D-Day

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

I think the Churchill quote above was re: the battle of britain and the royal air force holding the luftwaffe at bay, NOT D-day. Though that applies too, of course (just less "so few", it was a lot of people)



Both you guys are spot on indeed.. American history books often forget the war started in 1939, not dec 41 - it was *quite* a while before the US decided to join, also with the benefit of being an ocean away with over 2 years to prepare - but once they did, the rest is history...It always annoys me how people single out how France fell (with a common border to Germany and zero time and old equipment), ignore that the rest of europe folded even faster, and have no mockery at all for the countries who joined the wrong side - it's all good Italy and Spain! Lots of interesting stuff to be read, like for instance the French air force was woefully underequipped with antique stuff and yet still managed to blunt the luftwaffe enough that it needed a break and did not succeed carrying on to conquer british skies (I'm paraphrasing the intro of Adolf Galland's book here, general of the luftwaffe, not my opinion).. Also all the weird stuff where the Vichy fleet was sunk by England in the harbor somewhat treacherously (fair enough, in war, but weird how you brush stuff aside after)... and let's not bring up some of the Hitler sympathies all over the world at the time, from Henry Ford to... the duke of windsor in britain (ex king, no less)! It's always interesting to look back with the benefit of knowing how it ends and who wrote the books.. Lots of super interesting less black and white tales if you study history from all sides..

Oh yes, Hitler had many people and countries jump on his bandwagon. The French, even then knew the Germans were building a massive armed forces, and France refused to spend the massive amounts of money to defend themselves. Europe learned many lessons, and promptly forgot most of them. Now NATO is woefully underfunded by the countries that are protected by NATO.

[sc_rufctr]

Truly the greatest generation.

So many brave men and women gave everything they had for freedom, for us!

God bless them all. RIP.

[pwd72s]

^So many stories about this one day. All of them fascinating.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

^So many stories about this one day. All of them fascinating.

You could spend a life time studying D-Day alone and still not cover everything that happened (on that day and the days that followed).

And yes a lot of it was tragic but what a time to be alive!

So many lives for countless generations were changed on that day.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

As an ex Brit I would like to thank the Americans for the help in WW2. It would have been a hard slog without you.

Cheers, Guy

You all suffered long enough on your own and still it was a helluva slog after we kicked in.

[fred cook]

My dad served in the CBI (China, Burma, India) theater for about 2 and 1/2 years. He was an officer in a supply outfit that moved all kinds of supplies, ammunition, fuel, etc, from India, through Burma and then on to Kunming China for the Nationalist army. I was looking thru some of his army documents yesterday and found a letter of commendation that I had never seen before. Seems he had taken a convoy from Ledo to Mitkyna to Kunming without losing any vehicles or supplies. The convoy left Ledo in August of 1945 and was likely the last or one of the last to make the trip. The route was over the "Stilwell" road to Mitkyna, Burma and then up the Burma road to Kunming. Some of these roads had a hundred or more switchbacks a mile with no room to pass sometimes for 20 miles or so. The trip from Ledo to Kunming took about a month or more but was the fastest way to get the supplies there. The "Greatest Generation" indeed!

[jcwade]

Don't forget all the Russians who died on the Eastern front to defeat Naziism.
Watch Go and see.

[GH85Carrera]

One of our customers at a previous job was a rather annoying man with a weird personality, always asking for freebies and discounts, but we were truly honored to have him as a client. He landed at Omaha beach, later in the day after the first wave. He was in the battle of the bulge, and one of just two survivors in his platoon, with the other survivor badly injured. He said the frozen bodies stacked up like cord wood haunted him in his dreams all his life. When I watch movies like Band of Brothers and see the TV version of the Battle of the bulge it looks horrible, and I honestly can't imagine what they went through.

We always shook his hand, and thanked him for his service. He usually replied, he had no choice, he was drafted and did not want to be there, but he just did his job.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

One of our customers at a previous job was a rather annoying man with a weird personality, always asking for freebies and discounts, but we were truly honored to have him as a client. He landed at Omaha beach, later in the day after the first wave. He was in the battle of the bulge, and one of just two survivors in his platoon, with the other survivor badly injured. He said the frozen bodies stacked up like cord wood haunted him in his dreams all his life. When I watch movies like Band of Brothers and see the TV version of the Battle of the bulge it looks horrible, and I honestly can't imagine what they went through.

We always shook his hand, and thanked him for his service. He usually replied, he had no choice, he was drafted and did not want to be there, but he just did his job.

