Jumping onto a cloud of faith.

From the Movie, Saving Private Ryan
My dear Mrs Ryan: It's with the most profound sense of joy that I write to inform you your son, Private James Ryan, is well and, at this very moment, on his way home from European battlefields. Reports from the front indicate James did his duty in combat with great courage and steadfast dedication, even after he was informed of the tragic loss your family has suffered in this great campaign to rid the world of tyranny and oppression. I take great pleasure in joining the Secretary of War, the men and women of the U.S. Army, and the citizens of a grateful nation in wishing you good health and many years of happiness with James at your side. Nothing, not even the safe return of a beloved son, can compensate you, or the thousands of other American families, who have suffered great loss in this tragic war. I might share with you some words which have sustained me through long, dark nights of peril, loss, and heartache.
And I quote: "I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom." -Abraham Lincoln. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, George C. Marshall, General, Chief of Staff.

Facts:

The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, remains the largest sea borne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France.

The Normandy invasion began with overnight paratrooper and glider landings, massive air and naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious assault on June 6, famously known as "D-day". The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads. It concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Chambois pocket.

Statistics
Army Strength
Allied Forces: 326,000 (by June 11, 1944)
Germany: unknown

Casualties
Allied Forces: 37,000 dead, 18,000 missing, 154,000 wounded
Germany: ~200,000 dead or wounded, 200,000 captured

Afterthoughts :

It was a great victory over the Germans that the world will remember. After watching Saving Private Ryan and Band Of Brothers(series) , I salue the Allied troops for their boldness and determination to free Europe of Hilter's vicious grip. Many documented brave souls have died, while others live on to tell the tale to their grandchildren. A hard-fought war that granted freedom for the world, indeed.

In memory of the atomic bomb released on Hiroshima which flattened the whole city exactly 60 years ago (Aug 6, 1945). The United States were not to be blamed fully for what they've done during WWII. The army got to do what it has got to do as a superpower nation. Moreover, Pearl Harbour was attacked with utmost brutality by the Japanese. Millions of Asians were suffering under the evil war campaign of Japanese, obviously trying to conquer Asia. Had the atomic bombs not been used, the whole asia will be called Japan. Peace talks at that time is impossible because the ambitious leaders only had one thing in mind, to kill and conquer. My stand is that the Japanese deserved the bombs and my fingers point to the generals who started the campaign.