COVER N. 524 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour - 21.10.2024 

Posted on the 21st October; Received on the 24th October 2024

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They called it "The longest day"... that was also the name of the book by Cornelius Ryan that I had on my bedside table when I was  a lad of  say 13 or so.... a time, for boys, when all wars are winnable, when only good prevails, when all soldiers are heroes,  when you'd want to be one of those heroes, when you never think that heroes are mostly remembered for having given that most precious possession for a cause...when focus on the future is achieved at the infinity mark on one's inner lens....

The truth could not be far from that, we all know, but sometimes there is no escape: for good to prevail,  force has to be corresponded by force, with all that this simple equation entails.... 

Lest we forget, they said in 1918. Well, by 1939 they all had forgotten and the mad dogs were on the loose again, their leashes held by the hands of a deranged lunatic, who drove the world to 6 years of the utmost brutality that has ever been witnessed, whose devious mind and those of his closest followers, conceived the unconceivable.... a final solution, they said....an euphemism for sheer horror....

And Man thought we would never see such lack of empathy, such cold, irrational behaviour, such barbarity.... and yet, we have plenty of examples in the past since then when this was not so... Even today as I read on the news that the people that once suffered horrors is the same that is bringing horror to others in a way that can never be justified or excused, or even conceived, after being also brutally and senselessly attacked, while those that promptly and justifiably so were fast to condemn the aggression coming from the eastern steppes, turn a blind eye (not to say, overtly support) on a politician who thinks himself above the laws of war and international respect and co-existence.

Peace talks... you'd have to be interested in Peace to talk about it. None of the sides seems to be so.

There was a moment in time. The leaders even won the deserved Nobel Prize, 30 years ago. Then they were eliminated by those they sought to protect... 

The longest day was not the 6th June 1944... the longest day is the history of Man, from the day it evolved from ape to man...in his relentless fight for freedom and his unabated will to deny it....

When will we ever learn?

Un grand Merci Eric, pour ce joli pli avec le bloc commémoratif des 80 ans du débarquement en  Normandie!

The 6th June 1944

The beginning of the end for the Second World War, and of the liberation of France and Europe, from the boots of the Nazi beast.

Lest we forget!

Highlighting this important anniversary, La Poste issued on 10JUN2024  the lovely souvenir sheet with a single 1,96 stamp that Eric use on this particular  letter.

The stamp features the image of allied soldiers  (American, British and Canadian, mostly)  advancing towards the towns of Sainte-Mére-Église, the first to be liberated on the 7th June,  Avranches (30 July);  and Metz (13 December).

It is difficult to devise in the stamp but the image of  the church of Sainte-Mère-Église does include the famous parachutist - John Steele -  dangling from its tower, in which his parachute become entangled. This famous image has been since permanently recreated on the spot by a  mannequin dangling from a parachute, which I had the pleasure of seeing quite a few years ago when I visited the area.

On the foreground of the stamp is a newer monument (or at least I have no recollection of it). The zero milestone of the road to freedom, implanted in front of Saint-Mère-Église Town Hall.

Is should be noted that this souvenir sheet highlighting operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, is the companion to another beautiful creation by the same designer - Louis Genty - conceived to honour the 80 anniversary of Operation Dragon, the landings at the Cote d'Azur, which I mentioned on post regarding cover #521.

Monsieur Genty was also the artist behing the outstanding souvenir sheet on cover #458.