80 years ago...D-Day Remembered

[77T]

80 years ago today in England, the Allies were crammed aboard transports, loading aircraft with armaments, and actively preparing for Operation Overlord. In Europe, countless collaborators were ready to perform their surprise actions.

All told, 24 hours later, after the landings on June 6th, over 4,000 met their maker. Another 5,000+ were wounded.

In the ensuing months, 73,000 were killed and 153,000 wounded.

We remember your sacrifices for freedom.


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[AzPaul]

Came across this colorized photo a few years ago.
Pretty much says it all.

[brandrea]

Great post Paul.

I just finished listening to a Podcast on some of the intel operation that went into D day. It was called operation Fortitude whereby the British fed the Germans misleading intel to trick them into thinking the invasion would land at Calais.

According to the podcast, a man named Dusko Popov one of the spy’s working as a double agent for the British, played a key role. He is claimed to be one of the inspirations for Ian Flemming’s James Bond character.

[Stan Cooper]

Truly the greatest generation; their sacrifices saved the world.

[77T]

Originally Posted by brandrea

Great post Paul.

I just finished listening to a Podcast on some of the intel operation that went into D day. It was called operation Fortitude whereby the British fed the Germans misleading intel to trick them into thinking the invasion would land at Calais.

According to the podcast, a man named Dusko Popov one of the spy’s working as a double agent for the British, played a key role. He is claimed to be one of the inspirations for Ian Flemming’s James Bond character.

I didn't know his role in detail...

But I had read about the operation in chief: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude

Popov has his own Wiki which says a lot about a collaborator/operator/double-agent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duško_Popov

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by 77T

I didn't know his role in detail...

But I had read about the operation in chief: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude

Popov has his own Wiki which says a lot about a collaborator/operator/double-agent :thumbs-up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duško_Popov

If you’re interested, the pod cast is available on Spotify or Amazon and it produced by Wondery


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[swils8610]

Originally Posted by Stan Cooper

Truly the greatest generation; their sacrifices saved the world.

Exactly this


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[RW16610]

I'm very much appreciative of their sacrifices. Thanks for posting this, Paul.

[Phrank]

Originally Posted by 77T

80 years ago today in England, the Allies were crammed aboard transports, loading aircraft with armaments, and actively preparing for Operation Overlord. In Europe, countless collaborators were ready to perform their surprise actions.

All told, 24 hours later, after the landings on June 6th, over 4,000 met their maker. Another 5,000+ were wounded.

In the ensuing months, 73,000 were killed and 153,000 wounded.

We remember your sacrifices for freedom.


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I did a year long paper in University about the Special Operations Executive and "Operation Fortitude", which were the cover and deception plans surrounding Overlord.

Fascinating stuff. Camp X, famous Commando training grounds in Whitby, Ontario, just a tiny plague left, and that may be gone now as well. It was disguised as a CBC transmitter station.

The site of Camp X is now called Intrepid Park, after Sir William Stephenson's telegraphic address, the famous, "A Man Called Intrepid".

A monumental effort brought forth by a generation of young men and women that still inspires.

Forever in our hearts.

[Ballzzz]

Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Speedbird-1]

BBC - 24 Facts about D-Day.
1.

To plan for the operation the BBC ran a competition for French beach holiday photographs.


It was actually a way of gathering intelligence on suitable beaches.

2.
D-day is simply a standard armed forces way of emphasising a particular day. It means THE Day, it’s like saying H-hour which is the exact time at which an attack traditionally began.

3.

From 12 March 1944 Britain barred all travel to Ireland in order to prevent the leaking of the date of the D-Day landings.

4.
The planners were particular about the timing of D-day. They wanted a full moon, with a spring tide. They wanted to land at dawn on a flood tide, when it was about half way in. That meant there were only a few days that were appropriate. June 5th was chosen but it had to be delayed 24 hours for bad weather.

5.

The forecast was so bad that the German commander in Normandy, Erwin Rommel, went home to give his wife a pair of shoes on her birthday. He was in Germany when the news came.

