Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII news, providing thought- provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

Category: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord  -- See latest WWII news here. See also 'WWII battlefield tours', 'Erwin Rommel', 'WWII Militaria, Collectibles', 'American Paratroopers', 'U.S. Army Rangers'.

Lester K. Zick - Decorated World War II tank gunner who saw D-Day
Lester K. Zick, a WWII anti-tank gunner who wrote of his experiences landing with the 29th Division on D-Day, died at 89. In 1941, he joined the 175th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division. On May 30, 1944, his anti-tank company was loaded aboard a landing ship tank and, on June 6, 1944 at 6:30 a.m. they headed toward Omaha Beach. ... Zick also tells of an incident when a U.S. enlisted man on horseback murdered 2 POWs. "He then took out his pistol and shot the two Germans prisoners in the back of the head." Once his men were frustrated to dig foxholes because French villagers had buried hundreds of dishes for safekeeping.     [ baltimoresun :: 2008-02-18 :: Panzers & Armored Divisions & Tank War ]

National D-Day Memorial gets a collection of 5,000 news clippings
Medals, uniforms and other militaria are among the common public offerings to the National D-Day Memorial. "Those are nice for display purposes and they have a story to tell but ... beyond just being able to look at them, there is not really much else we can do with them," said Shannon Brooks. Recently, however, a collection of scrapbooks filled with about 5,000 World War II newspaper clippings arrived from Mabel Scott Walker. And a $1,000 grant will allow the foundation to buy optical character recognition software to convert the clippings into a database. "It is one thing to have these things sitting on a shelf. It is another to be able to use them."     [ wvec :: 2008-02-03 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Glen Gloyd survived Omaha Beach landing
There is one recollection that stands out in Glen Gloyd's mind about the days before the D-Day invasion: the children he and his comrades came to know in UK. "We greeted them and then threw coins to them. They really enjoyed having us there..." At midnight on June 6, 1944, he got on a landing craft ship headed across the English Channel and to the beaches of Normandy. He was part of the first wave of attacks on Omaha Beach. "It was complete chaos when we got there. There was one point when I looked and saw 12 machine guns with 12 American soldiers draped over them dead. It was hell." ... "We were welcomed by the French citizens like we were stars..."     [ venturacountystar :: 2008-01-20 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Map solves mystery of German gun behind 'Private Ryan' D-Day massacre
1,500 American soldiers died in the bloody battle to take Omaha Beach on D-Day - under fire from a well-camouflaged German gun emplacement. The onslaught featured in the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. But military experts remained divided over where the nazi battery that laid down bombardment was located, until amateur historian and collector Gary Sterne - browsing through memorabilia at a miltaria fair - found a map. It had a spot marked "area of high resistance," and Sterne decided to visit Omaha Beach. "To my amazement, I found I was standing on concrete. ... I discovered a bunker entrance, then a tunnel ... headquarters ... bunkers."     [ thisislondon :: 2008-01-18 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Veteran recalls the Normandy Invasion - Amphibious Sherman tank
On June 6, 1944, D-Day, Stanley Maher was in a life and death struggle. He was an Intelligence Regimental Non Commissioned Officer for the Fort Garry Horse 10th Canadian Armed Regiment during the amphibious phase of the Normandy invasion. "I was put into a Sherman tank that had been rigged with a snorkel, so ... it could roll along the bottom and still breathe, but it could only go in 8 feet of water." The Allied ships pulled as close to the beaches as possible, opened up their bellies to let dozens of tanks roll into enemy waters. "The ramp opened up, we hit the bottom of the ocean and the next thing I knew water was pouring into the tank from everywhere..."     [ lookoutnewspaper :: 2007-11-07 ]

D-Day, Omaha Beach - Elwood Thompson, ammo specialist
Elwood Thompson landed on Omaha Beach on June 6 1944 with the 618th Ordnance Ammunition Company. I had my M-1 carbine and we had to wear our ODs (olive drab uniforms) to show we were American soldiers. LST stopped about a mile off the beach at Normandy. The 6 boats that were supposed to pick us up got lost. So the commander of the ship said: "I know you guys have got to get in there, so I'm going to take you in." We got in about 100 yards from shore, and the shells started dropping around the ship. The doggone naval commander ordered him to get that thing the hell out of there. He took us right in there and we saw the Rangers going up that cliff, Pointe du Hoc.     [ concordmonitor :: 2007-10-11 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

