6th June 2016 - D (is not for Dinosaur's) Day

Thought for the day:""Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes" Gustav Mahler. 

Today is the 157th day of the year. There are 208 days remaining until the end of the year.

1944: D-Day marks start of Europe invasion

Thousands of Allied troops have begun landing on the beaches of Normandy in northern France at the start of a major offensive against the Germans. Thousands of paratroops and glider-borne troops have also been dropped behind enemy lines and the Allies are already said to have penetrated several miles inland.
The landings were preceded by air attacks along the French coast.
About 1,300 RAF planes were involved in the first wave of assaults then 1,000 American bombers took up the attack dropping bombs on targets in northern France.

The Prime Minister Winston Churchill has told MPs that Operation Neptune - the codename for the Normandy landings - is proceeding "in a thoroughly satisfactory manner". He said the landing of airborne troops was "on a scale far larger than anything there has been so far in the world" and had taken place with extremely little loss.
The assault began shortly after midnight under the command of General Bernard Montgomery.
Timing of the Normandy landings was crucial. They were originally scheduled to take place in May - then postponed until June and put off again at the last minute for 24 hours by bad weather.
Upwards of 4,000 ships and several thousand smaller craft crossed the Channel to the northern coast of France.
Enemy reports say the landings took place between the port of Le Havre and the naval base at Cherbourg.
King George VI broadcast a message last night warning of the "supreme test" the Allies faced and he called on the nation to pray for the liberation of Europe.
The Allied naval commander, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, said the landings had taken the Germans completely by surprise. There were no enemy reconnaissance planes out and the opposition of coastal batteries was much less than expected.
He added: "There was a slight loss in ships but so slight that it did not affect putting armies ashore.
"We have got all the first wave of men through the defended beach zone and set for the land battle."
A statement broadcast from Berlin at midday said the German troops were "nowhere taken by surprise". It said many parachute units were wiped out on landing or taken prisoner.
Hits were also scored on battleships and on landing craft from the "guns of the Atlantic Wall" - the German defensive positions.
President Franklin D Roosevelt told a news conference the invasion did not mean the war was over.
He said: "You don't just walk to Berlin, and the sooner this country realises that the better." 

and so is that where the expression "you don't just walk into Mordor" originated??

Meanwhile, on facebook the world is outraged with another story starting with "D"..

 

 It seems that people are upset with the way our dinosaurs are being treated - carrying them around on the backs of lorries..

 One outraged writer wrote ...
"This is an outrage. This beautiful, endangered Tyrannosaurus Rex was bound to a trailer, unable to move for 30hrs. This is animal cruelty, at its worst. The perpetrators of this horrible act should be fined, and their rights to own exotic and domestic animals should be stripped from them.

Please help me raise awareness about this heinous injustice. Dinosaurs are animals too, and they deserve our love and care. How would you feel if you were bound to the back of a truck for 30hrs?
Share this photo and help bring a stop to cruelty towards our beloved jurassic friends."

Yes - Facebook - some days I just a have to giggle..

Cheers!