6.
Lord Lovat landed on Sword Beach with his Commando Brigade, accompanied by his bagpiper, Glasgow born, Bill Millin. Millin struck up ‘Hieland Laddie’ as soon as he jumped into the shallows and then walked up and down the beach playing the pipes. German prisoners later admitted that they had not attempted to shoot him because they thought he had lost his mind.

7.

Hungarian-born photographer Robert Capa, working for Life Magazine, was the first photographer to land on Omaha Beach, on one of the earliest waves. He took over 100 photographs, but an over-excited darkroom assistant in London melted the majority of them during development. Only 11 were salvaged. Life printed them and said they were blurry because Capa’s hands were shaking with the heightened drama of the moment.

8.
Before D-day mini subs crept into the beaches and by night engineers would swim out to take soil samples, then swim back, sleep submerged all day in the subs, then repeat the following evening.

9.

The British infantryman was paid £3 15s a month, the Americans got £12.

10.
British intelligence had set up a network of fake agents who fed the Germans misinformation. The Germans paid good money, meaning they were paying into the British exchequer. A useful contribution to the war effort!

11.

It was the largest seaborne invasion in history: 7,000 ships took part.

12.
On the night of the invasion only around 15% of paratroopers landed in the right place.

13.

The German airforce, the Luftwaffe, was outnumbered 30:1 on D-day and didn’t shoot down a single allied plane in air to air combat.

14.
The first allied soldier killed was Lieutenant Herbert Denham ‘Den’ Brotheridge, just after midnight on the 6th, while leading a charge to seize Pegasus Bridge.

15.

The most exotic German prisoner captured by the allies in Normandy was Yang Kyoungjong. He was a Korean that had been conscripted at 18 years old by the Japanese Army in the 1938. He was captured by the Soviets after a Japanese military incursion in 1939. The Russians made him fight the Germans when they were invaded and he was captured and conscripted in turn by the Germans in 1943. Finally he was captured by the Americans on D-day. He then moved to Illinois, where he died in 1992.

16.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that he would go to sea with the fleet and watch the D-day landings from HMS Belfast. This idea was opposed by many and it took King George VI to stop him, by insisting that if Churchill went he would also go. Eventually that made Churchill back down.

17.

Commonwealth personnel, nearly all British and Canadian, outnumbered the Americans on D-day. Of the 156,000 men landed in France on 6 June, 73,000 were American, and 83,000 were British and Canadian, while the Commonwealth naval contingent was twice that of the Americans.

18.
There were five beaches, codenamed, from east to west, Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah. Casualties varied widely. On ‘Bloody Omaha’ where around 4000 men were killed or wounded, one American unit landing in the first wave, lost 90% of its men. On Gold Beach, by contrast, casualty rates were around 80% lower.

19.

The allies put a huge effort into persuading the Germans that the invasion was going to be around Calais, not Normandy. They invented a whole group of armies in Kent, building dummy equipment and placing General George S Patton, who the Germans considered the best allied general, in SE England. The Germans took the bait so much that even after D-day they held many of their best troops in the Calais area expecting a second invasion.

20.
The SAS masterminded parachute drops in which hundreds of dummies were thrown out of aircraft to confuse the Germans as to where the landings were going to be.

21.

The traditional allied death toll for the whole of D-day is given as 2,500. However recent research suggests that it might be around twice that figure.

22.
The landings were a success but did not, on the whole, achieve their ambitious objectives. The British hoped to take the city of Caen on D-Day, in fact it was only captured after over a month of terrible fighting.

23.

The fighting during the Battle of Normandy, that followed D-day, was as bloody as it had been in the trenches of the First World War. Casualty rates were slightly higher than they were during a typical day during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

24.
The morning after D-day the police raided a brothel, which French women had set up in a wrecked landing craft.

[77T]

Right about now 80 years ago...
2300GMT, 5 June 1944
British and American airborne troops began taking off from bases in England. They were the first Allied soldiers to land in Normandy, by glider and parachute, in the early hours of 6 June.