Don Malarkey was "just one of the guys" @ The Cue Ball...sorta. We all knew who the toughest S.O.B. in the place was. He'd proven it decades before. Think it was Scott Grimes who played him in "Band of Brothers". From jumping into France the night before D Day, to drinking Hitler's booze atop the Eagle's nest...Don saw it all. But according to him, nobody from Easy Company ever saw a concentration camp.

[Baz]

[drew1]

I posted the following in PARF and with post again in remberence of a man I knew.

The scene in the movie Private Ryan is just like Omaha beach on June 6. I bought one of 150 prints of a painting made by an artist? Detrick?, of the Beach that day, for my wife's classroom. It was painted from the description of the men there that day. It is signed by the artist and Francis Dawson, whose part Tom Hanks portrayed in the D Day scene. It shows the tank shooting in the air and everything, the movie people maybe used this in setting the movie up.

I was acquainted with COL Dawson, and in the 90s interviewed him for a paper while going for an Associate Degree. Then, D Day, he was 1LT Frank Dawson of D Co, 5th Ranger Bat. In HS in SC he had been in something like ROTC, so WW II found him commissioned in the Army. In England, he was assigned to a logistics outfit. The 5th Ranger Bat which was trained and formed at Camp Forrest, TN, but now being trained by British Commandos in Scotland. More personnel were needed and he volunteered. He had to go before a board and was asked one question, "Why do you want to be in the Rangers?" He said that he was assigned to Logistics but he was from SC and if he was in a war he wanted to fight. Late one afternoon, he found himself walking up a mountain in Scotland where everybody was training. When he got to his company it was explained that they were doing demolition training and it was the end of the day so they were blowing the rest so they could knock off. He said it was like the whole mountain was coming down.

D Day was Dawson's first combat, probably like most on D Day. As pointed out, by another everything did not go as planned. On Day, they were sitting off the Point de Hoc in landing craft waiting for a signal to to land just east at Point de Preece and support or link up with 2nd Rangers who had been assigned to climb the cliffs and take out the big guns there. The signal never came so COL Schnieder, directed the craft to Omaha Beach, their alternate site. I forget which sector. Stumbling and tripping over equipment under water they made the way past they carnage on the beach to an empty place in the sea wall. Dawson said he did not see or hear Gen Cota? of 29 Inf Div?, who seemed to be calming walking the beach. Others tell him you had to have. Cota asked, "What unit is this?" and was told, " We're Rangers". Cota's answer, "We've got to get off this beach, Rangers, lead the way." This gave the motto, "Rangers Lead the Way."

When his CO ordered move out, Dawson, sent his bangalore torpedo men over the wall to blow the concertina and barb wire they hooked them together but one did not go off. So they had to go over the wall taking fire and do it again. Dawson told me the two good naturedly argued over whose did not go off close to 50 years later.. It went this time and Dawson's plt sgt and another man hooked their hands to give him a boost. Over the wall he went zig zagging like they teach in training until he got to a trench at the crest. There he took his BAR and got a couple of Germans and headed toward a bunker with a machine gun, which he cleared. Another poster mentioned short rounds from supporting ships. One of these may have helped, for smoke kept enemy fire from concentrating on Dawson. It was after taking out the Bunker that Dawson realized his platoon was not with him. Then here they came coughing and ripping off gas masks. They thought the smoke was gas and the masks did not filter the smoke. Dawson and his men cleared trenches and bunkers. They were lucky to have reached the crest for Dawson said there were signs in German ACTUNG and he didn't know the next word which was mines. The 5th Rangers fought their way through hedgerows hoping to find a road to the east towards Point de HOC

With heavy fighting they took the town of Vierville with its intersections and a road to the east to get to the Point de Hoc area. Plans changed again. Schnieder was ordered to hold the town to secure the beachhead. Dawson told me that he and a LT Parker received Silver Stars for their contributions on D Day. Parker led his platoon over the crest to a designated assembly area at a chateau, but no Rangers were there so he continued to Point de Hoc where the 2nd Rangers there running low on ammo were in need of help. According to records on D+1, 5th Rangers had taken about 30% casualties. 2nd Rangers which successfully took Point de Hoc and found the guns gone, but took 75%.

Dawson is in the Ranger Hall of Fame.
__________________
drew1

[Baz]

Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary......

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by Baz

Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary......

Thanks for that Baz.

[pwd72s]

now it's been 80 years...never forgotten.

