81 years ago today, D-Day - never forget

[crimsonaudio]

81 years ago today, D-Day - never forget.

June 6, 1944: It’s Tuesday - today marks the D-Day Invasion at Normandy and the beginning of the liberation of Europe.

Operation Overlord - the largest seaborne invasion in history - begins. In Normandy, France, just after midnight, the US 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions are dropped inland from the right flank beach. The British 6th Airborne Division is landed inland from the left flank beach. These forces achieve their objectives and create confusion among the German defenders. The Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy at dawn. Forces of the 21st Army Group (Field Marshal Montgomery) commands the US 1st Army (General Bradley) on the right and the British 2nd Army (General Dempsey) on the left. There are five invasion beaches: Utah on the right flank, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, on the left flank. At Utah, the US 7th Corps (General Collins) lands with US 4th Division spearheading the assault. The troops advance inland against light resistance. Admiral Moon provides naval support. At Omaha, the US 5th Corps (General Gerow) lands. There is heavy resistance and by the end of the day the American forces have advance less than one mile inland.

Admiral Hall provides naval support. At Gold, the British 30th Corps (General Bucknall) lands with 50th Infantry Division and 8th Armored Brigade leading the assault. There is reasonable advance inland although the assigned objectives are not met. At Juno beach, the British 1st Corps (General Crocker) lands with the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division and the Canadian 2nd Armored Brigade leading the assault. The tanks and infantry quickly push inland. Naval support is under the command of Commodore Oliver. At Sword beach, other elements of the British 1st Corps land. The British 3rd Infantry Division, 27th Armored Brigade and several Marine and Commando units lead the assault. The beach is quickly secured and bridges over the Orne River are captured but the first day objectives are not reached. The German 21st Panzer Division counterattacks in the late afternoon but does not dislodge the British defenders. Naval support and massive aerial interdiction prevents the German defenders from concentrating forces for a decisive counterattack. By day’s end, approximately 156,000 Allied troops have successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches. According to some estimates, more than 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives in the D-Day invasion, with thousands more wounded or missing.

Less than a week later, on June 11, the beaches were fully secured and over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles, and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy.

Allied air forces - including 3,467 heavy bombers, 1,645 medium and light bombers, 5,409 fighters, and 2,316 transports - fly more than 14,000 sorties over Normandy.

This digitally colorized image of “Into the Jaws of Death,” a photograph by Robert F. Sargent of the United States Coast Guard, shows troops disembarking from a landing craft onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.

 

[Tideflyer]

My mother was working in Mobile on June 6, 1944. She said that when the announcement of the landings came through, you could hear a pin drop in downtown Mobile. Everybody either had someone or knew someone who was over there. Everybody knew SOMETHING was going to happen, just didn’t know where or when.

 

[Tidewater]

Little Groups of Paratroopers (LGOPs)
On the drop zone there is chaos; collections of around ten Paratroopers form. They are well trained, highly motivated 18-25 year-olds who are armed to the teeth, lack effective adult supervision, and remember the Commander’s intent as, “March towards the sound of the guns and kill anyone not dressed like you,” or something close to that. Happily they go about their work.
All the Way!

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Little Groups of Paratroopers (LGOPs)
On the drop zone there is chaos; collections of around ten Paratroopers form. They are well trained, highly motivated 18-25 year-olds who are armed to the teeth, lack effective adult supervision, and remember the Commander’s intent as, “March towards the sound of the guns and kill anyone not dressed like you,” or something close to that. Happily they go about their work.
All the Way!

The actions of a bunch of young men without, as you point out, adult supervision, was a monument to why the Allies (in particular the Americans) won the western part of the ETO.

They had been children when the Great Depression hit, and knew how to make the best of a bad situation. In the armed services, they had good teachers and trained hard. They bought into a plan.

But the distinguishing factor was their ability to improvise when the plan went haywire — as it usually does within minutes (seconds?) of making contact with the bad guys.

I‘ve read an egregious over-simplification that does hold water as a general observation, exceptions noted:

The Wehrmacht was capable of improvisation. But due to the labyrinthine command structure, and to the extreme punishment of going OMOP (on my own plan) and it not working out, when things didn’t go according to the original plan, they far too often just sat and awaited orders.

Prime example is when Hitler slept in on June 6. There were tanks at the ready that could have put the Allied beach landings in serious jeopardy. Imagine a battalion of Panzers opening up 88s and machine guns on mobile platforms, on the beaches. But nobody wanted to wake Hitler up to get the OK to release them from reserve status and wreak havoc. When he finally got up around 11AM, it was too late.

The Brits would be so cautious — due largely to the mental damage of a Lost Generation in WW1 — as to squander the initiative.

The French would just say, ”Here we go again,” and break.

