I would have definitely survived D-Day but unfortunately I had another thing I couldn't get out of that day so I didn't get a chance to show how much I would have survived. But I totally would have survived, totally
You absolutely would've survived D-Day because you would have been kicked out of boot camp for fighting the drill sergeant for getting all up in your face or whatever.
I was in the armed services and deployed in one of America's recent embarrassingly failed wars of conquest. I packed a memory foam mattress topper and a French press in my gear box. I absolutely would have got my shit wrecked on Normandy Beach.
you say that now but what if that french press deflects an MG42 round that was otherwise headed straight for your neck and the foam mattress topper helps you make it over a roll of barbed wire??? come on man you're not even trying
I think I would have survived it and I would have been cool about it. I would have gotten off a bunch of headshots and spins, and at the end of my march from the sea to the heart of German command, I would turn and give my faithful companion, George Washington the War Beagle, a high-five on his paw.
The funny thing about the "you darn woke kids would never have survived D-day" or "hey podcast/office/fast food working dweeb, you couldn't hack it in World War II" is, broadly, this:
Who the hell do these people think the army filled it's ranks with? Any of the armies?
If you're relatively physically capable, and relatively cognitively capable, you're in! Back in the 40s, pretty much all of the people in the army were soda jerks, stockboys, ex-accountants, clerks or fresh out of school. They make you exercise for 10 weeks, explain how to use your personal weapons with reasonable effectiveness, train you not to kill yourself or your fellow soldiers with the more destructive and dangerous heavy weapons you might use, and off you go.
This is the whole point of mechanized, industrial warfare. You and your fellow soldiers are an input, like the rifles, tanks, trucks, food, fuel, and all the other logistical material needed for war. High command moves you to the front, and violence happens. They replace you or your fallen comrades with more people like you. It doesn't really matter how smart you are, or how strong you are, or if you're a pure born alpha chad male. You will sit in the foxhole or trench and get shelled, and whoever's left moves up (or withdraws) to a different foxhole or trench, to get shelled there.
You're "winning" if you're foxholes and trenches are moving forward into enemy territory. There's no real skill necessary, and no amount of chad-dom or alpha-ness or physical prowess will keep you from getting blown into mist by a bomb or a shell.
I suppose that one personal characteristic that would determine how "good" a soldier you'd be is how much trauma, privation, acute existential fear (like "I am probably literally going to die now"), broad existential dread (like "it's pretty obvious to me that sooner or later I'm going to get killed"), utterly horrific and grotesque sights, sounds, smells, and sensations (all related to dead people and dying people), and basic, perfectly rational hopelessness you can tolerate before you are so emotionally and mentally unstable that you can't be relied upon to sit in that foxhole anymore. You don't really know where that limit is until you go through all of this.
I say this not as a veteran or anything, I just read a lot and deeply on war, and once you get through the thin veneer of rah rah stuff, you find people honestly trying to describe what war was like and what war means. I think I know enough that I'm happy to keep it hypothetical.
Also because, like, numbers wise, something like 150,000 Allied troops landed on June 6, and "only" 4,414 were killed. That's one in 33 odds! I'll take that.
One thing that gets lost in our memory of the war is that most of the soldiers worked logistics and support, and only about 10% or so were frontline troops. Logistics was still dangerous, but for different reasons.. Moving around heavy machinery and material, as quickly as possible meant a lot of accidents.
My mom dated a guy who was in an anti-aircraft unit in England, and he said pervasive drunk driving was a persistent and sometimes deadly problem for his unit and the other units there. Not quite Omaha Beach , I suppose.
I am haunted by the intro sequence to the Omaha Beach mission in the original Medal of Honor (2001) in which you're chilling in your landing boat and then suddenly the boat next to you gets instantly obliterated by an artillery shell. Like these people never got a chance, never got to touch the beach, just immediately no scoped from across the map. That's no fun!!! And with my luck that would have been me!!!!
When I was in the military I had a job similar to Corporal Upham from Saving Private Ryan. So despite contributing nothing and getting several of my fellow soldiers killed I would inexplicably survive.
Kinda hard to think of me as 19 joining the army getting shipped over and hitting the beach. Never been such of a romantic of war. Not sure how I would have responded to cicumstances of those times. If drafted would have gone but don't think I would have volunteered. Did they have a draft in WWII?
I would have definitely survived D-Day but unfortunately I had another thing I couldn't get out of that day so I didn't get a chance to show how much I would have survived. But I totally would have survived, totally
You absolutely would've survived D-Day because you would have been kicked out of boot camp for fighting the drill sergeant for getting all up in your face or whatever.
I was at the other thing and you should have been storming the beach instead of the other thing.
