Barack Obama, Prince Charles, Gordon Brown, Stephen Harper and Nicholas Sarkozy
Yesterday, was the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Very few know what the D stands for, as the correct answer is that it does not really stand for anything like Decision. D-Day is a military term to denote the day for a combat attack (when you don’t want to indicated in advance what day that will be). Originally, D-Day was to be June 5, 1944, but the weather forced a delay to June 6.
All the deception worked, as the German officer in charge of the defense, General Erwin Rommel, himself went home to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Allied mistakes also helped, as there was some information sent to the French resistance when an attack appeared to be imminent in May, but the German intelligence intercepted these signals, passed them up the hierarchy, but only caused them to doubt those June 5 notices as another false wolf cry. Hitler’s staff also refused to awaken him that morning, so the deployment of tanks was severely delayed.
The Normandy Landings were the first operations of the Allied invasion known as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord. There were also subsidiary 'attacks' mounted under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the German forces from the real landing areas. The operation was the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time, with 11,590 support aircraft, nearly 7000 marine vessels and 156,000 troops landing along a 50-mile stretch of the coast. By the end of the first week, more than double the number of ground forces and 54,186 vehicles passed through the beaches.
All the deception worked, as the German officer in charge of the defense, General Erwin Rommel, himself went home to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Allied mistakes also helped, as there was some information sent to the French resistance when an attack appeared to be imminent in May, but the German intelligence intercepted these signals, passed them up the hierarchy, but only caused them to doubt those June 5 notices as another false wolf cry. Hitler’s staff also refused to awaken him that morning, so the deployment of tanks was severely delayed.
The Normandy Landings were the first operations of the Allied invasion known as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord. There were also subsidiary 'attacks' mounted under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the German forces from the real landing areas. The operation was the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time, with 11,590 support aircraft, nearly 7000 marine vessels and 156,000 troops landing along a 50-mile stretch of the coast. By the end of the first week, more than double the number of ground forces and 54,186 vehicles passed through the beaches.
What is generally not known is that in April and May of 1944, something on the order of 12,000 airmen and 2,000 aircraft were lost to pave the way for D-Day. Up to 20,000 French civilians were killed from these bombings. At most, 5,000 allied forces died in the invasion and immediate aftermath. Details can be found at http://www.dday.org/. German losses were said to be between 4000 and 9000. However, over 425,000 troops from both sides were killed, wounded or were listed as missing during the entirety of the Battle of Normandy. The worst came after D-Day. Plus, 200,000 Germans were captured as prisoners of war.
While the Spanish Armada and Napoleon were unsuccessful in crossing the English Channel, D-Day was the clear success that led the way to end World War II in Europe less than a year later. For some reason, the first significant movie was not made until 1962, THE LONGEST DAY. Then came The Big Red One, Saving Private Ryan and the TV series, Band of Brothers. The most obscure D-Day movie might be Up from the Beach, a sequel starring Red Buttons (who was in The Longest Day).
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