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D-Day minute by terrifying minute: Joltingly vivid account retells how Operation Overlord unfolded as 150,000 Allied troops gambled everything to defeat the Nazis and change the course of history
UK Daily Mail ^ | 06/05/2024 | Jonathan Mayo

Posted on 06/05/2024 11:30:08 AM PDT by DFG

Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day at Normandy, the largest seaborne invasion in history, which begun of the liberation of France and western Europe from the Nazis.

Operation Overlord, the code name given to the invasion, saw more than 150,000 troops from the Allied forces land on five beaches in Normandy.

Candles will be lit on graves across Normandy this evening to remember the fallen, while world leaders, including the King and US President Joe Biden will be attending events on Thursday in commemoration.

Monday June 5, 1944

7.30am: At this moment precisely, naval officers are breaking open their sealed orders and discovering the best-kept military secret in history. Tomorrow, they’ll be sailing for Normandy. The Allied invasion will centre on five beaches, each of which has been given a code name. The British and Canadians have opted for Gold, Juno and Sword — from a list supplied by the British Army. The Americans will land on Utah and Omaha — names chosen by their generals.

9.00: Already, the biggest invasion force the world has ever seen is mobilising off the South Coast. In all, D-Day will involve more than 6,203 vessels — 1,213 warships, 4,126 landing craft and 864 merchant vessels.

1.00pm: At the Berghof, Adolf Hitler’s headquarters in the Bavarian Alps, his personal doctor Dr Theodor Morell is arriving for his daily appointment. The 54-year-old Fuhrer is a hypochondriac — and willingly takes the 28 different pills and injections Morell gives him every day. At Downing Street, as usual, Winston Churchill is having a large lunch with plenty of wine.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: dday; june6; normandy; overlord; ww2
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To: DFG

What a great read.


21 posted on 06/05/2024 12:17:44 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: SkyDancer
My friend's Dad WAS there.....

D-Day on Sword Beach. Saw some of his men get their head blown off!

Seconded from The Brigade of Guards to The Phantom Regiment. On the days following June 6th., they rode motorcycles around the countryside, reporting troop positions.

Came home with severe PTSD...was never the same.

Lest we forget....this man and thousand like him.

22 posted on 06/05/2024 12:23:44 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (Pray for President Trump)
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To: DFG

Shameless plug time. If you are ever in St. Lucie County, Fl. Visit, The National Navy SEAL Museum.

https://www.navysealmuseum.org/fort-pierce

Fort Pierce is where training for DDay was done.


23 posted on 06/05/2024 12:24:46 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: DFG

Excellent book: “Normandy ‘44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France” by James Holland. 650 pages.


24 posted on 06/05/2024 12:29:50 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: SkyDancer
God bless you, Sir.

Thank you for your service.

25 posted on 06/05/2024 12:30:31 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (Pray for President Trump)
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To: DFG

I feel very fortunate to have been able to visit the D-Day Landing Beaches back in 2006. It was the only reason I went to Paris, so I could book a bus tour for the day.


26 posted on 06/05/2024 12:31:24 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: SkyDancer
"And Joe Biden was there as a kid."

Joe's uncle was eaten by German zombie soldiers on Omaha Beach as soon as he made it to shore.

27 posted on 06/05/2024 12:34:10 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: dfwgator

“And he never got a dinner.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I see what you did there! Good one!


28 posted on 06/05/2024 12:40:48 PM PDT by EMI_Guy ("You have to slow down to go fast." - Kenny Robertson's)
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To: DFG

On that day, my father was riding in the top turret of a B17 while bombing the beaches. Unfortunately for the landing, the bombs fell too far inland. Fortunately for the beachhead, the bombs held back German reinforcements.

As Stephen Ambrose wrote, the allies succeeded on D-Day because for everything that went wrong, something else went right.


