Educational effects of annual D-Day Celebrations

[troublemaker]

The Gallup Poll. May 21-23, 2004. N=1,002 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"As you may know, June 6th is the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II. Do you happen to know what country’s army the U.S. and allied forces were fighting against during the D-Day invasion?"

Germany 63%
Incorrect response 14%
No opinion 23%

"Do you happen to know where the U.S. and allied troops landed for the D-Day invasion?"

Normandy/France/Omaha Beach 61%
Incorrect response 7%
No opinion 32%

I would have expected that most people would know we fought the Germans in WWII but that few people would know where the D-Day landings took place, but the correct answers for the two questions are the same. (61% and 63%; within MoE ± 3) This suggests that the difficulty of the question doesn't much matter; a little over 60% of the population *knows things* and close to 40% simply *doesn't know things*... or perhaps these annual celebrations of D-Day have been an exercise in tourism and historical revisionism, emphasizing that the picturesque locale is in France but painting the enemy as essentially the bogey man... a free floating enemy... the evil-doers.

Or perhaps when asked who we fought when we invaded on D-Day 20% of the population tries to figure out what nation America would be likely to invade and comes up with FRANCE

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Did anyone tell Gallup about the other 4 beaches?

If I were a veteran of Utah Beach, I'd feel pretty pissed off at Omaha being singled out. And since they say 'and allied troops', they ought to be accepting Gold, Juno and Sword too. Does Gallup take its history from feature films now?