Posted on 06/06/2020 6:45:30 AM PDT by ealgeone
The Normandy beaches were chosen by planners because they lay within range of air cover, and were less heavily defended than the obvious objective of the Pas de Calais, the shortest distance between Great Britain and the Continent. Airborne drops at both ends of the beachheads were to protect the flanks, as well as open up roadways to the interior. Six divisions were to land on the first day; three U.S., two British and one Canadian. Two more British and one U.S. division were to follow up after the assault division had cleared the way through the beach defenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at army.mil ...
just in case anyone has forgotten we invaded Normandy to free the world of an oppressive regime who believed in racial superiority.
Those 88s depicted in "Band of Brothers" were firing on HIM.
The war against the Axis Powers was on many fronts. My father fought in Italy from Anzio to the Po River Valley. The fighting in Italy did not end until one week before the formal German surrender.
To the liberators of the Normandy beaches on D-Day: Memory Eternal!!!!
The second group believed in the supremacy of the Aryan race (whites for those in Rio Linda) while the first group did not.
Would a racist nation have sent their white sons to fight against other whites if it were a racist nation???
Revisionist works such as War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War by John Dower (New York: Pantheon,1986) claim that white racism was a major reason that we went to war with Japan.
Isn’t it amazing how the Left can screw up history.
Four thousand four hundred fourteen of the bravest of the brave but the list is fluid as research continues.
https://www.history.com/news/d-day-casualties-deaths-allies
Fwiw, my dad was “in B-17s” & on D-Day was on a bombing/strafing mission “behind the beaches” to try to stop the beaches being reinforced by the Germans.
(He passed away at age 56 from a heart attack & when I used to ask him about his USAAC service, he always said the same thing, “I didn’t do anything very important”. = That response was TYPICAL of most WWII veterans.)
Yours, TMN78247
My dad was a "scope dope" in the 50s. Rarely talked about his service.
It was only after he died I learned he made Staff Sgt.
What a debt is owed.
Incredible.
Peach
What a debt is owed.
Incredible.
Peach
He said the happiest day of his life (up to that point) was when he heard about the bombs being dropped in Japan. He knew he was going home to the girl he left behind. Dad was my hero, and while I never told him that in those words, I think he knew I felt that way.
+1
I went on a tour of Normandy last year. The salient reason for the "badly scattered” nature of the airborne landings was the weather - compounded by the effectiveness of German AA and the (combat) inexperience of the C-47 pilots.It’s well known that the weather was marginal for the operation as planned, and that Eisenhower gave the go-ahead on 6 June 1944 only because the alternative looked even worse. But the consequence of the weather was that flying in formation as planned became impossible; there were so many C-47s in the airspace that loss of visible contact made their pilots desperate to avoid midair collisions.
And that many planes just naturally made noise which put the German AA commanders on the alert. On top of that, each C-47 flew more than one mission - so that incessant roar overhead continued all night, and the C-47’s entirely lacked any advantage of surprise.
The tour guide asserted, additionally, that even if each glider was used only once it would have been cheaper as well as more effective to use gliders to the exclusion of the expense of training and attempting to accurately deploy paratroopers. An interesting and very possibly accurate critique IMHO. At least the troops that made it to ground safely would do so in group at at least the squad level instead of individually.
As to the assault on the beaches, Utah beach was effectively bombarded using Martin Marauders, and it was not nearly as strong a natural defensive position as existed on Omaha Beach. The intended aerial bombardment of Omaha Beach was negated by the Navy’s insistence on rules which guaranteed perfect ineffectiveness. Understandable from the Navy’s POV, if you consider the “friendly fire” potential of B-17 strikes on ships - but the upshot was that no bombardment of Omaha Beach and its defenses occurred. And because the battleships found themselves dueling with strongly entrenched naval artillery, naval bombardment of Omaha beach also did not occur.
In fact the only naval fire support for the troops on Omaha Beach was provided by destroyers who were initially forbidden to undertake that mission. A Destroyer captain saw that the assault on Omaha was failing, and he disobeyed orders by closing into harm’s way and deploying his 5” guns against the Omaha defenses as best he could. The result was successful enough that the naval command countermanded the original order and directed all available destroyers to do likewise.
The upshot was that the American assault on Omaha succeeded only at the right flank of the German position, and from there was able roll up the rest of the defense of the beach. Prior to that, the division frontally assaulting that position was practically defeated in detail - to the extent that that division was never able to recover full effectiveness.
My (now deceased) B.I.L. was in Italy from Reggio Calabria on. He never spoke of it. Apparently Reggio wasn’t too bad, but it got steadily worse as they advanced. At least that is what the history books tell me.
Fwiw, my Mother’s older brother was the ACTING CoB of the USS CHAMPION (AM314) from 2 weeks after she departed Pearl Harbor until well after VJ Day.
Because he was a talented finish carpenter, he was given the USNR rate of PO3 but was NEVER promoted, due to being the “Acting Jack”.
Like my dad he always said that: I didn’t do anything heroic during the war. - My job was just routine.
(The ONLY thing that he ever said that was a “clue” to his actual service was that he told me that he traded some hair oil, toothpaste & an alarm clock to a Marine on Iwo Jima for a .30 caliber carbine, as all that he was issued in a weapon was a S&W VICTORY MODEL in .38SPL. = His comment was, “I gave it back as I couldn’t hit a !@#$%^& thing with it, so I got me a carbine.” - YEP, he brought it home with him, broken down in his sea bag.)
About 3 weeks after he passed away in his sleep at 88YO, his son was called by the bank & asked what he wanted to do with my uncle’s safety deposit box, as the rent was due.
Randy went to the bank, emptied the safety deposit box, brought it home & called me, saying, “Cousin, you need to see this. Come to my place for supper.”
What Randy had found shocked both of us. = Certificates for FOUR PH, a SS, a BS with V device & all the usual “I was there” Pacific Theater WWII fruit salad.
Turns out that his “routine service’ included GOING ASHORE with the Marines at TARAWA, IWO JIMA, GUADACANAL & no telling where else. Further, when we ordered & got his official service record, we found out that he & another sailor on the CHAMPION had been credited with shooting down a suicide plane about 30 days before VJ Day.- NOT “routine” in my book!!!
IF your family had a GI with service in WWII, Korea or RVN that that the SM wouldn’t tell you about his/her war service, a request for their service records to the National Archive may yield some REAL SURPRISES.
yours, satx
Awesome story! Thank you for sharing.
My father is still alive.
He dropped out of high school - joined the navy when the war started.
Was assigned to the CB’s - went in on D-Day plus 1 - June 7.
Went across Europe constructing pontoon bridges.
Ended up in Bremerhaven.
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