World War II veteran Eugene Lyons fought on D-Day
Eugene Lyons' first day in Normandy was nearly his last, twice. First, the ship that carried him across the English Channel on D-Day, hit a mine and sank. He was ashore only long enough to note the dead American paratroopers still hanging in trees. Digging a trench with helmet, Lyons glanced over his shoulder to see a German plane coming in low... Tensions between white and black soldiers flared in the U.S. Army. Once a brawl between members of his unit and airborne troops that had to be broken up by British forces. ... "These two fellows were... eating lunch, and one guy looked away, and when he looked back his buddy's brains were lying in his mess kit. He just went completely out of it. They had to chase him 3-4 miles."     [ cleveland :: 2007-08-06 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

The other D-Day: Errors and mistakes
Much has been written about the bravery of the victorious Allied forces. All true, but it wasn't flawless... They attacked nonexistent artillery emplacements. Planes dropped paratroopers far from targets. D-Day was soon forgotten in the nightmare of GIs being blown apart in the Normandy hedgerows by entrenched German panzers. No American planners had anticipated the deadliness of new German battle tanks and anti-tank weapons. We landed with the weaponry vastly inferior to that of the Wehrmacht. On two occasions we bombed our own troops, killing or wounding over 1,000 Americans, including the highest-ranking officer to die in Europe, Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair.     [ jewishworldreview :: 2007-06-08 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

"Easy Red" sector of Omaha Beach, the bloodiest of the landings
Saving Private Ryan was a hard movie for William G. Pepe to watch because he lived through it for real. As a member of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade he went ashore on the "Easy Red" sector of Omaha Beach. Somebody back at HQ had the bright idea to put vertical stripes on the back of officers' helmets and horizontal stripes on the helmets of sergeants. German sharpshooters figured out that code and aimed for the commanders. And Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had detailed two German infantry divisions near "Omaha", to practice anti-invasion maneuvers. Neither division was a front-line force, "but anyone with a loaded gun pointed at you becomes a formidable enemy."     [ wilmingtonstar :: 2007-06-07 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Chaotic scenes on Normandy's beaches
D-Day was a massive operation, requiring many levels of planning and support. Jack Campbell, a gunner's mate third class, worked on a rescue flotilla, pulling injured servicemen from the water. 1,500 were saved on D-Day and the ensuing few days. Army photographer Al Meserlin also was at the D-Day beaches, though he didn't arrive until D plus 3. "When Paris was liberated, I think every GI should have gotten a Purple Heart, because I don't think there was a sober one." He became assigned to general Eisenhower: "An Army major said, 'Al, you look like the only one who's halfway sober.'" Meserlin would go on to photograph the German surrender at Rheims in May 1945.     [ app :: 2007-06-07 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

The world changed June 6, 1944 - the good guys took charge again
Here is an address by Walter D. Ehlers, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, at the 50th D-Day anniversary. -- "What was it like on D-Day?" That's the most-asked question. We will surely all agree that it was the longest day of our lives. I remember my amazement when we came into the Southampton area. Rows and rows of battle tanks, artillery guns, trucks, jeeps and armored personal carriers lined England's lush fields. I suddenly appreciated the US' support of the war effort. There was such firepower that we didn't expect much resistance on the beach. The dead and wounded soldiers, the wreckage, made us realize that this war was far from over.     [ ocregister :: 2007-06-07 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

D-Day invasion of Europe - The most decisive battle in history
The D-Day operation in 1944 liberated France, hastened the defeat of Third Reich and opened up the second front against Hitler. It was the most complex military operation ever mounted, landing 150,000 troops by midnight. On that cold dawn troops landed at 5 beachheads: Sword and Gold (British troops); Juno (Canadian); Omaha and Utah (American). The British and Canadians landed, smoothly, at 7.30am so that the rising tide could carry them over the reefs and quicksand. An hour earlier at Utah, the American troops landed 2km from where they were supposed to, and met light resistance. The men on Omaha weren't so lucky: Heavy machinegun emplacements slaughtered thousands.     [ theage :: 2007-06-06 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

