During the night of June 6, 1944 24,000 Allied airborne troops parachuted in Normandy and the pathfinders seized strategic crossroads to block the Wehrmacht from reinforcing the Nazi Atlantic Wall. Operation Overlord to liberate Europe was in motion.
At 6:03am 156,000 troops from Britain, Canada, and the USA conducted an amphibious assault on five beaches, which was the biggest naval invasion in history and included soldiers from the Nazi-occupied lands; Czechs, French, Poles, and the Norse. The five beaches varied in degrees of difficulty. Utah Beach was taken with minimal casualties.
The US Rangers assailing the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc encountered stiff resistance from the Germans.
Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division waded onto the Fox Green section of Omaha Beach and encountered the newly formed German 352nd Division upon hitting thr beach. During the initial landing two-thirds of Company E became casualties. After defeating a strong defense of Omaha Beach the US Army took the heights, suffering 2000 dead or wounded.
Gold Beach proved tough going as well as Juno Beach and Sword Beach.
My South Shore neighbor Mr. Reddington had been one of the first off the LST on Omaha Beach.
He never said a word about that horrifying experience nor had any of the fathers of friends who had participated in that grand endeavor, but they were proud to have been the best of the best on the First of Days bringing down the Nazi regime. Mr. Reddington did always speak of freedom and its cost, especially for the soldiers of Mother Russia. His smile hid a reservoir of tears for lost comrades.
I salute them all.
The long and the short and the tall.
By August 1944 Paris was free, however the Nazis did not believe in surrender.
Same as today. Never again and those two words include Palestine, the Ukraine, Syria, Yemen et al. End the Endless Wars.
Top Photo - Photo: Chief Photographer's Mate (CPHoM) Robert F. Sargent
Into the Jaws of Death
6 June 1944
This morning on my way to buy the NY Times I asked ten people was June 6, 1944 meant to them. Most shook their head. A middle school student finally said, "D-Day, my teacher mentioned it this morning."
See THE LONGEST DAY and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
