D-Day

On D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944, the Allies succeed on landing in occupied France. It was a major turning point in World War II.

D-day assault routes into Normandy

Prior to the landings, a Scottish spiritualist and medium Helen Duncan was arrested as authorities that her alleged clairvoyant powers might betray the planned date of D-Day.

Men were covertly sent ashore before the landings from submarines to collect samples of the sand to see whether it could support the weight of the tanks, trucks and other vehicles.

To plan for the operation the BBC ran a competition for pictures of French beaches. It was in fact a rouse to help gather intelligence on suitable beaches for an amphibious landing.

General Dwight Eisenhower, as commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, agonized on the date to launch the invasion. Several days of bad weather made aircraft reconnaissance impossible and seas too rough for the landing craft.

A break in the weather was forecast for June 6th. Early that morning, German defenders on bluffs overlooking the beaches were stunned to peer out over the English Channel and see thousands of ships.

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

156,000 Allied US, British, and Canadian troops landed on the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. The allied soldiers quickly broke through the Atlantic Wall and pushed inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history. Many felt the hand of God was involved in providing the crucial weather break needed to launch the invasion.

Men of the 16th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 1st Infantry Division wade ashore on Omaha Beach

Leonard T. Schroeder was the first American soldier to land on the beach during the invasion of Normandy. He was shot twice and not only survived, but lived to be 90 years old.

Combat photographer George Hjorth parachuted into France three nights before D-day with three film cameras. His mission was to hide in front of the German lines at Normandy and film whatever happened on the beach. He completed the mission successfully, but the film is lost in the archives.

As a wartime member of the Parachute Regiment, the actor Richard Todd was one of the first to be dropped into Normandy during D-Day. In The Longest Day, the 1962 film about the Allied invasion, he played Major John Howard, who led the D-Day assault of Pegasus Bridge.

Actor James Doohan, famous for his role as Scotty from the original Star Trek television series, fought in D-Day as a lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Artillery. He was shot six times that day and had his middle finger amputated. He went on to conceal it on screen throughout his acting career.

The film-maker and actor Mel Brooks was a combat engineer, Corporal Melvin Kaminsky in World War II, landing on the Normandy Beaches in June 1944. His main job was clearing land mines.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr,  the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt, was the only general to land on the beaches during D-Day. Although he was the oldest man on the beach and walked with a cane, the 56-year-old was the first man out of his landing craft. He recited poetry and joked with his men to keep them calm. Roosevelt was awarded the Medal of Honor.

One of the first soldiers to charge the beach on D-Day was a Canadian bagpiper, who only survived because German Snipers thought he was to crazy to shoot.

Among the thousands of men on the Normandy beaches on D-Day there was one single woman. Martha Gellhorn, a rogue war correspondent who stowed away in the toilet of a hospital ship and also happened to be the third wife of Ernest Hemingway.

Although the landings turned out to be a resounding success, Eisenhower hedged his bets by keeping in his pocket a communiqué announcing the failure of the landings and accepting full responsibility.

Juan Pujol Garcia was a British double agent during WWII. He told Hitler D-Day would happen at the Strait of Dover, earning him the German Iron Cross. It was actually carried out at Normandy, earning him the British MBE.

During the initial airborne landings on D-Day, paratrooper John Steele got stuck on a church tower. He played dead for two hours dangling on the side of the church, was later captured and promptly escaped, fought for the entire day and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

The “D” in D-Day stands for “Day” to reiterate its military importance.

During the D-Day landings, British soldiers identified one another by calling the word "fish". The response, signifying an ally, was "chips".

The fighting was so intense that 4% of the sand on Normandy beaches today is made up of shrapnel from D-Day that has broken down.

During D-Day, German commanders wanted to send the armored (Panzer Tanks) division to stop the allied forces. They had to wait for the order from Hitler because he was sleeping at the time and didn't want to be disturbed. When he woke up, it was too late.

The Allies landed 2,052,299 men in northern France from D-Day to August 21, 1944, which is an average of 27,034 men per day. The actual number of men landed each day varied, with the highest being on June 7, 1944, when 34,250 American troops landed on Omaha Beach. The lowest number of men landed on any day was on July 28, 1944, when only 1,800 men landed.

Source Good News Magazine