Fifty Facts About D-Day You Might Not Know-- Part 2: 7,000 Allied Ships and 11,500 Aircraft

11.  The operation had a code name.  (Operation Overlord)

12.  D-Day involved nearly 7,000 Allied ships.

13.  D-Day involved more than 11,500 Allied aircraft.

14.  There were 73,000 American troops at D-Day.

15.  Comanche 'code-talkers' joined the siege.  (Indians)

16.  The Allies faced 50,000 German defenders.

17.  The battle lasted until August.  It was the beginning of the Battle of Normandy.

18.  The exact number of fallen (on both sides) is not known.  Allied killed put at 4,413.  German is unknown, but estimates place it between 4,000 and 9,000.

19.  Most Allied troops arrived after D-Day.

20.  The operation led to the liberation of Paris.

--GreGen

SSgt. Raymond S. Hoback-- Part 2

Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy.  On June 6, 1944,  Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day, began.

Thirty-two Virginia National Guard troops from Bedford, Va., Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division were part of the first wave of more than 160,000 Allied troops that landed on a heavily fortified 50-mile stretch of French coast.

Company A was in on the assault on Omaha Beach where the hottest and most costly action took place.  By the end of the day, nineteen of the thirty-two men from Bedford, Virginia, were dead.

Two more died later in the Normandy Campaign.  Also, two other Bedford men assigned to different units died.

Bedford's population at the time was about 3,200 and proportionately the community suffered the country's highest casualties on D-Day, and for that matter, all of World War II.

--GreGen

One By One, D-Day Memories Fade-- Part 3: How Many Are Still Alive?

Normandy school teachers, veterans' families and military memorials are racing against time to record survivors' stories for posterity.

It was history's biggest amphibious invasion, on that fateful June 6, 1944, day, some 160,000 Allied forces came ashore to launch Operation Overlord to wrest Normandy from German control.  More than 4,000 Allied forces were killed that day alone.  Nearly a half a million people were killed on both sides by the time the Allies liberated Paris in August 1944.

It is unclear how many D-Day veterans are alive today.  The survivors are now in their 90s or 100s.

Of the 73,000 Americans who took part, just thirty are currently scheduled to come to France for this year's 75th anniversary.

--GreGen

D-Day +75 Years-- Part 14: "The Battle Belonged That Morning To..."

Troops poured through the opening and by nightfall, the Omaha Beach beachhead was secured.  However, the Allies held only a few miles of shoreline.  Their front lines wouldn't reach the hard-pressed parachutists until June 10.

"The ground troops have finally reached us," recalled Fayette Richardson.  "We've been surrounded for nearly five days, almost out of ammunition, with rumors that the invasion has failed, that we were done for.  Now, we are saved."

Tough battles lay ahead before Germany surrendered the following spring.  But after Operation Overlord, the end was never in doubt.

On June 6, 1944, 2,499 Americans and 1,915 soldiers of the Allied nations were killed.  Many of the GIs are buried under white crosses and Stars of David in a U.S. military cemetery on a bluff above Omaha Beach.  In the visitor center there is a quote from Gen. Bradley that, with simple eloquence, tells the D-Day story.

"The battle belonged that morning to the thin, wet line of khaki that dragged itself ashore on the channel coast of France."

Fitting.  --GreGen

D-Day +75 Years Today: "What Am I Doing Here?"-- Part 1

From the June 6, 2019, Chicago Tribune  ' I'd like to volunteer, sir' : Memories of D-Day live on through oral histories" by Ron Grossman.

"Just before parachuting into Nazi-occupied Europe, Fayette Richardson asked himself an existential question: 'My God Most Powerful, what am I doing here? '

"The thought had to be on the minds of myriad soldiers on June 6, 1844.  It was D-Day, the launch of a  long-awaited campaign by the U.S. and British armies to free the nations of Western Europe that Hitler had conquered.

"Mounted from airfields and ports in Great Britain, it was the largest amphibious assault in history.  Code-named Operation Overlord, it dramatically changed the course of World War II."

--GreGen

Three Days to D-Day +75 Years

Today is three days from D-Day, plus 75 years.  Three quarters of a century.  The youngest of the Allies storming Fortress Europe that day would be 93 now, if they were 18 at the time.

Hoping people will be putting their flags out to commemorate it.  What those men faced, going up the famed Atlantic Wall of the Germans had to have been frightening, but on they came, and as you're reading in this blog, jumping into it.

I will write about D-Day in all my blogs June 6.

The Greatest Generation.  --GreGen

HMS Undaunted at Normandy

From the D-Day Overlord site.

The HMS Undaunted had only been in British service for just over three months at D-Day.

Its first action was escorting a convoy to destroy the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway.

In May 1944, it joined Bombardment Force K, which became part of Bombarding Force G  as part of Operation Overlord.  It escorted convoys across the English Channel on the night of 5 June 1944,heading for Gold Beach.  On D-Day it participated in fire support of English troops.

On June 7, the Undaunted embarked General Eisenhower, Admiral Ramsay and part of Overlord's staff to Portsmouth.  It then patrolled  on the Bay of the Seine and across the English Channel while occasionally pursuing its mission fire to the benefit of land forces.

--GreGen

D-Day, June 6, 1944

From History.com.

I have my U.S. flags flying, although, they are of the 50-star variety instead of the 48-stars U.S. flags had back then.

"During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany's control.  Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,00 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified coast of France's Normandy region.

"The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning.  Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target.

"By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans.

"The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe."

--GreGen.

A D-Day Timeline

From the June 6th Chicago Tribune.


SEPTEMBER 1941--  Britain begins investigating feasability of amphibious assault in Europe.

DECEMBER 1941--  American planners get involved after Pearl Harbor.

1942-1943--  Various dates and attack spots discussed.

MAY 30, 1944--  The Allied invasion of France commences.  As part of Operation Overlord, troops based in England begin mobilizing to cross the English Channel.

JUNE 5--  Overlord begins as an advance wave of paratroopers land in enemy territory.

JUNE 6--  D-Day.  A naval bombardment begins in the morning.  Operation Neptune begins.  Fighting begins as more than 150,000 troops and 30,000 vehicles are landed along a 50-mile stretch of fortified French coastline.

JUNE 30--  Allied forces establish a foothold in Normandy.

JULY--  Allies take control of Cherbourg.

AUGUST 19--  Allies cross the River Seine and Paris liberated.

There You Have It.  --GreGen