Sandy Ferguson he/him

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

Evening sky over the Beacon.

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

This week's YouTube service from Strathearn United Church for the 7th of June.
The sermon contains a dash of Pride.
https://t.co/6af3bJP8UO

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

Shaylee enjoying a good woogle!

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

Sorry Strathearn United Church, if the Pope thinks it is cool to refer to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien it is time for me to get back into the habit of doing so in my sermons!

[Tea with Tolkien @TeawithTolkien]

Pope Leo XIV on J.R.R. Tolkien: “He’s a fascinating figure that reaches out to people far beyond just the Catholic Church, so it’s a way of using culture, literature, art, for a voice.”

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

@ReassessHistory I usually ignore it, but this time I couldn't help myself!

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

The execution was only catastrophic on the Omaha beach, they had more success on the British and Canadian beaches.

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

The idea was brilliant. The execution was catastrophic.

Allied planners knew that the men hitting the beaches of Normandy would be cut apart without armor support in those first critical minutes. The solution was the DD tank. The Duplex Drive Sherman. A standard 33-ton Sherman tank fitted with a collapsible canvas flotation screen and two small propellers bolted to the rear. Raise the screen, drop into the water, swim to shore, lower the screen, start shooting. Tanks arriving with the first wave, ahead of the infantry, suppressing German positions before the ramps even dropped.

The concept worked perfectly in testing. The designers had one requirement: waves no higher than one foot.

On the morning of June 6th, 1944, the waves off Omaha Beach were six feet high.

Nobody stopped the launch.

At 5:40 AM, the 741st Tank Battalion began dropping their DD tanks into the English Channel, six thousand yards from shore. More than three miles of open water, in seas that were six times rougher than the tanks were designed to handle. The first tank hit the water. The canvas screen, designed to hold the weight of a Sherman afloat, was immediately overwhelmed. Waves crashed over the top. Water flooded in. The tank went down.

Then another. Then another.

The canvas screens collapsed like paper bags in the swell. Tanks that had been designed to float became 33-ton anchors the moment they hit the water. Crews inside had seconds. Some got out through the hatches. Many did not. The tanks took them straight to the bottom of the English Channel.

Some crews managed to get a radio signal out as their tank went under, warning the following units not to launch. The warnings either did not get through or came too late.

29 DD tanks were launched by the 741st Tank Battalion that morning. 27 sank before reaching the beach. The entire left flank of Omaha Beach, where the 1st Infantry Division was assaulting, had five tanks to support it. Five. Against fortified German positions housing hundreds of machine guns, 88mm guns, and mortars zeroed on every inch of that sand.

The infantry arrived first. Alone.

What happened next at Omaha Beach, the 2,400 casualties, the slaughter in the first ten minutes, the near-total destruction of Company A, is inseparable from the loss of those tanks. They were supposed to be there. They were supposed to be firing at German positions while the ramps were still closed. Instead they were on the bottom of the Channel with their crews.

The story of the 743rd Tank Battalion makes it worse.

The 743rd was assigned to the western sector of Omaha Beach. Their LCT flotilla commander looked at the sea conditions that morning, looked at the waves, and made a different decision. He refused to launch his tanks into the water. Instead he drove his LCTs directly onto the beach and dropped the ramps in the shallows. The tanks rolled off onto sand.

Nine tanks were knocked out by German fire during the assault. But they were there. They were fighting. The infantry had armor.

At Utah Beach, the sea was calmer, protected from the prevailing winds. 28 of 32 DD tanks launched there made it ashore. The infantry had support. Utah Beach cost 197 casualties. Omaha cost 2,400.

The sunken tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion still lie on the bottom of the English Channel off Omaha Beach. They have never been raised. Divers have visited them. Inside some of the wrecks, they found what they expected.

They are still there today, 82 years later, three miles off the coast of Normandy, on the bottom of the sea.

Today is June 6th.

Remember them.

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

An observation.
I have seen various shitters of wisdom use the sacrifices of the people who took part in the D-Day landings to attack today's young people implying they wouldn't have the same willingness to participate.
Would Boomers and Gen X at that age have been as willing?

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

In commemoration of the anniversary of D-Day, these are Tamiya's 1/35 British Infantry soldiers who represent the British and Canadian soldiers who landed on Sword, Gold and Juno beaches and participated in the grind of the Normandy campaign afterwards.

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

A few years ago I was the only mainstream clergy in a town in British Columbia with a substantial Church of LDS presence in the region. I later heard the local LDS leadership appreciated the fact that unlike the other Christian clergy I didn't treat the LDS like an evil cult.

[Edgewater Presbyterian Church @EdgewaterPCUSA]

They came for the others, and now…

[Dave Langille @cdnusboy]

Remembering forces from English and French Canada, including the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and le Régiment de la Chaudière. Avec gratitude, en ce jour anniversaire du Débarquement.

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

I just realized that I didn't post last week's worship service from Strathearn United Church, so I guess better late than never!
https://t.co/WdVFsCrIyw

[David Hayward | Artist @nakedpastor]

Have you seen those graphics where people are "protecting" their children from the LGBTQIA+ rainbow with a Bible, a cross, or a shield?

I thought I'd draw an alternative reality. One where protection looks like love instead of fear.

I like this version better.🌈

#PrideMonth

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

Hegseth routinely spits in the face of Jesus and his actions make it clear that if he was around at the time of Pontius Pilate he would have supported Jesus execution because Jesus of the Gospels is too 'woke'.
Yet he also feels qualified to deem what faith is Christian.
Indeed.

[Dem Saints @LDS_Dems]

Under new military guidance from Pete Hegseth, the LDS Church is officially classified as a non-Christian religion.

My fellow Saints, you can love these Christian nationalists all you want, but they will not love you back.

https://t.co/AWm3fRPEst

[Apple TV @AppleTV]

It takes two to save the world.

#Pluribus — Now Streaming

[alex kershaw @kershaw_alex]

D-Day is underway. Some would argue that what's happening right now is the most daring and ultimately successful operation in the history of military Alliances.
Note: the majority of troops are friends of the US from eight countries. Eisenhower has been told that three-quarters of the 23,400 airborne troops will be lost. He's hoping that the prediction will be wrong.

[Seriously Obsessed Podcast @annieandjennpod]

NEW EPISODE! The new podcast is underway! Join Annie & Jenn as they begin their #Severance rewatch, starting with the season one opener, “Good News About Hell.” Links to all your favorite podcast apps at https://t.co/4UTq3FAywQ

[Pluribus Diaries Podcast 🙂 @PluribusPod]

attention pluribus fam! if you are also a severance fan, be sure to check out and subscribe to annie and jenn’s other podcast… we’ve just begun our rewatch! see you there! #severance #podcast

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

@Askeladd_Art Clark wasn't the only arrogant arsehole general in the Italy campaign.
His British counterpart was Oliver Leese who was transferred to Burma in 1944. There he was involved in some shenanigans that threatened to undermine Slim's command of 14th Army, but Slim managed to survive.

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

General Mark Clark was more interested in getting headlines than winning the war.
Ignoring orders he decided to get his headlines by liberating Rome, doing so on the 4th of June 1944 and got his headlines for one day.
Then D-Day happened.
He did whine about the loss of attention.

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

Watch out for Zombie Jesus!

[Sandy Ferguson he/him @revsandy01]

I am looking forward to Miniart releasing a special Edmonton version of 1/35 birds, including crows, ravens and of course magpies!
And I should add Canada geese as I just heard one honking!

[梶原醉象軒 @Askeladd_Art]

アヒルとガチョウ！スズメとムクドリとワタリガラスはまだか？