Because the other thing was pretty boring.
i dont think you would survive d-day honey
did you not read my foolproof plan
lmao
I was in the armed services and deployed in one of America's recent embarrassingly failed wars of conquest. I packed a memory foam mattress topper and a French press in my gear box. I absolutely would have got my shit wrecked on Normandy Beach.
you say that now but what if that french press deflects an MG42 round that was otherwise headed straight for your neck and the foam mattress topper helps you make it over a roll of barbed wire??? come on man you're not even trying
I think I would have survived it and I would have been cool about it. I would have gotten off a bunch of headshots and spins, and at the end of my march from the sea to the heart of German command, I would turn and give my faithful companion, George Washington the War Beagle, a high-five on his paw.
50/50
The funny thing about the "you darn woke kids would never have survived D-day" or "hey podcast/office/fast food working dweeb, you couldn't hack it in World War II" is, broadly, this:
Who the hell do these people think the army filled it's ranks with? Any of the armies?
If you're relatively physically capable, and relatively cognitively capable, you're in! Back in the 40s, pretty much all of the people in the army were soda jerks, stockboys, ex-accountants, clerks or fresh out of school. They make you exercise for 10 weeks, explain how to use your personal weapons with reasonable effectiveness, train you not to kill yourself or your fellow soldiers with the more destructive and dangerous heavy weapons you might use, and off you go.
This is the whole point of mechanized, industrial warfare. You and your fellow soldiers are an input, like the rifles, tanks, trucks, food, fuel, and all the other logistical material needed for war. High command moves you to the front, and violence happens. They replace you or your fallen comrades with more people like you. It doesn't really matter how smart you are, or how strong you are, or if you're a pure born alpha chad male. You will sit in the foxhole or trench and get shelled, and whoever's left moves up (or withdraws) to a different foxhole or trench, to get shelled there.
You're "winning" if you're foxholes and trenches are moving forward into enemy territory. There's no real skill necessary, and no amount of chad-dom or alpha-ness or physical prowess will keep you from getting blown into mist by a bomb or a shell.
I suppose that one personal characteristic that would determine how "good" a soldier you'd be is how much trauma, privation, acute existential fear (like "I am probably literally going to die now"), broad existential dread (like "it's pretty obvious to me that sooner or later I'm going to get killed"), utterly horrific and grotesque sights, sounds, smells, and sensations (all related to dead people and dying people), and basic, perfectly rational hopelessness you can tolerate before you are so emotionally and mentally unstable that you can't be relied upon to sit in that foxhole anymore. You don't really know where that limit is until you go through all of this.
I say this not as a veteran or anything, I just read a lot and deeply on war, and once you get through the thin veneer of rah rah stuff, you find people honestly trying to describe what war was like and what war means. I think I know enough that I'm happy to keep it hypothetical.
Probably. Because I'm built different.
Also because, like, numbers wise, something like 150,000 Allied troops landed on June 6, and "only" 4,414 were killed. That's one in 33 odds! I'll take that.
One thing that gets lost in our memory of the war is that most of the soldiers worked logistics and support, and only about 10% or so were frontline troops. Logistics was still dangerous, but for different reasons.. Moving around heavy machinery and material, as quickly as possible meant a lot of accidents.
My mom dated a guy who was in an anti-aircraft unit in England, and he said pervasive drunk driving was a persistent and sometimes deadly problem for his unit and the other units there. Not quite Omaha Beach , I suppose.
Most of us would have survived D-Day cause we'd have been back home, chillin' and making big bucks working in a factory or some such.
I am haunted by the intro sequence to the Omaha Beach mission in the original Medal of Honor (2001) in which you're chilling in your landing boat and then suddenly the boat next to you gets instantly obliterated by an artillery shell. Like these people never got a chance, never got to touch the beach, just immediately no scoped from across the map. That's no fun!!! And with my luck that would have been me!!!!
Hard to ignore the problem here, in that surviving D-Day means that you have close to a year of intense combat awaiting you.
If video games have taught me anything, not only would I have survived, but I'd also have gotten like 5 medals of honor.
I probably would have survived because I'd have joined the navy instead of the army. Here's hoping I wouldn't have ended up on the Indianapolis.
According to video games, I can be shot several times, wait it out, and then resume fighting.
Seems legit.
“ who love to watch the same archival footage over and over again on the History Channel”
lol this is me
When I was in the military I had a job similar to Corporal Upham from Saving Private Ryan. So despite contributing nothing and getting several of my fellow soldiers killed I would inexplicably survive.
(Laughs hysterically) No.
100%. Doubtful I'm completely intact, mentally or physically, but I'm seeing the 7th.
Kinda hard to think of me as 19 joining the army getting shipped over and hitting the beach. Never been such of a romantic of war. Not sure how I would have responded to cicumstances of those times. If drafted would have gone but don't think I would have volunteered. Did they have a draft in WWII?