15 things you don't know about D-Day - The invasion of Normandy
Early June 1944 most of the European continent is held in the grip of Adolf Hitler's forces. German garrisons dot the French coast. In southern England waits a massive Allied buildup of men and machines. As a break in bad weather is forecast, the order is given to go on June 6. (1) The "D" in D-Day doesn't stand for anything. It's just a designation for whichever day a military operation begins. (6) A dog used to listen for enemy movements required rescue when its parachute snagged on a tree. (11) A Bible in pocket saved the life of Staff Sgt. Lou Havard when it stopped a bullet. (12) All but 2 of the 29 amphibious tanks deployed by U.S. forces sank.     [ sacbee :: 2007-06-04 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

D-Day remembered by paratrooper from 501st parachute infantry
June 6, 1944 saw Chick Keim jumping from a burning C-47 plane into Nazi occupied France. "My plane was on fire when I got out. The last man in the stick to jump got out at 200 feet and broke both legs. We took him to some priests in France and they turned him over to the Germans." It takes 170 feet to parachute to fully open. He weighed 160 pounds when he went into Normandy with 200 pounds of gear. "You had your grenades, your ammunition, your weapon. I weighed 120 when I came out of Normandy. ... We met up with some guys from the French underground. All the French girls had camouflage underpants, bras and dresses. If they hide in the weeds, you couldn't find them."     [ argusobserver :: 2007-06-04 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Sainte-Mere-Eglise was the first town liberated after D-Day
On the night of June 5, 1944, the D-Day assault on Normandy began just inland from Allied landings at Utah Beach with the capture of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Overnight, the town became familiar to the world and ever since have been the destination of travellers anxious to view the first French town liberated during World War II. The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary became a part of the lore of Manche when american soldier Pte. John Steele became hung up when his parachute caught on the bell tower. Playing dead for hours, almost driven to distraction by the ringing of the church clock bells, he was finally rescued by German defender Rudolf May.     [ wcr :: 2007-05-17 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

He landed at Omaha Beach four days ahead of the troops in 1944
Ron Meinung played a vital role in D-Day, but the 95yo, who was part of the decisive battle of the war in Western Europe, is a forgotten hero. He was attached to a contingent heavy with U.S. military because of his skills in radar. He landed at Omaha Beach under the cover of darkness 4 days ahead of the troops in 1944. Meinung was behind enemy lines preparing the area with beacons and radar to guide the troops to safer areas upon landing. "When he was on shore they lived in the sand dunes and during the day they had to stay dead low because there were Germans everywhere on patrol. At night time, they would sneak out and start laying their gear."     [ nzherald :: 2007-04-25 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Ken Anderson saw D-Day up close: Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944
The chaos of D-Day was unquestionable: Clumps of American soldiers leaped off ship ramps and were swallowed by the deep water off Normandy before touching the beach. "We never got the LSDs (landing ship docks) in far enough when they let down the front ramp. They stopped in deep water and the Germans are shelling and bombing these LSDs full of people," said Ken Anderson. He was a gun commander in the 453rd Battalion, entrusted with protecting 14 soldiers during battle and protecting the front-line infantry from enemies in the air. "They were so cold all the time that they cut holes in the sleeping bags and wore them the whole time."     [ wiscnews :: 2007-02-23 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

D-Day revisited: don't blame the weather man
The history of D-Day is being rewritten following an analysis of the weather reconnaissance flights which played a key role in World War 2. The activities of the scientists and pilots involved remain a largely forgotten element of the war. But a new study of the Luftwaffe's weather units (the Wekusta) by a meteorologist and a German aeronautical expert sheds new light on aspects of the history of the war. "We can show conclusively that the Wekusta did their job. They kept their leaders abreast of weather conditions and the likelihood of the landings taking place. It was the military who did not act on the information."     [ alphagalileo :: 2007-01-20 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

