The presumptive GOP nominee tried honoring the invasions 72nd anniversary Monday in a tweet and somehow chose a picture that isnt even from D-Day.
Remembering the fallen heroes on #DDay June 6, 1944, the billionaire buffoon wrote with a picture of soldiers running on a beach.
The photo was captioned: D-Day June 6, 1944.
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But it is not from D-Day, or even from 1944.
Getty Images, which licensed the photo, said it was from a training exercise for D-Day in 1943.
For good measure, the photos caption clearly states: Troops coming ashore during training exercises for the Allied D-Day invasion.
Trump, as per usual, never acknowledged the blunder.
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Earlier in the day, Trumps Twitter account showed equal dishonor to basic grammar. In a tweet responding to damning reports about his barebones campaign, Trump dropped this gem: I am getting bad marks from certain pundits because I have a small campaign staff. But small is good, flexible, save money and number one!
The Donalds D-Day doozy came a week after he finally broke down the $6 million he donated to veterans groups in a press conference he largely devoted to hating on the press.
At the presser, Trump deemed himself the only person in the world who could raise almost $6 million for the veterans, have uniform applause by the veterans group and end up getting criticized by the press.
Trumps own military record is nearly nonexistent. Despite earning medals at the New York Military Academy, he repeatedly dodged the Vietnam Draft and eventually earned a medical deferment for bone spurs in his foot.
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WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate has marked the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion with a recitation of the prayer that President Franklin Roosevelt led that day in a nationwide radio broadcast.
Ohio Senator Rob Portman read the prayer, in which FDR asked G*d to protect the American and allied troops storming n**i-controlled France, declaring that with thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.
Portman sponsored legislation signed into law two years ago that will make Roosevelts D-Day prayer part of the World War II memorial in Washington.
Sound:
%@AP Links
277-w-35-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor, with Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio)The Senate has marked the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion with a recitation of the prayer that President Franklin Roosevelt led that day in a nationwide broadcast. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. ((opens with sound)) (6 Jun 2016)
<<CUT *277 (06/06/16) 00:35
280-a-04-(Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, reading part of FDRs D-Day prayer)-forces of our enemy-Sound of Ohio Senator Rob Portman reading part of the D-Day prayer that President Franklin Roosevelt led in a nationwide radio broadcast. ((cut used in wrap)) (6 Jun 2016)
<<CUT *280 (06/06/16) 00:04 "forces of our enemy"
278-a-11-(Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, reading part of FDRs D-Day prayer)-a suffering humanity-Sound of Ohio Senator Rob Portman reading part of the D-Day prayer that President Franklin Roosevelt led in a nationwide radio broadcast. ((cut used in wrap)) (6 Jun 2016)
<<CUT *278 (06/06/16) 00:11 "a suffering humanity"
279-a-07-(Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, reading part of FDRs D-Day prayer)-our united crusade-Sound of Ohio Senator Rob Portman reading part of the D-Day prayer that President Franklin Roosevelt led in a nationwide radio broadcast. (6 Jun 2016)
<<CUT *279 (06/06/16) 00:07 "our united crusade"
281-a-16-(Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, in Senate floor speech)-said that day-Ohio Senator Rob Portman says legislation to make FDRs D-Day prayer a part of Washingtons World War II memorial was signed into law two years ago. ((longer version of cut used in wrap)) (6 Jun 2016)
1. MYTH: D-Day was predominantly an American operation
REALITY: For many people, D-Day is defined by the bloodshed at Omaha -- the codename for one of the five beaches where Allied forces landed -- and the American airborne drops. Even in Germany, the perception is still that D-Day was a largely American show; in a German TV mini-series shown in recent years, "Generation War," there was a reference to the "American landings" in France.
But despite "Band of Brothers," despite "Saving Private Ryan," despite those 11 photographs taken by Robert Capa in the swell on that morning of June 6 1944, D-Day was not a predominantly American effort. Rather, it was an Allied effort with, if anything, Britain taking the lead. Yes, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, was American, but his deputy, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder was British, as were all three service chiefs. Air Marshal Sir Arthur "Mary" Coningham, commander of the tactical air forces, was also British.
The plan for Operation Overlord -- as D-Day was codenamed -- was largely that of Gen. Bernard Montgomery, the land force commander. The Royal Navy had overall responsibility for Operation Neptune, the naval plan. Of the 1,213 warships involved, 200 were American and 892 were British; of the 4,126 landing craft involved, 805 were American and 3,261 were British.
Indeed, 31% of all U.S. supplies used during D-Day came directly from Britain, while two-thirds of the 12,000 aircraft involved were also British, as were two-thirds of those that landed in occupied France. Despite the initial slaughter at Omaha, casualties across the American and British beaches were much the same. This is not to belittle the U.S. effort but rather to add context and a wider, 360-degree view. History needs to teach as well as entertain.
2. MYTH: American forces were ill-prepared
REALITY: By the end of World War II the United States had the best armed services in the world. The 77-day Normandy campaign did much to help them reach this point.
