screwyoumarvel: (Steve - those are some blue eyes)
screwyoumarvel ([personal profile] screwyoumarvel) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2010-04-16 02:48 am
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Battles That Changed History, Second Period 4/15

"June sixth, 1944," Steve said. "Normandy, France. D-Day on Omaha Beach. I was there.

"This was the largest amphibious invasion of all time. Airborne troops were inserted the night before, then one hundred and seventy-five thousand men, many of them not much older than you, stormed these beaches early in the morning under heavy fire. The goal was to create a beachhead to open up a new front in the war and facilitate the retaking of France, and we did that. From here Allied forces pushed all the way to Berlin, where they met up with the Soviets, and Hitler died...not actually on fire in a ditch, but I like to pretend." Even Steve was allowed to be malicious and petty about Hitler. "We knew we were in the right, that the atrocities the Nazis had committed had to be answered for, but we knew it wasn't going to be easy. We knew we were going to have to fight for every inch. We knew a lot of us weren't going to live to see noon. I wasn't afraid to die. A lot of men were scared to death, and that was okay, but I wasn't, because I knew what we were doing was necessary. Take the beach, take the town, take the country, take the war. Step by step by step. But first..." he trailed off for a moment, faraway, then cleared his throat and said, "First we had to live through the morning.

"I tried to come up with an appropriate activity for you, but I have to be honest. This is too close to the heart for me. It's hard for me to talk about even now. So. We're going to watch the first half-hour of a film, which deals with this world's version of the storming of Omaha Beach." That would be, the version without the Invaders' involvement. "I don't ask much of you, I just ask that you watch, and not nap or chatter through it."

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] bitchprince 2010-04-16 08:11 am (UTC)(link)
Arthur Pendragon
notmyownage: (*has hands of hopeful*)

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] notmyownage 2010-04-16 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Claudia Donovan

Re: Sign In

[identity profile] morpherboy.livejournal.com 2010-04-17 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
Marco
notmyownage: (*is emo*)

Re: Movie Time

[personal profile] notmyownage 2010-04-16 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Claudia tried not to flinch visibly at the stark violence of the film clip.

Yeah, she was so totally gonna stick with being the genius way behind the front. Who made things that meant people didn't have to get their limbs blown off by grenades.

Re: Movie Time

[identity profile] ancientbschamp.livejournal.com 2010-04-16 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Gabrielle had seen a lot of violence in the past two years, but nothing like this; more than anything it was the sheer impersonality of the carnage that bothered her. Archers were bad enough, but with weapons like the ones these men used everything was somehow more horrific, not less.

She would remember this someday when she was storming a beach at Helicon in an eerily similar way, leading a suicidal and bloody and desperate charge of Amazons against the Greek-fire-flinging catapults and defenses of the son of a god. She'd remember how horrified she felt at watching the film clip, and she would, more than anything else, desperately miss being the young girl who was shocked without understanding instead of the exhausted and blood-covered Amazon Queen who knew almost exactly what it felt like.
Edited 2010-04-16 22:24 (UTC)

Re: Movie Time

[identity profile] morpherboy.livejournal.com 2010-04-17 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
Marco's attention was split between the movie and the grain of his desk. He wasn't sure which one he wanted to focus on.
bitchy_smurf: (appraising)

Re: Movie Time

[personal profile] bitchy_smurf 2010-04-17 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
Illyria watched silently, attention divided between simple approval of a well-executed and effective battle plan, and the memories, far too close to the surface this week, of a girl who'd watched this movie in college. When she was young and even more human, before living as a slave, before knowing demons were real and war was as unavoidable in her universe as the death that made her try to shut Illyria's eyes now.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[personal profile] bitchprince 2010-04-16 08:12 am (UTC)(link)
Arthur wasn't fond of films all that much. Or Teevee.

But he didn't nap or chatter; he watched intently.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[identity profile] bloody-luck.livejournal.com 2010-04-16 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Mat was there, his customary smirk completely wiped from his face as he watched the film.

He'd remember these tactics--it was impossible for him not to--but he prayed to the Creator he'd never have to implement them.

Re: OOC

[identity profile] findingelena.livejournal.com 2010-04-16 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
My grandfather was on Omaha Beach. I wish I had known before he died, so I could ask him about it. I also wish I had an icon that was saluting.