1st Infantry Division led assault on D-Day - The youngest soldier
Youngest Big Red One GI at Normandy, Joe Argenzio, remembers D-Day. He joined the Army in January of 1944: He wanted to be a part of all the patriotism, and he couldn't wait to get into uniform. After an accelerated basic training program, he went to England. "We were told we would be the replacements for D-Day casualties." But on June 2, 1944, mere days before the Allied invasion, Argenzio was told that he was going "to the big show." Argenzio was about to become a part of 1st ID history as the youngest soldier to hit Omaha Beach on D-Day. "A lieutenant gave me a carbine and some .30-cal ammo. And that's all I knew."     [ estripes :: 2006-08-28 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Another bridge too far for paratroopers after D-Day - Book
Most history buffs know that the 82nd Airborne Division parachuted into the Normandy on D-Day and seized the key village of Ste. Mere Eglise. Wwhat followed was the 3-day battle for the bridge of La Fiere over the Merderet River. Had the Germans seized the bridge, their tanks and troops could have route to attack Utah Beach, the western most Allied landing. Instead, a ragtag assemblage of badly dropped paratroopers banded together and held the bridge. Four privates used their bazookas to stop a tank attack. A sergeant took command and led with a machine gun from the front to drive off German infantry.     [ mysanantonio :: 2006-08-19 :: Airborne - Paratroopers of 101st and other divisions ]

Eroding Pointe du Hoc cliff - Allied D-Day Normandy invasion
The waves are making a slow but devastating assault on Pointe du Hoc, one of the most key sites of the Allied D-Day invasion of World War II, and engineers have decided it will take a load of concrete to slow the destruction. It is on French soil, but technically it is U.S. property, deeded to the U.S. through the American Battle Monuments Commission. It was on the tiny beach below the towering, 100-meter cliffs that Army Rangers began their assault early on June 6, 1944. The rangers were there to destroy German guns that protected the Normandy: nearby Omaha and Utah beaches.     [ dfw :: 2006-08-06 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

D-Day Airborne Commander who captured a German battery
In the history of airborne forces in the World War II, the name of Terence Otway will live for his capture of the German battery at Merville on D-Day. Allied intelligence believed that four 150mm guns were able to fire on Sword Beach. Silencing battery beforehand was tasked to the 9th Parachute Battalion after battery was attacked from the air by 56 RAF Lancaster bombers on the night of May 9-10. The German summary of raid reported "Out of 1,000 bombs only 50 landed near the battery and of these only two hit a casemate, though without penetration. A rabbit warren suffered a direct hit."     [ timesonline :: 2006-07-27 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

2nd Ranger Battalion - Cliffs west of Omaha Beach on D-Day
O'Keefe was with the Army's 2nd Ranger Battalion. He and 225 Rangers used grappling hooks to scale 100-foot cliffs west of Omaha Beach on 1944 D-Day. They climbed with strength through a storm of grenades and withering enemy fire to take the high ground at Pointe du Hoc and eliminate German artillery batteries. Only 90 of the Rangers survived the assault. He returned to Normandy 3 times and met with presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton during the 40th, 50th and 60th D-Day anniversary ceremonies. He never made a fuss about his military service, other than attending reunions and funerals of fellow Rangers.     [ timesunion :: 2006-07-15 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

"Youngest vet" of D-Day landing in Normandy
14-year-old Jack Hoffler lied his way into the US Navy - and helped ferry troops in the face of heavy fire onto the beaches of Normandy during the Allied invasion. On D-Day, Hoffler was a member of a troop-landing craft, completing 14 trips to Omaha Beach - the deadliest of the landings - before it was blown up by an underwater mine. Wehrmacht troops who held the higher ground over the assault forces, knew exactly when to fire their machine guns as the Allied troops exited the landing boats. Trying to make it off the boat was often a deadly task for the soldiers: "If about half of them got off the boat ramp alive it was unusual."     [ dailyadvance :: 2006-06-11 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Secrets of D-Day book chronicles historic amphibious assault
A new book, The Secrets of D-Day by Larry Collins, intends to lift the veil of secrecy from the invasion. Called Operation Overlord, the invasion of Nazi-occupied France relied on secrecy and deception. The story, including the vital role of a Spanish double-agent code-named Garbo, is chronicled in the book. The supposed US First Army group, commanded by Lt. General George S. Patton Junior, turned out to be rubber tanks and one million fake men. Allied troops suffered 10,000 casualties, including at least 2,500 dead. The Germans are thought to have suffered up to 9,000 casualties.     [ voanews :: 2006-06-06 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Attic relics reveal one of 300 men who had the invasion plans
Article no longer available from the original source.
Bob Shaw knew that his father, Maj. Leslie A. Shaw, was involved in the Normandy invasion. But what he didn't know was that Leslie Shaw was one of about 300 men who had the invasion plans in advance. He found that out nearly a decade after his father died, when he let a friend look through the major's wartime relics and documents tucked away in two trunks in attic. In the trunks, he found about 600 letters; German money from 1914 to 1945; the major's complete 180-page personnel file; a photographic scrapbook; and maps and drawings of the Normandy invasion. "Then I found overlays with classified information and markings that he made himself during the invasion."     [ reflector :: 2006-06-06 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