When the plan fell apart, the Americans would say a lot of non-TF words, figure, “What the [more non-TF words]…..this isn’t working. Let’s do the best we can with what we have and can see, and find out if that will. If it doesn’t, nothing lost…we’re [still more non-TF words] as things stand now anyway, so nothing to lose and at least we’ll take a lot of the German [yet more non-TF words] with us.

It’s a good day to die. Let’s go, boys.”

And yes, this is a time where profanity delivers a message that nothing else can. Even though they’re not allowed on TideFans, fill in your own as you think about what was probably really said in the moment.

Side note from the Vietnam War. A retired senior NCO was being interviewed and was asked what the most formidable fighter was. He paid due respect to special forces and lots of other highly-trained personnel. But he ended with something along the lines of, “All those guys are good. Really good. But there’s nothing like a well-trained, [angry], and scared [in the extreme] 18-year-old with a machine gun.”

 

[Tidewater]

The actions of a bunch of young men without, as you point out, adult supervision, was a monument to why the Allies (in particular the Americans) won the western part of the ETO.

They had been children when the Great Depression hit, and knew how to make the best of a bad situation. In the armed services, they had good teachers and trained hard. They bought into a plan.

But the distinguishing factor was their ability to improvise when the plan went haywire.

I‘ve read an egregious over-simplification that does hold water as a general observation, with exceptions noted:

The Wehrmacht was capable of improvisation. But due to the labyrinthine command structure, and to the extreme punishment of going OMOP (on my own plan) and it not working out, when things didn’t go according to the original plan, they far too often just sat and awaited orders.

Prime example is when Hitler slept in on June 6. There were tanks at the ready that could have put the Allied beach landings in serious jeopardy. Imagine a battalion of Panzers opening up 88s on the beaches. But nobody wanted to wake Hitler up to get the OK to release them from reserve status and wreak havoc. When he finally got up around 11AM, it was too late.

The Brits would be so cautious — due largely to the mental damage of a Lost Generation in WW1 — as to squander the initiative.

The French would just say, ”Here we go again,” and break.

When the plan fell apart, the Americans would say a lot of non-TF words, figure, “What the [more non-TF words]…..this isn’t working. Let’s do the best we can with what we have and can see, and find out if it will. If it doesn’t, nothing lost…we’re [still more non-TF words] as things stand now anyway, so nothing to lose and at least we’ll take a lot of the German [yet more non-TF words] with us.

It’s a good day to die. Let’s go, boys.”

And yes, this is a time where profanity delivers a message that nothing else can. Even though they’re not allowed on TideFans, fill in your own as you think about what was probably really said in the moment.

I had been watching the Band of Brothers episode "Day of Days." and the LGOPs quote came to mind. A lieutenant, a sergeant and a handful of privates (2 from an entirely different division) were wandering around the night of June 5/6 and shooting anyone not dressed like them.

I think your observations about national differences are quite astute.
Germans made strategic blunders, but that was because they had a moron head of state. At the tactical level, the Germans were quite good until very late in the war. Auftragstaktik meant disciplined initiative at the lowest possible level. (Don't say, "Mother may I?" Just do the right thing within the command's intent, without being told to.).

American kids were very much mechanically-inclined. Before the war, Germany had 47 people for every motor vehicle. The US had 3 people for every motor vehicle. Every American kid could fix a car. Driving a Sherman was like driving a car: gas, break, clutch, gear shift. direction controls through the breaks on each track independently.
When the US Army ran into bocage (dirt-and-bolder mounds at the edge of every Norman field, all covered with briars),. When Sherman drove over them, they exposed their vulnerable underbellies. A couple of tech sergeants welded plows to the front of select Shermans.

Problem solved. No long R&D campaign, followed by prototyping, field testing, and dissemination. They just welded plows to the front of a few and saw that it worked.

 

[Padreruf]

Noiser has a good podcast, D-Day, the Tide Turns. About 15 different episodes.

D-Day: The Tide Turns

History Podcast · Weekly Series · 1944. Europe is in the grip of the Nazi war machine. But on the shores of Great Britain, thousands of men and women are planning the great fightback. On the beaches, in the skies, out at sea and behin…

podcasts.apple.com

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Noiser has a good podcast, D-Day, the Tide Turns. About 15 different episodes.

D-Day: The Tide Turns

History Podcast · Weekly Series · 1944. Europe is in the grip of the Nazi war machine. But on the shores of Great Britain, thousands of men and women are planning the great fightback. On the beaches, in the skies, out at sea and behin…

podcasts.apple.com

Excellent history and delivery. You can get Noiser podcasts for free if you accept advertisements peppered in. I’ve listened to three episodes, and not found the ads excessive at all.

 

[Bazza]

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

Excellent history and delivery. You can get Noiser podcasts for free if you accept advertisements peppered in. I’ve listened to three episodes, and not found the ads excessive at all.

I agree. I don't listen to many podcasts but this was great!

 

[OakMtn4Bama]

If one were 17 years old in 1944, he or she would be 98 today! Not many left.