0000GMT, 6 June 1944
The fleet makes its way across the English Channel. Leading the way are minesweepers to clear a safe route for the other ships.

What a brave audacious effort 🇺🇧 and more...they filled the horizon before dawn.


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[Easy E]

Thanks for posting this.

[DJ TT 2002]

Thanks to all who served!

[JasoninDenver]

Originally Posted by Speedbird-1

BBC - 24 Facts about D-Day.


15.

The most exotic German prisoner captured by the allies in Normandy was Yang Kyoungjong. He was a Korean that had been conscripted at 18 years old by the Japanese Army in the 1938. He was captured by the Soviets after a Japanese military incursion in 1939. The Russians made him fight the Germans when they were invaded and he was captured and conscripted in turn by the Germans in 1943. Finally he was captured by the Americans on D-day. He then moved to Illinois, where he died in 1992.
.

Sure would have like to had a chance to talk to this guy.

A friend’s father was in the German army in WWII and was captured by the Soviets twice but managed to escape both times.

[BLACKHORSE 6]

There was a time when I was an Army officer. When I was on leave from Afghanistan, my wife and I spent two weeks in Paris except for a few days when we toured the Normandy beaches.

I remember standing at a German bunker overlooking Omaha beach. To the left and right you could see the other German positions that were well situated and mutually supporting. The Germans had interlocking sectors of fire from an elevated position, which is referred to as plunging fire. Plunging fire is particularly effective as it makes machine guns more accurate than if firing at a target on a level plane.

Looking at it from a professional perspective, I was amazed. Those poor guys had a lot of ground to cover with no protection. There was no where to go except a frontal assault on fixed positions, with no heavy support and ineffective fires from the Navy ships. I have tremendous admiration and respect for those men and what they accomplished there and in the subsequent campaign. .

[Romeojk]

Originally Posted by brandrea

If you’re interested, the pod cast is available on Spotify or Amazon and it produced by Wondery


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If you could please, What is the name of the podcast and who are the people on it (so I can search for it)


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[TNT009]

40,000 crowd onto a stadium to see beyonce or taylor….. Hell, sit me down with any of these studs and imma pig in slop….. Nice job Rangers!

[hambone1983]

My father served in WWII and was part of Operation Neptune, the naval portion of D-Day. Over 195,000 sailors were a part of this seaborne invasion, which was substantially more than the number of army personnel. The level of planning & coordination involved in the age of typewriters is mind-boggling

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Romeojk

If you could please, What is the name of the podcast and who are the people on it (so I can search for it)


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I hope this link works for you

If not, search for: The Spy Who Dusko Popov James Bond Wondery



https://open.spotify.com/episode/0WJ...TaORnM9NXJJSug


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[Speedbird-1]

The BBC are showing lots of stuff live from Normandy, and around the world.

Very,very moving.

They were mostly very young men, that made the ultimate sacrifice.

God bless them all.



In 1998, my wife and I went to see Saving Private Ryan at the cinema.
Fantastic film, and when it finished, and the credits rolled, the house lights came up....and for a while nobody moved, there was complete silence as people started to absorb what they had just seen.
We were among the last to leave, and as we were walking up the aisle towards the exit, I noticed a very elderly couple still in their seats, the lady had her arm around her husbands shoulders comforting him, because he was sobbing his heart out.
I've never forgotten that old boy....we owe so much to that generation.

[HL65]

Originally Posted by stan cooper

truly the greatest generation; their sacrifices saved the world.

100%!

[Bazil]

An amazing generation, one which we will never see the like of again, not many of them left so we should cherish them whilst we can ..
I spent 6 years in the Parachute Regiment and have a lot of pride in what our Brigade achieved throughout the WWII .. and beyond ..

[Andad]

My dad was 18 with the resistance in France at that time.
He joined up with the British Army and was repatriated to the UK.
He never spoke about this time.

‘Who Dares Wins’

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Speedbird-1

The BBC are showing lots of stuff live from Normandy, and around the world.

Very,very moving.

They were mostly very young men, that made the ultimate sacrifice.