29 posted on 06/05/2024 12:50:38 PM PDT by Nachoman (Proudly oppressing people of color since 1957.)
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To: PGR88

Wonder how that compared to his salary for his first year playing Scotty on Star Trek 21 years later


30 posted on 06/05/2024 12:57:45 PM PDT by pburiak (You really think we can vote our way out of this? That’s so cute...)
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To: webheart
Retroactively armchair quarterbacking here, but it doesn’t seem like a really great strategy to send thousands of people to be targets for the purpose of using up the enemy’s bullets. If it wasn’t for the sheer number of people that went ashore, they might have not made it. The natural selection component was that the men who were killed were more representative of the masculine nature of males. In the long run, bravery would be reduced among a population group. You could see how social engineering could be accomplished using wars.

Tremendous slap in the face to all those who involved in the D-Day operation especially those who survived, and apparently to you only the masculine males died. There is no less bravery today than there was 80 years ago on and above those beaches. You live and thrive in freedom by those who both lived and died there and you have the absolute gall to post your comment. I bet you didn't know that the Air Corps actually suffered the highest casualty rate during that operation. Now piss off.

31 posted on 06/05/2024 1:38:28 PM PDT by New Perspective (As Leonard Cohen said once in an interview, “You won’t like what comes after America”)
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To: dfwgator
Beau was killed on Omaha Beach.

I wonder what the over under is regarding biden mentioning Beau. We shall soon see.

32 posted on 06/05/2024 1:40:16 PM PDT by New Perspective (As Leonard Cohen said once in an interview, “You won’t like what comes after America”)
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To: dfwgator

Thanks for posting that. Watched it last year: found it to be superbly done, as is their weekly series. This year, think I’ll hang out with Wayne/Burton/Mitchum.


33 posted on 06/05/2024 1:50:48 PM PDT by Hebrews 11:6 ("The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed." Romans 8:19)
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To: dfwgator

Phenomenal 24 hours of video reporting. Intense and exact— the desperateness of the invasion, the potential for failure, and the arrogance of hitler and his toady staff. Rommel knew- no one listened to him, and then, they killed him.


34 posted on 06/05/2024 1:59:41 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis )
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To: mass55th

Poor zombies that is a rough chew.


35 posted on 06/05/2024 2:30:32 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: Churchillspirit

No No No, not me - I was poking fun at Biden since he says he’s been to all the places and done all the things he says he did.


36 posted on 06/05/2024 2:33:59 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: John S Mosby

At today’s DDay75 President Trump read from FDR’s “Mighty Endeavor” WWII prayer – originally read on the radio to the Nation on the evening of June 6, 1944 while Allied troops were fighting on the beaches of Normandy.


37 posted on 06/05/2024 2:54:40 PM PDT by Bookshelf (Tto)
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To: DFG

At roughly 3:30 PM EST the Paratroopers took off (9:30 PM UK Time) for the coast of Normandy. Each of 20 C-47s carried TEN US 82nd Airborne Division or TEN US 101st Airborne Division elite Paratroopers. Oxfordshire & Buckingham Light Infantry took off at 10:46PM in wooden/canvas gliders towed by Halifax Bombers toward the Caen Canal and Orne River and the Pegasus & Horsa bridges there- 372 miles in gliders.

For a better than 2 hour flight across the Channel to parachute into the landing zones/attack zones that were to be assaulted- and mark them. Arriving at 12 midnite (6:00 PM EST US-80 Years Ago) to 2AM Normandy time scattered behind the intended beachheads.. Incredible. The British gliders arrived at 12:16 AM (6:16PM 80 years ago EST).

Humbling to think and to remember. God Bless these Brave Soldiers.


38 posted on 06/05/2024 3:04:00 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis )
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To: lastchance
"Poor zombies that is a rough chew."

🤣🤣🤣

39 posted on 06/05/2024 3:08:11 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: webheart
‘Twas ever thus. Look at today’s German men.

It may have been a great strategy in as much as the enemy would think it an unlikely one.

40 posted on 06/05/2024 3:45:12 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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