leave anyone in a mess".
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, & I'm definitely not saying everything was ideal, or went to plan, or could not have been done better or differently, but I believe everyone did what they thought was right. I would not have been liked to have been responsible for decisions in those days, decisions that could cost thousands of lives, be those decisions right, or wrong.
The same reaction comes from me when it comes to talk about the U.S. I get well & truly sick of all the knockers (not saying you're one of them!) when the truth is that you & I would not be talking were it not for the tens of thousands of U.S. Troops who fought & died in the Pacific theatre.
Pickles.

I'll respond tomorrow. Not on D day

Lest we forget

Well Churchill refused to release Australian forces from the European theatre so that they could return to the Pacific to protect Australia from the Japanese. Churchill was not interested in the blight of Australia and would have sacrificed up to save the UK.

Curtin overruled Churchill and brought most of our forces back and saved up from the mess that Churchill put us in.

Originally Posted by 101RRS

Well Churchill refused to release Australian forces from the European theatre so that they could return to the Pacific to protect Australia from the Japanese. Churchill was not interested in the blight of Australia and would have sacrificed up to save the UK.

Curtin overruled Churchill and brought most of our forces back and saved up from the mess that Churchill put us in.

Churchill didn't put us in any mess. It was the Japs that wanted to invade here, not Churchill. The Japs entered the war due to America "foreclosing" on the loans they had given to Japan before the war. If you consult your history book you will see that Japan was previously an ally in WW1. We got our troops back in the pacific region to do what? Become prisoners of the Japs? They were never called upon to actually defend Australian shores (other than the air raid upon Darwin).

"The Japanese threat was further underlined on 19 February, when Japan bombed Darwin, the first of many air raids on northern Australia.^[42] Churchill attempted to divert I Corps to reinforce British troops in Burma, without Australian approval. Curtin insisted that it return to Australia.^[45] Roosevelt supported Churchill, offering to send an American division to Australia instead, while the Chief of the General StaffLieutenant GeneralVernon Sturdee, threaten to resign if his advice was ignored and the troops were diverted to Burma.^[46] Curtin prevailed, although he weakly agreed that the main body of the 6th Division could garrison Ceylon."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C...itary_policies

Originally Posted by Pickles2

I object to that, being a "Pom", and also a proud Aussie, and a person whose family lost family members & relos in WW11, we did not "leave anyone in a mess".
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, & I'm definitely not saying everything was ideal, or went to plan, or could not have been done better or differently, but I believe everyone did what they thought was right. I would not have been liked to have been responsible for decisions in those days, decisions that could cost thousands of lives, be those decisions right, or wrong.
The same reaction comes from me when it comes to talk about the U.S. I get well & truly sick of all the knockers (not saying you're one of them!) when the truth is that you & I would not be talking were it not for the tens of thousands of U.S. Troops who fought & died in the Pacific theatre.
Pickles.

Whoever called the British "Perfidious Albion" got it right. Two faced, double dealing, self interested, liars, cheats, etc. Just look at their history. How they treated friends and allies over the centuries.

All poms should remember that if not for the actions of Commonwealth troops in two World Wars German would be very widely spoken in Britain.

We defended Australia by fighting the Japanese in SE Asia, in Borneo, in New Guinea, in the Phillipines, in the Solomons. If forces were not pulled back from Europe to fight with the Allies in the Pacific and SE Asia things may have been different and we may have had a land fight on the Australian mainland.

Originally Posted by 101RRS

Churchill was not interested in the blight of Australia and would have sacrificed up to save the UK.

Nor the plight.