PTM WEEKLY UPDATE --- NOVEMBER 9, 2009

And in conclusion . . .

Normandy 65 years after -- a Veterans Day remembrance

Wednesday, November 11 is celebrated as Armistice Day, remembering the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany in France, on November 11, 1918. November 11 is a national holiday in many nations. In Poland it is known as Polish Independence Day. In Belgium it is the Day of Peace in the Flanders Fields.

Canadian military physician John MaCrae forever associated the poppy to Remembrance Day through his poem, "In Flanders Fields." The poppy, which bloomed across one of the worst battlefields of World War I, was chosen as symbolic of this day as its red color symbolized the horrific shedding of blood. With Flanders Field in mind, poppies are worn on clothing on November 11 in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, among other countries.

After World War II the United States began to observe this day as Veterans Day. In many countries of the former British Commonwealth it was called Remembrance Day. Since the 1990s a two-minute silence has become part of this day of remembrance -- observed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  

On June 6th, 1944, the Allied invasion of Normandy (on the northwestern coast of German-occupied France) began, with coordinated amphibious landings and air assaults. 175,000 Allied troops laid their lives on the line. The number of Allied casualties in this operation is estimated at about 10,000 -- men who gave their lives so that Normandy, France and eventually the whole of Western Europe might be free.

The following photos show Normandy as it was shortly after the Allied invasion (in the left-hand column) -- and the same locations now (in the right-hand column).

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