D-Day June 6th 1944

[Treasure_Hunter]

June 6th, 1944, marks a pivotal day in world history. 82 years ago today, tens of thousands of American and Allied young men, many still in their teens, stormed Normandy's beaches and parachuted behind enemy lines under intense fire to vanquish the forces of darkness and evil.

Thank You!

 

[Mattock]

God bless those who served past and present. "All The Way"

 

[Red-Coat]

A remarkable achievement of logistics, ingenuity, tactics and extraordinary bravery.

Things could have gone differently had it not been for Hitler’s personal interference and procrastination, overriding advice from Rommel. Hitler was asleep when the first landings began at 06:30 and, in line with long-standing strict instructions to his staff that he was never to be prematurely awakened, didn’t get out of bed until sometime after 10:00.

Even when briefed on the situation, he continued to be influenced by the allied misinformation campaign, believing that the Normandy landings were a diversionary tactic and the real invasion would take place at the Pas de Calais. There was a general reluctance for German forces to act on their own initiative without explicit orders from the Führer, and Rommel was only given operational control of three panzer divisions, only one of which was located close enough to the Normandy coast to immediately repel any invading forces. Three more were far away in the South of France and, crucially, the remaining four divisions that Hitler insisted on holding as strategic reserves could not be moved without his express permission. The invasion had been in progress for a week before the last of the Panzer divisions was mobilised to the front line, by which time five allied beachheads were securely established and linked to form a continuous single front.


Incidentally, there has been more than one ‘D-Day’, with the earliest on record being 7th September 1918 when the American Expeditionary Forces were instructed: "The First Army will attack at H-Hour on D-Day with the object of forcing the evacuation of St. Mihiel salient." Military plans frequently used terms such as ‘H-Hour’ and ‘D-Day’ with the letters simply standing for ‘hour’ and ‘day’ to maintain secrecy about when an operation was scheduled to start. The additional advantage was that planned objectives could be scheduled as ‘D+1’, ‘D+2’ and so on without the need to reissue orders if the start date of the operation was delayed. The Normandy D-Day was in fact delayed from 5th June because of weather conditions, but the battle plans didn’t need to be altered.

 

[Red-Coat]

A curious story:

In the months leading up to D-Day the crossword puzzle solutions in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph contained the words 'Gold' and 'Sword' (codenames for the beaches assigned to the British) and 'Juno' (the codename for the beach assigned to the Canadians). This raised some eyebrows in intelligence circles, but it was concluded to be no more than a coincidence. However, there were further instances: on 2nd May, the word 'Utah' (one of the beaches assigned to the US); on 22nd May, the word 'Omaha' (another US beach assignment); on 27th May, the word 'Overlord' (the codename for the overall D-Day operation); on 30th May, the word ‘Mulberry’ (the name for the two top secret artificial harbours used in the landings); and on 1st June, the word 'Neptune' (the codename for the naval phase of the invasion).

MI5 arrested crossword compilers Leonard Dawe and Melville Jones for extensive interrogation, but concluded no espionage was involved and that the use of the words was pure coincidence.

However, on the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984 the Daily Telegraph reminded its readers of the story and a man called Ronald French contacted the newspaper with some further insight. Dawe had been a school headmaster, but compiled newspaper crosswords in his spare time to earn a little extra income. French said he had been a pupil at Dawe’s school in 1944 and that he, and other pupils had often been invited by Dawe to fill in blank crossword grids with words that fitted, for which Dawe would then figure out appropriate clues.

According to French, the school was in an area littered with American and Canadian forces and he claimed that he had learnt various codewords from soldiers when hanging around one of the many nearby military camps: “‘I was totally obsessed about the whole thing” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I would play truant from school to visit the camp and I used to spend evenings with them and even whole weekends there, dressed in my Army cadet uniform… Everyone knew the outline invasion plan and they knew the various codewords.” French claimed to have kept a notebook detailing everything he’d heard and was later questioned by Dawe about where the words had come from. “He was horrified and said the books must be burned at once. Mr Dawe gave me a stern lecture about national security… He made me swear on the Bible I would tell no one about it. I have kept that oath until now.”

 

[Mackaydon]

And the "D" stood for Day.
The expression D+3 or D-2 meant so many day after (D+3) or days before (D-2) the event.
Don in SoCal

 

[ToddsPoint]

My cousin was a pilot in WW2. He flew a cargo plane with paratroopers on both the Market Garden and D-day runs. He said D-day was a piece of cake. Market Garden not so much. They were shot down after the paratroopers jumped. Navigator was killed and he saved the pilot from the wreckage. He was the co-pilot. They were picked up by the French underground and made it back to England.