Honoring D-Day

 

Remembering D-Day

Today is of great importance to the free world.  It hearkens back to June 6, 1944, or for my International friends, 6 June, 1944.  It's time to remember and pay homage to D-Day.  Although technically not an official holiday in the states, it is known as a "National Day of Remembrance."

Eighty years ago today, Allied forces invaded the shores of Normandy, France. This military undertaking set the stage for liberating Europe.

D-Day was the largest sea invasion in history, with over 156,000 men (yes, men only) landing on the beaches of Normandy.  For those of you who like meteorology, it was originally scheduled for June 5, but was postponed due to inclement weather.  In military terms, D-Day means a date and H-Hour means a specific time for combat operations.  

   However, this specific D-Day was a part of the major operation known as Operation Overlord, which involved naval, sea, air, and military personnel.  Every operation was led by (then) Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

  On D-Day, 5 Beaches were invaded by the Allied Forces. The U.S invaded Utah and Omaha beaches, the British invaded Gold and Sword beaches and the Canadians invaded Juno beach, as the map above shows.

Every year, I try to create a post remembering D-Day, because it is the battle that turned the tide and set the stage for winning WWII in Europe for the Allies.  However, I ran across some incredibly interesting facts I didn't know before (at least most of them).  These are from D-Day Facts:

During the D-Day invasion, the German Jews who escaped from the persecution joined the Allied force in No.10 Commando unit.

During D-Day landings, Condoms were used to cover the head of the Rifle from getting wet.

During the D-Day invasion, Penicillin was carried along with the troopers that helped thousands of wounded soldiers.

An estimated 10,000 Allied force and between 4,000 – 9,000 Nazi casualties were reported on D-Day.

Germans had fewer casualties on D-Day due to their positions. However, the Germans had no reinforcements to help them retake positions.

More than 3,000 civilians died on D-Day and D+1.

Due to the D-Day fighting on Normandy beaches, 4% of the sand is made of metal particles.

Before D-Day, the MI-5 secret mission D-Day operation code names were answers to the Crossword puzzle printed in a newspaper, but it was later confirmed that it was a mere coincidence.

The British and Canadian navy operated a trail invasion “Dieppe Raid” on France in 1942 that ended in a disaster. This failure mission made the Allied Forces more cautious to plan a winning strategy for D-Day. 

During D-Day Normandy landing, J.D. Salinger served the war by carrying his personal Dairy that contains the working of his upcoming novel “Catcher in The Rye.” 

Theodore Roosevelt JR is the first General to initiate D-Day and first General to land on the Normandy shore with the first wave of troops.

On the night of the D-Day invasion only 15% of the Allied force Parachute troopers landed in the right place and the remaining were killed or miss landed.

To collect the information of French beaches for the suitable landing on D-Day, the BBC conducted a fake competition for French Beach holiday photographs.

On June 6, 1944, 45 Allied divisions with around 3 M (million-sic) men, led by General Eisenhower, began landing on Normandy Beach, in France. Within 3 weeks, Allied troops captured all of the Normandy peninsula and port of Cherbourg. By the end of August, Paris was liberated, and they continued toward Germany.

During D-Day, the German Nazi Ariel warfare couldn’t shot a single Allied Air fighter down as they were outnumbered with 1:30 ratio.

Until the very last minute, Normandy invasion was the most heavily guarded secret.

When the D-Day combat forces started its operation, Hitler was asleep and none of the officers dared to wake him up.

17,000,000 example strategic maps were drawn during the preparation and execution of the D-Day.

For the operation of D-Day 1,000,000 U.S soldiers were sent to Europe during 1942 to 1944.

By the D-Day the U.S has shipped 7,000,000 tons of requirements to the British.

To deceive the Germans, the Allies created a fake operation called Operation Bodyguard. It tried to mislead the Germans about the date and location of the main Allied landing.

For the D-Day invasion U.S Major General Percy Hobart of Allied Forces devised many specialist vehicles like bulldozers and Swimming Tanks.

Before the D-Day, 30,000 practice sessions were taken with swimming tanks.

For the D-Day invasion all the allied Air aircraft had to wear invasion stripes except Heavy bombers and seaplanes.

On the D-Day invasion the Allied forces had 15,766 Air craft’s.

By June 1944, the German Air Combat wing Luftwaffe was outnumbered 1:30 Allied Forces Air Craft’s.

For the preparation of D-Day the British produced 7,000,000 Jerry Cans.

During the practice landings on Slapton Sands, 946 Allied soldiers were killed by German E-boat attacks.

The Allied force sailed to the area in middle of the Channel named as Piccadilly Circus. And from there they would sail to the invasion zones.

On D-day more than 7,000 ships of all shapes and sizes were launched.

On D-Day, over 4,000 landing craft’s were used to get the Allied force soldiers onto the beaches for invasion.

The oldest Allied battleship in action on D-Day was USS Arkansas that was commissioned in 1912.

