The Americans "arrived" because of what happened one Sunday morning in Hawaii.
Then they got their asses kicked badly enough that they realized they better
get into the war INSTEAD of SELLING war materials to both the AXIS and ALLIES.

Hi,

actually as a neutral country these united States (the government)
didn't SELL war materials to either side.

we did have a program called "lend/lease" which allowed us to "loan" war
materials to britian for example... that was not a "sale" and was thus
legal... "lend/lease" enfields bring a premium on the collectors market.

what private companies do that's not against the law is their own
business....

Are you going to the D-Day events in France?


no... my father was there June 9th.... 1944.... D+3.


my mother was in occuppied Paris.


my great uncle was a "criminal"... he operated a short wave radio out of
his attic in vichy.... if caught he would have been shot... again....
he'd been shot once by the germans in ww-I.

If you are, open your eyes and visit the cemeteries full of Canadians, French, British and other war dead.

I have.

the Tommys -earned- my forgiveness for what they did to St. Joan in the
trenches of WW-I.... and I stop and visit and chat with the ol' boys...
they don't get many visitors anymore.

in fact let me tell you a little story.

I was driving north from Rouen on the little roads... a dreary misty
day... I approached Cambrai... the clouds parted, the rain stopped, and
the sun came out.... suddenly there was a HUGE memorial of some sort on
west side of the road....it had stopped raining so I backed up and
stopped to see what it was...

it was a memorial to the over 10,000 Tommys who'd died in the Battle of
Cambrai who had no known grave.

so I gazed at the rows of crosses and names on the walls, signed the
guest book and left them a note telling them they'd earned France's
forgivness for their countrymen's actions years before... while walking
back to the car the rain started again....

Cambrai was the first use of tanks in battle... must have been HELL.


so yes I stop at the cemeteries.


I've visited a little town cemetery north of Reims that had a medal in a
little weather worn box hanging on the village war memorial... no
surviving family member to give it to... lists of names of the men that
were "shot by the germans" (and yes they used the verb tirer, to shoot)
and the dates.... 1 day after another....

I've stopped at the lone cross out by the edge of the road to find it
was the town doctor... shot treating the wounded in no-man's-land.


here's a little research project for you.

the cathedral at Reims was pretty trashed by the end of ww-i.

find what private US organization paid for it's reconstruction.


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