God bless them all.



In 1998, my wife and I went to see Saving Private Ryan at the cinema.
Fantastic film, and when it finished, and the credits rolled, the house lights came up....and for a while nobody moved, there was complete silence as people started to absorb what they had just seen.
We were among the last to leave, and as we were walking up the aisle towards the exit, I noticed a very elderly couple still in their seats, the lady had her arm around her husbands shoulders comforting him, because he was sobbing his heart out.
I've never forgotten that old boy....we owe so much to that generation.

Indeed.

[77T]

About this time 80 years ago the waters ran red...wave after wave of landing craft hit the beach.

Imagine, if you wish, the grip of sheer panic in Henry, a Londoner who just left basic training, as the ramp of the landing craft dropped...

"My heart raced and my palms grew sweaty. This was it. The moment I had trained for, the moment I had dreaded. I was just an 18-year-old boy, barely out of basic training, and yet here I was, about to face the war on Sword Beach in Normandy.

The deafening sound of naval gunfire and explosions filled the air, drowning out any other thoughts. Fear and adrenaline coursed through my veins as I stepped onto the blood-soaked sand. The chaos around me was overwhelming. The cries of wounded soldiers, the sight of bodies strewn across the beach, it was all too much for me to comprehend.

I clutched my rifle tightly, my hands trembling. I had imagined this moment countless times, but the reality was far worse than anything I could have imagined. The enemy gunfire seemed to come from all directions, making it impossible to find any semblance of safety. Every step forward felt like a step closer to death.

But amidst the chaos and fear, there was a glimmer of determination. I thought of my family back home, the loved ones who believed in me and the cause we were fighting for. I knew I couldn't let them down. Pushing through the fear, I joined the rest of my platoon, moving forward, meter by agonizing meter, towards the daunting defenses."

On the bluffs above Sword Beach, another 18-year-old stood among his fellow defenders. As the Allied forces stormed the beach, Heinrich too felt fear, but his fear was mixed with a sense of futility. Until now his assignment had been routine borne out of boredom. Nothing was going to happen here - every other member of the zug said Calais was where medals would be won defending the shore.

But now - in the midst of the attack - he knew they were outnumbered, outgunned, and that victory was unlikely. Medals would be won, but posthumously.

"I watched as the soldiers fought their way up the beach, determination evident in every step. Having been raised to believe in the cause I fought for, I fired as fast as possible. But now, faced with the reality of this war, I hated the senselessness of it all.

From my vantage point, I saw the devastation caused by our mortars. Bodies scattered on the beach, chaos and destruction, it was too much to bear. Was there was a way out? Some way to escape this madness and return to my boyhood life. Just get home...

As the battle raged on, I couldn't help but feel a deep sadness for the lives lost.
I now understood that in war, there are no winners, only survivors.
In that moment, I knew the futility of my own position. The war had taken its toll, stripping away my innocence of youth and leaving only a sense of resignation."

Neither are real soldiers in this reflection - they are my composites of the different sides in the same battle.

The victors paid a heavy price for our liberty 80 years ago.

Both boys were thrust into a war they probably didn't fully understand. Faced their own fears and questioned the senselessness of it all. But did their jobs respectively.

They were just 18-year-old boys, forced to grow up while leaving behind a trail of footprints in the sand, and who were forever changed by the horrors of D-Day.

I underscored just one beachhead although there were a total of 5. Two boys whose experience was felt thousands of times over - with as many different emotions as there were arms and legs scrambling over the beaches of D-Day.

Thanks to you we freely chat away today. 🫡


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[Calatrava r]

A big day for remembrance and thanks.

[TRS1]

Excellent thread! Indeed the greatest generation ever and we could use some of this today.

[ROlesorusLEX]

My relative, Jake McNiece, June 5, mohawk and warpaint, desiring to either drink heavily or kill Nazis. And he was all out of party liquor. . .

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[dba]

Originally Posted by Stan Cooper

Truly the greatest generation; their sacrifices saved the world.

None of us can thank them enough.