This is the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Normandy. It's near Juno Beach, the D-Day landing site that was under the command of Canadian forces. Like all the war cemeteries in Normandy, it's quite beautiful and meticulously maintained.
Lunchtime Photo
I may have said this before but I recommend the Canadian D-day Museum there.
To everyone reading this, I'd ask you one question: Have you ever heard of Operation Dragoon? What was it?
If you don't know the answer I'd suggest
(a) you go look it up.
(b) more importantly, you consider the question of WHY you don't know the answer.
The world is massively complex. The things that "society" chooses to publicize are few in number. It's unlikely that all or even much truth is captured in that limited set of constantly publicized facts, and chances are that the choice of publicized facts is serving someone's agenda (or was, until it became free-floating conventional wisdom).
I don’t understand the point you are trying to make, either. You make it sound like there’s some kind of a conspiracy to hide knowledge of the invasion of Southern France (and the ignominious fall of the Vichy government). This invasion is quite will known and widely discussed among historians of the war.
It's always diminished in comparison to the epic landing of June 6 1944.
On Saipan*.
(Yes, ask a Pacific veteran about June 6.)
You'll find that WW2 battles are commemorated by the media in direct proportion to the availability of 4-star hotels and restaurants.
*The landings on Saipan and the Marianas broke the inner ring of Japanese defenses. From those islands the B-29s launched the year-long air offensive against the Japanese home islands. So yes, it was a big deal.
If I recall correctly, it was originally intended to take place on June 6th but there were resource constraints so it was delayed. It was a much smaller landing, although it was extremely significant for the ability of the allies to use liberated ports and also because it was the end of the Vichy government. But the implication was that there was something nefarious about the operation or about it’s not being as well known and that makes absolutely no sense.
i'm not sure what your point is. the invasion of southern france was at the time and still is overshadowed by overlord for obvious reasons. had dragoon occurred first, perhaps it would be the other way around, or at least better remembered. world war two was fought in (at least) a thousand different places, all of which were important to those who were there, and all contributed in some way, large or small, to the war's outcome. that we only remember a relative handful of these battles doesn't diminish the significance of those we don't.
My father, a Naval officer, was on the crew of a troop ship in Operation Dragoon (although I never heard him call it that -- it was always "the invasion of southern France"; thanks for teaching me something today). They landed at St. Tropez, which even years later my father always assumed was some obscure coastal town that had no other particular significance.
By coincidence, one of his two best friends from childhood was among the troops transported on his ship. That was the last time they saw each other: my father's friend did not survive the campaign through France. His other best friend had already died in combat in the Philippines. So, yes, events that are no longer widely remembered still matter to some people, even today.
I am happy to say that the only virtue of this image is that it looks like a domestic white picket fence with some nice flowers planted out front.
You cannot tell from this perspective that these are gravestones at all...or you have to be alerted to what they are.
I am firmly against all these pretty pictures, (some of which I have taken myself), of military Cemeteries, with marble stretching as far as the eye can see...ALL These DEAD Young Men!
As if this mountain of cold stone can somehow give more substance to the Dead than their living lives could have done!
I am a former soldier, a combat soldier, and while few agree with me on this...I don't like seeing the names of my friends on walls in Washington or long lines of engraved white stone....I don't like it, I don't like seeing the proof of all the waste in these war dead.
Which is not to say sacrifice is not necessary....but there is a difference in understanding the necessary and hovering over the moldering, broken bodies of the young men we send off to be maimed and shredded by bullet and bomb and shell.
Traveller