D-Day + 62 Years documentary - Return to Normandy
Five old men are walking through a field of white crosses at the American cemetery in Normandy. The men are D-Day veterans and the image of them is a emotional moment from D-Day + 62 Years: Rhode Island Veterans Return to Normandy. Documentary moves back and forth from past to present, from archival footage of the D-Day invasion to shots of the peaceful Normandy beaches today, with rusted barbed wire and abandoned German gun emplacements as reminders of what happened there. Richard Fazzio, who drove a Higgins boat loaded with troops, wept as he told of soldiers being cut down by German fire as they tried to get off his boat.     [ projo :: 2006-05-28 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Bill Elder recalls memories of D-Day and other invasions
His first choice would have been cavalry, but by the time Bill Elder was of age to enlist it had become mechanized. They had more tanks than horses, and he didn't want to serve in a tank. "Then I saw the sign for the Coast Guard." The Coast Guard was active in the invasions that required landing troops. LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) 89 served first in the Mediterranean in several invasions. Then it was transferred to prepare for the Normandy invasion. On the third of June, 1944, troops boarded LCI 89. "We were supposed to invade on the fifth, but weather delayed the invasion. The Luftwaffe was trying to bomb us and we had all these soldiers on board. It was a mess."     [ zwire :: 2006-05-24 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Legendary soldier who led Canadian paratroopers on D-Day
Brigadier James Hill, a legendary British soldier, died at the age of 95. Hill was one of the last men evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk and he was in the vanguard when the allies returned. On D-Day, Hill's 3rd British parachute brigade was scattered wide by contrary winds during the parachute drop. He gathered a group, which was strafed by their own aircraft under the illusion that anyone walking toward the landing zones would have been German. He was wounded in the right bum cheek. When asked why he wasn't evacuated to hospital, he said he hadn't trained the brigade for all that time in order to leave it in the midst of the action.     [ ww2aircraft :: 2006-03-30 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

The fields of Europe during WWII
By the time Lipps was drafted, he was well aware of WWII raging overseas. "I was still in school when Pearl Harbor was bombed, I couldn't figure out why a little country like that (Japan) would attack a big country like us." The Army made Lipps part of Company B 254th Engineer C Battalion. While overseas he saw action in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland and the Ardennes. "The Ardennes was a forest and there just wasn't a tree left when the fighting got done." Lipps and his fellow soldiers were honored with a Presidential Unit Citation. "We had 6 or 7 tanks and half tracks knocked down and all we had to fight with were .30 (caliber) machine guns, bazookas and rifles."     [ centralohio :: 2006-02-27 :: Battle of Bulge: Ardennes offensive Bastogne ]

In charge of assembling gliders for the invasion of Europe
Gliders are described in the dictionary as "aircraft similiar to an airplane but without an engine". However, to Jack Welborn of Tyler, gliders are the silent heroes of the sky. During WW II, Welborn was in charge of assembling gliders at Crookham Commons, England, for the invasion of Europe. Eisenhower ordered 600 gliders for the Normandy invasion. Although the glider missions were successful, mortality among the pilots were high and the majority of gliders were lost. Welborn has been able to locate the frame of a WWII glider and is restoring it.     [ kltv :: 2006-02-26 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Atherton to honor WWII Army nurse who landed at Normandy
Gertrude Neff Gay was a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps at Fort Knox when she signed up for overseas duty in the summer of 1944. Gay said she had heard that nurses might be drafted because of the desperate need for them. So in October 1944 she found herself sailing to Scotland aboard the Queen Mary. Later that month, she came ashore in a landing boat at Normandy, France -- among hundreds of nurses, doctors, dentists, lab technicians and others in the 196th General Hospital unit. She worked in an 800-bed Army tent hospital in Carentan, France, and then at an Army hospital in Cherbourg, France.     [ The Courier-Journal :: 2006-02-23 :: Nurses in World War II ]