Northern France was a showcase for American tactical and operational flexibility. At the start of the campaign, the Americans found themselves fighting through the Norman "bocage," an area of small fields lined with thick, raised hedgerows and narrow, sunken lanes. They hadn"t trained for this; instead they expected that the Germans would quickly retreat after a successful Allied landing.
For the Germans, the bocage offered cover and ambush opportunities for mortar teams and machine guns. Even the American 30-ton Sherman tanks couldn"t get through these hedgerows. Then a U.S. sergeant came up with the ingenious solution of attaching a hedge-cutting tool built from German beach obstacles to the front of a Sherman. Gen. Omar Bradley, the U.S. First Army commander, was impressed; within a fortnight, the device had been fitted to 60% of all U.S. Shermans in Normandy.
This was but one example. During the campaign huge developments also were made in close air support, as well as in coordination between infantry, artillery and armor. Medical services advanced so much that one in four casualties returned to the battlefield after treatment, remarkable for 1944.
3. MYTH: The Allies became bogged down in Normandy
REALITY: In the pre-invasion estimates for the Normandy campaign, the Allies expected to be roughly 50 miles inland after 17 days, based on German retreats in North Africa and Italy. But Adolf Hitler ordered his forces to fight as close to the French coast as possible and not give an inch.
On paper it seemed that the Allies weren"t making much progress, but in reality the German strategy worked to the Allies" advantage as they pounded the enemy with offshore naval guns. For by 1944 the Allies had realized that German tactics -- which dated back more than 100 years -- were rigidly predictable. Striking back once the enemy had overextended itself was central to German DNA throughout World War II. The Allies soon realized that this penchant for counterattack meant that the Germans would eventually move into the open and get hammered.
By the end of the Normandy campaign the Germans were hemorrhaging men and machines, with two armies all but destroyed. True, a handful of Germans did escape the attempted encirclement around Falaise, but it was still a massive Allied victory. In the rapid advance that followed, the Allies moved more quickly than Germans had in the opposite direction four years before, during the invasion of France.
4. MYTH: German soldiers were better trained than their Allied counterparts
REALITY: At the start of World War II the best German units were more than a match for their Allied opposition -- but by 1944 that had changed radically. There were a few exceptions, such as the Panzer Lehr, but come D-Day most German units were not as well trained as the Allies.
Some Allied units in Normandy had been preparing for four years for this campaign. In contrast, many German troops had had little more than a few weeks" notice. The German ad hoc battle groups known as kampfgruppen are traditionally regarded as showcasing tactical flexibility, but even these were borne of extreme shortages and desperation toward the end of the war.
The German paratroopers, or fallschirmjger, were acknowledged to be among the best of their armed forces, yet one veteran I interviewed recalled how he had barely any training, save a few route marches and practice at laying mines. He never trained with a tank, had no transport and had to march 200 miles from Brittany when sent to the front. His case was not atypical: All infantry divisions in Normandy were expected to move by either foot or horse-drawn cart. The veteran I spoke to reached Saint-L, a major Normandy town, on June 12 with a company of 120 men. When he was captured on August 19 he was one of just nine men still standing.
The Germans had a doctrine during World War II called auftragstaktik -- best described as the ability to use one"s initiative -- which has been hailed as what set their soldiers apart. But the paratrooper I spoke to knew nothing of it. By that stage of the war, German training was so skimpy that it was impossible to implement.
5. MYTH: The Germans had stronger tactical skills
REALITY: The dogged determination of the Germans to fight during D-Day is often confused with tactical skill. It shouldn"t. The best analogy is with more recent conflicts like Afghanistan or even Vietnam, when Western forces had the best training and kit yet struggled to defeat a massively inferior enemy. As the Taliban have shown, it is very difficult to completely defeat your enemy if they don"t want to be defeated. The only way to do that is to kill them all.
This is why the Germans took so long to be defeated in Normandy and, subsequently, despite a lack of training, they were still a very dangerous and deadly enemy with plenty of powerful weapons and a fierce determination to keep fighting. This was for a number of reasons: n**i indoctrination, a profound sense of duty and the threat of execution for deserters. In World War I the Germans executed 48 men for desertion; during World War II that figure rose to 30,000.
6. MYTH: America and Britain got off lightly in World War II
REALITY: Allied frontline troops suffered horrifically during World War II. Democracies such as Britain and America tried to achieve victory with as few casualties as possible. For the most part, they did this very successfully using technology and machinery to shield lives wherever they could.
However, short distances still had to be won by the infantry, tank units and artillery. Although technology meant the Allies needed fewer forces than a generation earlier, those in the firing line still pulled the very short straw. Losses to frontline troops were proportionally worse during the 77-day Normandy campaign than they were during the major battles along the Western Front during World War I.
James Holland is a historian, writer and broadcaster, whose books include "Fortress Malta," "Battle of Britain," and "Dam Busters." He has written and presented BAFTA-shortlisted documentaries for the BBC and is currently working on a film about Normandy in 1944. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Holland is also co-founder of the Chalke Valley History Festival: several of his World War II interviews are available at griffonmerlin.com. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. This article was originally published in 2014.
