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 D Day (currently 1 views) |
| Frenchie |
| Posted on: June 6th, 2014, 7:02pm |
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Maximum Member2 LIke to hear from anyone that was Co C 4/31
Posts: 407
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When we lived in France....the French put on great military parades on Bastille Day and other national holidays. in cities, i remember MANY plaques on street corners commemorating actions that happened on the various sites. When we we to the beaches of Marseilles(our home town) i saw bunkers and many iron spikes in the water and this was late 1950s.
Back in the days, we walked everywhere or took the bus/tram to visit family and we used to walk to the Notre Dame De La Garde Basilica in Marseilles...and as a boy i was excited because there was TANK parked right below the church. In the old days that tank did not look as nice as in these pictures
http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/17453/M4A4-Sherman-Tank-Jeanne-dArc.htm this link has other pictures of interest.
http://the.shadock.free.fr/Tanks_in_France/sherman_marseille/imagepages/image1.html
This article is what prompted me to post about D Day
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/05/opinion/lauder-eisenhower-d-day-anguish/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
I know it is fashionable to bash the French nowadays but i want to assure all that the French never forgot the help the allies gave them. Just take a look at the military cemeteries.....many resisted the Nazi invasion. Many French died during the war
Ive been in the USA since 1960, served in the US Army from 1967-1969....ive never been back to France nor have I had any desire to go back and visit. My family used to tease me about that. They all have gone back at least once--not me.....
I saw an old WWII veteran recently (he was wearing his hat) he was in his wheel chair and i approached him and whispered "if it wasnt for you guys, we might be speaking German today" ....he smiled
Their sacrifice is not measurable. God bless America
PS sorry for posting in wrong section.... |
Frenchie - Gilbert E Manasselian
C 4/31 Feb 68 to Feb 69
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| Bob Kotch |
| Posted on: June 10th, 2014, 3:04pm |
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Posts: 187
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| Good post and pictures, Frenchie. I'll bet you had an interesting childhood. Was it hard adjusting to a new country as a young teenager? It looks like you just jumped right into it and never looked back! |
HHC, MP Plt. 9-67 through 9-68 |
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Reply: 1 - 7 |
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| Frenchie |
| Posted on: June 10th, 2014, 3:36pm |
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Maximum Member2 LIke to hear from anyone that was Co C 4/31
Posts: 407
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I hesitate to post about your question since doesnt have much to do with the site.....ill try to keep it brief.
Living in France was interesting. It was right after the war...there was a lot of civic/political turmoil. Boys and girls went to seperate schools until H.S. The gendarmes stood around by 2 or groups of 3 with their capes on and a submachine gun underneath the cape....then there were regular Mafia/Gangsters shoot outs in town...not to mention violence due to the Algerian revolutions....they tell me that one of the schools i attended used to be a prison for females...living conditions were primitive even in town...coal stove for heating, no running hot water etc no tv....i think at the time there were probablyh only 2-3 stations at most.
In spite of all this? we never went hungry and we were happy.....i know it doesnt make sense.
I have many memories most are great....i tell everyone we came the OLD fashion way......legal and by boat :)
The hardest thing besides the language? look at your coins, there are NO numbers on them.....cant tell what denomination they are.....we didnt now a quarter from a dime....and the measurement system.....in shop classes i had a heck of a time measuring anything...1/8 of an inch, 1/4 of an inch etc etc.....metric system makes a lot more sense to a Euro like me..of course the schools here were a MUCH nicer....playgrounds etc...none when i lived there
Im sure things now are muchbetter .....my recollections are CA1960 and prior
we got it made in this country....no doubt about it....
nuff for now |
Frenchie - Gilbert E Manasselian
C 4/31 Feb 68 to Feb 69
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Reply: 2 - 7 |
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| Jim Armstrong |
| Posted on: June 10th, 2014, 10:28pm |
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Posts: 203
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"coal stove for heating, no running water, no tv..."
Darned if that doesn't sound just like AIT at Fort Gordon in 1965.
Did your French help any in Viet Nam? |
Jim Armstrong
C, HQ, A 2/1
1965-1967 |
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Reply: 3 - 7 |
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| Frenchie |
| Posted on: June 10th, 2014, 11:13pm |
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Maximum Member2 LIke to hear from anyone that was Co C 4/31
Posts: 407
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Its almost funny youre asking me that......NO ONE spoke french over there....maybe in the large cities where people might more more educated but in the bush? nah.
One time we found a base camp and there were medical supplies and someone thought they were french supplies so they called me to see what i could decipher from the boxes....as near as i could figure out my guess was that it may have been polish or some eastern euro country but for sure it was not French. WHen i was in Saigon for a Day i saw some old French Citroen and Renault automobiles..the Renault looked like a ladybug.
This is the ONLY other French thing i saw over there......a marker on the side of the road...in france they were very common .
[img] https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/L4ltZO78l4NM6o2nkljxqp-J7LHK8cCvwXdGEkxHYLs?feat=directlink [/img]
The number 789 refers to how many Kilometers to Saigon and the number 37 refers to how many KM to Hue...it was on the BIG and mighty HWY 1 and on the back to the marker side was an old french fort ...this near LZ Belcher and Camp Evans in March 1968 |
Frenchie - Gilbert E Manasselian
C 4/31 Feb 68 to Feb 69
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Reply: 4 - 7 |
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| Jim Armstrong |
| Posted on: June 11th, 2014, 4:22pm |
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Posts: 203
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For the first month or so off the boat, I was the batallion S-5 or Civil Affairs Officer.
We may have actually done some positive things, especially MedCaps, with various medical personnel from Hq company and brigade assessing and treating a huge number of maladies most of them had never seen.
The village elders and what medicos they had of course spoke no English, but one of our RTO's spoke pretty good French and we discovered that the older Vietnamese did too.
It really helped. My rudimentary German and Spanish didn't. |
Jim Armstrong
C, HQ, A 2/1
1965-1967 |
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| Frenchie |
| Posted on: June 11th, 2014, 4:43pm |
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Maximum Member2 LIke to hear from anyone that was Co C 4/31
Posts: 407
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Im surprised to hear you actually found someone who spoke french!!!!!!! i did find an old momma san who had old french coins..they seemed to have some value to her....she didnt want to part with them. Im sure some guys have no idea that the french "owned" Vietnam, Laos, Thailand so i took some gentle flak along the lines of "if you frenchies had done the job right the first time, we would not be here now" ...
Over in France back in the days it was known in general as Indochine or Indochina.
I vaguely recall hearing about Indochina when i was a youngster as well as the Korean war. |
Frenchie - Gilbert E Manasselian
C 4/31 Feb 68 to Feb 69
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| Fletchw2zero |
| Posted on: July 23rd, 2014, 10:34pm |
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Posts: 175
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| Recently watched the film Indochine. It was released in 91 and the French had the cooperation of Vietnames gov't. It has a lefty slant to it but it does give some idea of the structure of VN from the 1920's to 1954. It is subtitled so us old deaf guys can enjoy it too. |
Fletch
Co B 4/31 May through November 69
C Btry 1/82 Arty Nov 69 thru April-ish 70 radio handle whiskey two zero
Craig Fletcher |
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