The way we went: Day 2 breakout of the Normandy bridgehead
"We push on steadily through the most awful, heart-rending devastation. We came yesterday to what should be the loveliest part of France, a country in torment, squashed houses, wreckage everywhere, dead cattle and, I am afraid, humans and an atmosphere of utter desolation. It's the wildest and most frightful form of war." W F Deedes recalls the moment 60 years ago when the Allies broke out of the Normandy bridgehead. Montgomery's job was to apply constant pressure on the Germans from the Normandy bridgehead, so that they had constantly to be deploying armour and infantry to plug the gaps.     [ telegraph :: 2005-07-07 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Rommel's defeat - His son Manfred Rommel recounts D-Day
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was Hitler's man in charge of repelling the Allied invasion on D-Day. Here his son Manfred Rommel recounts how the landings caused divisions in the German command, and led to the downfall of both the German forces and his father. On 6 June I was at our home, because my father was coming to spend the night on his way to visit Hitler at Berchtesgaden, and it was my mother's 50th birthday. But at 0800 he received a call from his chief of staff announcing that the landing had begun. He took his car and went back to his headquarters in France - it was too dangerous for him to fly as the Allies had huge air superiority.     [ bbc :: 2004-06-01 :: Desert Fox Erwin Rommel ]

The Longest Day was the first of a war that lasted for 45 years
The architect of the D-Day landings was General Bernard Law Montgomery, a master of detail, and a man who engaged affection and fury in equal measure. Socially he was inept, almost autistic. For he was the true exponent of the set-piece battle, and D-Day was to be his finest triumph. It was to be an encounter with his oldest adversary, Erwin Rommel. -- Men of Kurt Meyer's 12th Hitlerjugend SS Division would routinely tie Canadian and British prisoners of war to trees and cut their throats. And as the battle progressed, Meyer's SS men used to strap parcels of explosives to themselves and blow themselves up beside British tanks.     [ telegraph :: 2004-05-30 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

D-Day Was a Short Day for Some
It is generally believed that D-Day was welcomed by the French population. In fact, many, perhaps most, French civilians were less than enthusiastic. They feared that the invasion might fail and that the Germans would take revenge. Max Hastings points out that Norman civilians had had to live with the consequences of the Canadian failure at Dieppe. On 5-6 June the bombardments of Caen and the intense anti-aircraft fire, allowed nobody to sleep. The Caen Maison d' Arrêt was full of prisoners hoping for a hit on the prison to give them some slight chance of escape. At St-Lô, the prison was hit. 42 résistant prisoners were buried under the ruins.     [ bbc :: 2004-05-14 :: D-Day, Normandy & Operation Overlord ]

Franz Gockel: As a Wehrmacht gunner on Omaha beach
A teenage soldier in the Wehrmacht, Franz Gockel had his 18th birthday while serving as a gunner in a 'resistance nest' on Omaha beach. He was shot in the hand and evacuated to Paris before serving again and being captured by the Americans. "We had been kept busy digging the trenches and keeping the guns in order. But at 1am we got the alarm call. We had had many of these before and we threw out the guy who had brought it to us, but he came back and said this time it was for real - the Americans had been landing by parachute about 30 kilometres from us. "     [ guardian :: 2004-05-09 :: Wehrmacht: German Armed Forces ]

See also

'WWII battlefield tours'

'Erwin Rommel'

'WWII Militaria, Collectibles'

'American Paratroopers'

'U.S. Army Rangers'.

What's new - recent & interesting categories.

Although the articles linked from Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945 and World War II in the News are reviewed and specially selected, they do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, who is not responsible for the content of any external sites. This service is © Joni Nuutinen 2005-2008. All rights reserved.