On D-Day 73,000 U.S soldiers, 61,715 British soldiers and 21,400 Canadian soldiers crossed the English Channel to reach the invasion Zones.

All American soldiers were required to take out a $10,000 life insurance policy.

On D-Day, 13,348 Paratroopers were dropped on land far away from invasion beaches, five hours before the coastal landings.

On D-Day, out of 6 only one Paratrooper landed in the right place.

On D-Day, a single Allied Aircraft was not shot by any German Luftwaffe Ariel combat plane but 113 Allied Aircrafts were shot down by land firings.

On D-Day, 2,240 SAS troops of Allied Forces landed on French coastline to mislead the German soldiers from the actual invasion areas.

During D-Day the first wave of U.S troopers landed on Utah beach and had only 50/50 chance of survival.

Overlooking Utah Beach, the Germans were ready with 110 artillery pieces, with another 18 large batteries situated inland.

Utah beach saw a successful landing with only 300 causalities out of 20,000 men.

During D-Day, ‘A’ company of the U.S 116^th Infantry Regiment troopers lost 96% of strength levels just within one hour of Battle combat on Omaha beach.

During D-Day landings on Omaha beach, one American unit in the first wave lost 90% of its men.

There were 2,400 casualties, out of 34,000 men who landed on Omaha beach on D-Day.

During the D-Day, the U.S Rangers climbed up the pointe Du Hoc cliff it is the highest point west of Utah beach and east of Omaha beach where they did not find any German soldiers or even German weapons around.

There were 400 casualties out of 24,970 British soldiers who landed on Gold Beach on D-Day.

There were 1,200 casualties, out of 21,400 Canadian soldiers who landed on Juno Beach on D-Day.

On Juno beach the Canadian soldiers did the fastest Inland advance, where they managed to advance up to six miles on D-Day.

On Sword Beach 28,845 British soldiers landed with just 630 casualties on D-Day.or the D-Day invasion two separate temporary harbors called ‘Mulberry’s’ were built to unload supplies.

Before 100 days for D-day invasion, 2,500,000 soldiers, 500,000 vehicles, 4,000,000 tons of equipment and rations was unloaded at the respected Harbors.

To continue fuel supply to the D-Day invasion armies a PipeLine Under The Ocean (PLUTO) was laid to deliver fuel directly to France.

Allied Forces wanted D-Day invasion to take place on full moon night and to land at dawn on a flood tide. Only few days were suitable for this and June 5 was chosen but due to bad weather the attack was delayed.

For the D-Day invasion the British sent Low-Flying Spitfires to survey the beaches of invasion zones and brought back thousands of photos to analyze on Beach Defense strategy.

For the D-Day invasion British sent Mini Submarines at night to collect samples of beach sand and land soils.

From March 12, 1944 the British cancelled all civilian international traveling to stop data leaking of the Top Secret D-Day invasion.

For the D-Day invasion cover up, multiple secret operations were made up to falsify the German Spies and Double Agents.

Before the D-Day Normandy invasion, the Normandy beach was a tourist spot and resorts area.

For the D-Day invasion, most of the Allied Force soldiers were 5 times younger than the Axis force on average.

The D-Day began when the Allied Forces gathered on British soil.

During the D-Day invasion, some of the Free French, Poles, Belgians, Czechs, Greeks, Dutch, Norwegians, Aussies and Kiwis joined with the Allied Armed Forces Troops.

During D-Day landings, the mini submarines were surfaced at 4 AM on all five beaches to beam lights on the shore so that the landing aircraft could easily navigate to the correct markings and avoid any obstacles and rock shoals.

During the D-Day invasion, the German army was ready with 50,000 soldiers and their defense tactics include concrete gun emplacements, wooden stakes, barbed wires, Anti-Tank obstacles, mines, and booby traps.

During the D-Day at 6:31 A.M 73,000 U.S Troopers landed at Utah and Omaha beaches, at 7:31 A.M 61,715 British soldiers landed at Gold and sword beaches and at 7:31 A.M 21,400 Canadian Army landed at Juno beach.

On June 5, 1944 the Allied Force sent 24,000 Airborne Troopers and 2,000 Aircraft with 867 Gliders to secure road and rail tracks. Dummy paratroopers were also dropped to help convince Germans that real landing would take place somewhere else.

Richard Todd, an officer in 7^th Parachute Battalion on D-Day, also played a character in the 1962 movie “The Longest Day” which was about the D-Day.

Canadian Soldier James Doohan is also an actor in Star Trek who played Captain Scotty, survived the D-Day after being shot 4 times in leg, one through his chest and one through his finger.

Those of you who remember I visited the Eisenhower Museum

know I discussed both the planning 

and execution of D-Day. 

I hope you, like I, learned a few interesting facts from this day in history.   In contributing this reminder, I hope to keep this and other important days in history alive for future generations.  It won't be many more years, if any, until the brave men who fought on and survived these beaches will no longer be with us.   It's vital to honor them now and in the future.