D-Day invasion: Reporter’s firsthand account on June 6, 1944

New York Daily News ^ | 6/4/15

[Kartographer]

Riding in the van of the American air spearhead which covered the landing of American Rangers on the coast of France, this reporter had a panoramic view this morning of the D-Day invasion and saw the first Americans come ashore from smoking landing boats which had ridden through a curtain of German gunfire to reach the beach a few minutes before.

Deep behind the invaded beach, American paratroops and glider-borne Rangers were locked in battle along a wide, irregular front. Airborne units had landed soon after dawn and were engaged with the enemy when warships of the Unite Nations steamed in open order to within a few miles of the coast and commenced to pour in a steady fire.

Low wispy clouds down to 1,500 feet mottled the battlefield and the Marauder crews could discern only fragmentary glimpses of the struggle etched by the flat, splitting fire of mechanized guns and the spurting bursts of tracer bullets.

[Hulka]

Contrast with today’s media and how they would cover D-Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px_XBJHrs4I

[broken_arrow1]

Can’t imagine being the first American G.I. to step foot on the beaches of Normandy and the hail of gunfire from German machine guns that immediately followed. Probably 99% fatality rate for those first arrivals.

[Kartographer]

I always thing of the this scene from the movie 'The Longest Day'


Flight Officer David Campbell: "He's dead. I'm crippled. You're lost. Do you suppose it's always like that? I mean war."

[wastoute]

Warships of the United Nations?

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Yeah, I noticed that too!

[wastoute]

Just “rewriting our history”...

[fatnotlazy]

Finally got around to watching The Longest Day. Awesome film. Should be required viewing in high schools. But of course, it won’t. Wouldn’t fit in with the commie teacher union narrative that the US was the aggressor.

[AceMineral]

The alliance we had was called “The United Nations”.

[PlateOfShrimp]

I agree, that is a wonderful scene and that line is just about the best in the film. Although, I have to say I am a bit more partial to the girl on the bicycle :)

Guy on the right made it through the war, fell in love with a beautiful Puerto Rican girl in the ‘60s, ended up owning a luxury rustic hotel in the Pacific Northwest in the late ‘90s.

[Thank You Rush]

At the same time the Nazi was there with his boots on the wrong feet....have seen this many times but don’t remember if he was dead or alive.

[Thank You Rush]

Are you sure? Isn’t that Jeffrey Hunter? He had three wives and none appear to have a Puerto Rican name. Barbara Rush was his first wife and she was also the mother of Claudia Cowan, the FOX correspondent. Barbara Rush was the most beautiful woman...

“”Guy on the right made it through the war, fell in love with a beautiful Puerto Rican girl in the ‘60s, ended up owning a luxury rustic hotel in the Pacific Northwest in the late ‘90s.””

“”Hunter’s first marriage from 1950 to 1955 to actress Barbara Rush produced a son, Christopher (born 1952). From 1957 to 1967, Hunter was married to model Dusty Bartlett. He adopted her son, Steele, and the couple had two other children, Todd and Scott. In February 1969, he married actress Emily McLaughlin to whom he remained married until his death only three months later.[12]””

[oldvirginian]

The warships of the Allied Nations didn’t do a very good job of bombardment.
Due to fog and low clouds most of the rounds overshot the beaches.

Because the Army Air Force instructed the air crews to delay dropping the bombs by several seconds, the majority of the bombs missed the target, some landing a mile or more inland.

The paratroops were scattered all over Normandy.
Few landed within a mile of their drop zones.

And at Omaha beach, the US 29th Infantry faced a battle hardened German unit on R/R from the Russian front.
Not “old men and boys”.

HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY SUCCEED?

Courage
Honor
Integrity
Leadership

A lot of average guys doing something they knew had to be done.

Not enough superlatives in all the languages of the world to honor those men and their deeds and sacrifices.

[PlateOfShrimp]

It’s Richard Beymer. He fell in love with Maria in West Side Story, and then owned the Great Northern Hotel in Twin Peaks. :) :)

[wastoute]

Funny, when I was in school it was Allied Powers vs Axis.

[Kartographer]

I’ve got some sorry comments from FReepers in the past over posting that scene with most saying that it was more or less leftist propaganda.

But you ask any Vet and he will tell you that your first action is confusing and scarey and most of the time it is the stuff you do automatically because it has been drummed into you until it has become part of your DNA and the Grace of God that gets you through it.

There is nothing glorious about it and there isn’t man there that doesn’t wish he was somewhere else.

[AceMineral]

The stories from the New York Times from seventy years ago have been calling the alliance “the United Nations” for years. Our government officials have also been referring to the alliance as the “United Nations”. Obviously, the term really didn’t catch on with the general public. What the “United Nations” means now is a bit different.

[Thank You Rush]

“”It’s Richard Beymer””

Well, I’ll be....Thanks for the correction.

[SunkenCiv]

**FOR USE AS DESIRED WITH D-DAY ANNIVERSARY STORIES** FILE** A U.S. Coast Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations, in this June 6, 1944 file photo.(AP Photo, File) Original Filename: D-DAY_ANNIVERSARY_NY202.jpg (AP)

AP Photo, File |

[AppyPappy]

I listened to an account of the Dieppe Raid today from a 1942 radio show. Yikes