[William930t]

Many hours I have spent watching WWII YouTube mini-documentaries. Here is a decent one covering one landing craft during the first wave at Omaha Beach, costly success was achieved.

[pwd72s]

Brécourt Manor Assault - Wikipedia

Battle[edit]
Upon arrival at the battery location, Winters made his plan; he positioned a pair of M1919 machine guns for covering fire and sent several soldiers (2nd Lt. Lynn D. Compton, Pvt. Donald Malarkey, and Sgt. William J. Guarnere) to one flank to destroy a machine gun position with grenades and provide covering fire.
While the trenches connecting the artillery positions provided the Germans with an easy way to supply and reinforce the guns, they also proved to be their biggest weakness. After destroying the first gun position, Winters and the rest of his team used the trenches as covered approaches to attack the remaining guns in turn. Each gun was destroyed by placing a block of TNT down its barrel and using German stick grenades to set off the charges.[8]
Reinforcements from Company D, led by 2nd Lt. Ronald C. Speirs, arrived to complete the assault on the fourth and last gun. Speirs had a reputation as an excellent and extremely aggressive officer, and he led his men against the last gun position by running outside the trenches, exposing himself to enemy fire.
After the four guns were disabled, Winters's team came under heavy machine-gun fire from Brécourt Manor and withdrew.[9] He had discovered a German map in one gun position that was marked with the locations of all German artillery and machine guns in that area of the Cotentin Peninsula. This was an invaluable piece of intelligence, and once Winters returned to Le Grand Chemin, he gave it to the 2nd Battalion intelligence officer (S-2) (Lewis Nixon), who passed the information up the chain of command. Command was so thrilled that it sent the first two tanks to reach Utah Beach to support the paratroopers.[10] Winters directed their fire to eliminate remaining German resistance.
Winters lost one man, Pfc. John D. Halls (of A Company) from an 81mm mortar platoon.[11][note 4] Another, Private Robert "Popeye" Wynn, was wounded during the attack.[note 5] Another casualty was Warrant Officer Andrew Hill, who was killed when he came upon the battle while searching for the headquarters of the 506th PIR. Also killed were Sgt. Julius "Rusty" Houck from F Company, who was with Speirs, and one soldier from D Company under Speirs' command. Another soldier from D Company was wounded.

[sc_rufctr]

(Seen on Facebook... I really hope this is legit)

[steve185]

Some restored footage from D Day.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6409312

[Eric 951]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Brécourt Manor Assault - Wikipedia

Battle[edit]
Upon arrival at the battery location, Winters made his plan; he positioned a pair of M1919 machine guns for covering fire and sent several soldiers (2nd Lt. Lynn D. Compton, Pvt. Donald Malarkey, and Sgt. William J. Guarnere) to one flank to destroy a machine gun position with grenades and provide covering fire.
While the trenches connecting the artillery positions provided the Germans with an easy way to supply and reinforce the guns, they also proved to be their biggest weakness. After destroying the first gun position, Winters and the rest of his team used the trenches as covered approaches to attack the remaining guns in turn. Each gun was destroyed by placing a block of TNT down its barrel and using German stick grenades to set off the charges.[8]
Reinforcements from Company D, led by 2nd Lt. Ronald C. Speirs, arrived to complete the assault on the fourth and last gun. Speirs had a reputation as an excellent and extremely aggressive officer, and he led his men against the last gun position by running outside the trenches, exposing himself to enemy fire.
After the four guns were disabled, Winters's team came under heavy machine-gun fire from Brécourt Manor and withdrew.[9] He had discovered a German map in one gun position that was marked with the locations of all German artillery and machine guns in that area of the Cotentin Peninsula. This was an invaluable piece of intelligence, and once Winters returned to Le Grand Chemin, he gave it to the 2nd Battalion intelligence officer (S-2) (Lewis Nixon), who passed the information up the chain of command. Command was so thrilled that it sent the first two tanks to reach Utah Beach to support the paratroopers.[10] Winters directed their fire to eliminate remaining German resistance.
Winters lost one man, Pfc. John D. Halls (of A Company) from an 81mm mortar platoon.[11][note 4] Another, Private Robert "Popeye" Wynn, was wounded during the attack.[note 5] Another casualty was Warrant Officer Andrew Hill, who was killed when he came upon the battle while searching for the headquarters of the 506th PIR. Also killed were Sgt. Julius "Rusty" Houck from F Company, who was with Speirs, and one soldier from D Company under Speirs' command. Another soldier from D Company was wounded.

[flatbutt]

Watching the reading of "The Watch" today was very moving.