Posted on 06/06/2018 2:54:30 PM PDT by Rummyfan
What most Americans these days know about D-Day comes from the movies "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) or "Band of Brothers" (2001), and that's pretty good! It's infinitely better than not knowing anything at all about this pivotal Allied invasion of World War II.
However, to enhance your knowledge of this important battle whose anniversary is June 6, here are a few more interesting facts you may not have learned in school.
1. Teddy Roosevelt Jr. fought on D-Day.
You remember the original Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charging up San Juan Hill in the Spanish American War (1898) right? He earned the Medal of Honor for his incredible bravery that day. Well, his son Ted Jr. was no less brave.
Teddy Jr fought in World War I at Soissons and was wounded in action. Later, in World War II, he was a Brigadier General and led troops in North Africa and Italy. For the D-Day invasion, the 56-year-old soldier (the oldest Allied soldier on D-Day, by the way) begged to lead the men out of his landing craft and be the first on shore. He was given that honor, and led his men onto Utah Beach. (While they were heading for shore he led his men in singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Onward Christian Soldiers".)
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(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
I don’t know exactly how historically ‘accurate’ (as to the times, not the actual story) it is, but The Eye of the Needle (1970’s-early 80’s) was a spellbinding movie that holds up today.
"The Bedford Boys" by Alex Kershaw tells the whole story.
Saving Private Ryan is available though.... But it doesn't give the overall D-Day Operation Overlord big picture...
God Bless those boys from Bedford.
Same here, 4 and 6. And I thought I knew everything about everything. My kids think I’m an idiot though.
Yep. The Allies created a fake army group in England, the First U.S. Army Group, commanded by Patton. That army group existed on paper only. Here's a photo of some soldiers putting a fake tank in position to fool German reconnaissance aircraft.
(And if that tank isn't fake, those are four very strong guys!)
I didn’t catch the “National” part in your post. I was surprised when I did a search on the memorial and the place is huge. (I was thinking it was just a local park type thing.) That was nice that it was selected as the site for a national memorial.
LOLOL!!!That is one if the sickest, funniest things I’ve read in a logn, long time. Kudos
His research led to the development of the MRI.
“I own each of the books referenced, but do not remember anything about the little Virginia town.”
Try The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw.
Its not a tightly written military novel, it’s about the men of Bedford and their families.
Elizabeth Teass was the Western Union operator at the Bedford station. She signed on at 8:30 am. The Roanoke office immediately replied Good Morning. Go Ahead.Roanoke. We have casualties.
The Bedford office had received an average of one casualty report per week. This day the printer kept chattering and chattering and chattering.
Teass drafted undertaker Harry Carder, Sheriff Jim Marshall, doctor Pete Rucker and taxi owner Roy Israel to deliver the telegrams.
By days end the entire county was in shock.
It took decades for the counties wounds to heal. Some never did.
https://www.amazon.com/Bedford-Boys-American-Ultimate-Sacrifice/dp/0306813556
I remember the critics savaging THE LONGEST DAY because there was not enough blood and guts deaths shown.
So the first-wave troops didn’t carry bicycles, then.
Google or go on Amazon and search for The Bedford Boys. My late wife would break into tears as she read it.
At the link was an interesting story about Asian soldiers captured by American soldiers on D-Day. The Asians were wearing German uniforms. One was a Korean. He was captured by Japanese in Manchuria, as a POW pressed into service fighting Russians. Captured by Russians, as a POW pressed into service fighting Germans. Captured by Germans, as a POW pressed into service fighting the Allies at Normandy. Due to white privilege, the Americans had the Korean sit out the war in the USA as a POW and not do any more fighting.
I taught all but #5 in my classes.
I had read the book "The Bedford Boys" before that. Terrible. It must have been just terrible in that little town.
We were staying at a horse ranch in Bedford, doing some horseback riding in the Shenandoah Mountains. Best. Horseriding. Ever!
Look at this country:
I believe there is the wreckage of a B-25 on that conical mountain in the background. Man, I had forgotten how beautiful Virginia was.
> My kids think I’m an idiot though.
Don’t worry. As they get older you’ll be smarter. /j
“I taught all but #5 in my classes.” [fungoking, post 37]
Autor Sanders greatly understates the complexity and extent of Allied deception plans and activities prior to the Normandy landings.
In preparation, RAF and USAAF medum bombers and fighters were tasked to strike German a radar sites along the French coast … these were carefully selected to minimize any hint of where the invasion fleet might land. The Calais area (narrowest stretch of English Channel) sites were not obliterated, nor were the ones further west in Normandy and on the Cotentin Peninsula; but enough holes in coverage of both areas were created to heighten German uncertainty about just what they were looking at in their scopes.
Anti-radar chaff - pieces of metal foil cut to the proper length to strongly reflect radar energy, code-named Window - was not dispensed generally over the entire approach area; a number of RAF bombers were ordered to fly in slowly advancing “racetracks”, extending their farthest advance just a couple more miles each time they traversed the southeast curve of the racetrack, closer and closer to the French coast. Their airspeed and the dimensions of the racetracks were carefully calculated to place them at the southeast curve at a cyclic rate of advance an invasion fleet would use, and they put out big bursts of chaff at the farthest advance each time, so the German radar operators would get some good strong returns to look at, plausibly sailing toward Cap Gris-Nez at the exact speed a bunch of ships would move.
Much of the counterintel detail and communications/radar countermeasures weren’t declassified until the 1990s, so earlier accounts of the invasion were unable to address them properly.
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