Must Watch: UK Remembers D-Day Landings with Spectacular Drone Display
Visitors were awed by a spectacular and high-tech display over Britain’s Portsmouth Naval Memorial as the area’s D-Day commemorations came to an end Wednesday.
As musical accompaniment was played at the event, the amazing display consisting of dozens of drones rose into the air and regaled visitors with a wonderful light show to commemorate the battles.
In one segment of the tableau, the drones formed the shape of a British Spitfire fighter plane that soared overhead, Portsmith’s The News reported.
Drones lit up the night sky over Portsmouth on the eve of the 80th anniversary of D-Daypic.twitter.com/itiREqAphL
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 6, 2024
Other light displays included the phrase “I can remember…” and the images of a soldier, a landing craft, a battleship, and a soldier writing a letter home.
The #dday80 drone display over Southsea this evening #wewillremember #portsmouth #lestweforget #dday pic.twitter.com/aDczIhlFBK
— Nix (@thisis_nix) June 5, 2024
Amazing evening in Southsea for #DDay80 culminating in a fantastic drone display #Wewillnotforget #Portsmouth pic.twitter.com/5Mj4czGeKd
— #hellomynameis Fiona Wright (@fjw2810) June 5, 2024
Organizers and volunteers had also erected a stirring tribute to the fallen in April in advance of the D-Day celebration.
The News noted that those involved installed 1,475 giant silhouettes at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-Sur-Mer, France, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II.
Standing with Giants will install 1,475 silhouettes across the British Normandy Memorial grounds, a project four years in the making, titled “For Your Tomorrow”.
The public will be able to see the installation as part of the D-Day 80 commemorations from 21st April – 31st August. pic.twitter.com/6FE857dU5X
— Armed Forces Day 🇬🇧 (@ArmedForcesDay) April 22, 2024
D-Day, of course, was the start of the Allied Forces’ invasion of Germany in a final effort to destroy the Nazi regime and put an end to the bloody and costly war that spread across most of the Western world and is to this day the largest amphibious invasion ever undertaken in the history of warfare.
Map of the #Normandy invasion with allied forces: https://t.co/DVbhkikKUE #OperationOverload @Memory_Project pic.twitter.com/x1MIB4YjjP
— CanadianEncyclopedia (@CdnEncyclopedia) November 11, 2015
Remarking on the importance of the effort to free Germany from Nazi tyranny, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt via a radio address that night said, “Today the whole world is divided between human slavery and human freedom — between pagan brutality and the Christian ideal. We choose human freedom — which is the Christian ideal. No one of us can waver for a moment in his courage or his faith. We will not accept a Hitler-dominated world.”
“We reassert our abiding faith in the vitality of our constitutional republic as a perpetual home of freedom, of tolerance, and of devotion to the word of God,” he added.
In conclusion, FDR said, “I repeat the words of the signers of the Declaration of Independence — that little band of patriots, fighting long ago against overwhelming odds, but certain, as we are now, of ultimate victory: ‘With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.'”
On the night of June 6th, 1944, President Roosevelt went on national radio to address the nation for the first time about the invasion of Normandy. His speech took the form of a prayer. #DDay75 #DDay75thAnniversary pic.twitter.com/YnJXOgsyyU
— TCM (@tcm) June 6, 2019
For his part, Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower put out his order of the day ahead of that momentous event telling his soldiers, “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”
“The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory! I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle,” he added. “We will accept nothing less than full victory!”
“Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking,” the great general concluded.
While costly — with approximately 10,500 Allies killed, wounded or missing, 6,000 of whom were Americans — the battles on the beaches were a success and ultimately led to the end of Hitler’s regime and the closing of the war in Europe. And with Hitler defeated, that gave the Allies the ability to focus on ending the Japanese threat in the Pacific — ultimately ending World War II.
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