It is D-Day+24,090–it is that many days since the beginning o the Allied invasion of Europe, begun on this day in 1944.  It was almost four years to the day that Britain lost Europe, backed up to the channel on the pebbled beaches of Dunkerque, 300,000 British Expeditionary Forces (and 100,000 French) waiting to be rescued from a very bad situation, penned in by Nazi forces that never did make the final assault on their nearly-captured prey.  The BEF was severely compromised in the evacuation, and the possibility of an invasion of England was real.  Four years later, 66 years ago today, it was all over but the fighting, the Allies launching the greatest military assault in history, beginning the endgame of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

This is a picture of my Uncle Walt (Dad’s side) who is posing alongside the six stars proudly displayed by my great grandparents in the front windows of their house in Housatonic, Massachusetts–that’s six stars signifying six members of the household (six bothers) who were fighting in the war. These were blue stars–thankfully, no gold star needed to be sewn over any of the blue ones, though this was tragically not the case with our relatives.