1944 D-Day: Heroes, stories, and photos from Normandy.
Latest WWII news. See also: D-Day tours, WWII battlefield tours, Erwin Rommel, WWII Militaria, Collectables, American Paratroopers, U.S. Army Rangers, Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, D-Day reenactments.
Technology advances teaching of D-day history: footage, battle plans, speeches
20 years ago students learned about D-Day from history textbooks, photographs and 16mm films, explained Steve Bullick. Today, teachers engage students with videos of archival battle footage, talks by WWII veterans and Google Earth images with battle details. Other teaching tools include GigaPan, online interactive textbooks and Internet access to primary sources such as battle plans, speeches and historical documents. Brittany Taylor shows scenes from WW2 film "Saving Private Ryan" and her students analyze the D-Day plan and examine what happened to see whether it was executed as planned. (pittsburghlive.com)
Photographs of Manuel Bromberg - Images taken on the beaches of Normandy
The images which have defined the visual memory of the D-Day invasion are the 11 surviving negatives taken by Robert Capa on June 6, 1944. But there are other photographs taken on the beaches of Normandy that are almost completely unknown. Manuel Bromberg waded ashore and onto Omaha beach in June, 1944. Like the other soldiers he had an M-1 carbine. But unlike the other GIs he carried a Leica camera. Bromberg was one of a select few, a member of the almost forgotten US War Artist's Unit. His task was, in part, to cover the D-Day invasion. His use of the camera is different from Capa's adrenaline stoked photos. (designobserver.com)
D-Day infographic
Nice D-Day infographic. (flickr.com)
A new openness to discussing Allied war crimes in WWII: "We didn't take prisoners"
It was the first crime William E. Jones had ever committed: The 4th Infantry Division had seized a small hill and the GIs lost all self-control: "The Germans were baffled... We didn't take prisoners and there was nothing to do but kill them." While researching for his book "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy," Antony Beevor learned that Allied soldiers committed war crimes in Normandy to a much greater extent than was thought. American, British and Canadian troops killed German POWs and wounded soldiers, and used Wehrmacht and Waffen SS soldiers as human shields and forced them to walk through minefields. (spiegel.de)
WW2 vet who played bagpipes during D-Day landings to be immortalised in a life-sized statue
D-Day piper Bill Millin raised the morale of incoming troops with his tunes, as shells exploded above and machinegun fire swept across Sword Beach. The picture of the 21-year-old commando became one of the enduring images of the D-Day landings. Now he is to be immortalised in a life-sized statue by the people of Colleville Montgomery, which he helped to liberate in 1944. Recently a group of French officials travelled to UK to show him a model of the statue. The military high command had ordered pipers not to play, but that decision was ignored by Lord Lovat, commander of he 1st Commando Brigade, who ordered Millin to lead his troops ashore to the sound of the pipes. (telegraph.co.uk)
A dummy parachutist dropped over Normandy before D-Day to confuse the enemy for sale
A dummy parachutist - one of 500 dropped over Normandy before D-Day to confuse the enemy - will be auctioned off by German auction house Hermann Historica. The "paradummies" (nicknamed Ruperts, 1/3 scale model of human) exploded and burst into flames when they hit the ground to hide their purpose. They were dropped in 4 locations over Normandy at the same time thousands of Allied airmen landed on the night of June 5, 1944. 6 SAS soldiers were dropped with the puppets to play recordings of loud battle noises to divert the Nazi troops from the real invasion. The deception - "Operation Titanic" - was a success, in spite of the fact that 4 SAS men were captured. (telegraph.co.uk)
The battle of St. Lo - 134th Infantry Regiment fought through dense hedgerows
The town of St. Lo in Normandy had importance because all local highways met there. Wehrmacht realized this, and it had repelled 3 Allied attempts to seize St. Lo. Then 134th Infantry Regiment began a offensive, gaining more ground in hours than previous divisions had in weeks. But the cost shocked the Regiment's commander, Colonel Butler Miltonberger. The Germans hid behind the French hedgerows. The Nebraskans, who had never seen combat before had to learn hedgerow warfare as they went. "You would take 2 hedgerows and lose 100 guys. The reward for that is you went and took another hedgerow," said Dick O'Brien. (omaha.com)
D-Day soldier searches for records of secret airfield he helped build near Caen
A soldier who helped build an airfield during the D-Day landings said his regiment's part of the historic moment has been forgotten. Lindsey Jones, of the Royal Engineers, helped build an airfield near Caen which was vital to landing tanks, but he has not been able to find any record of this. Before his regiment set sail from England, it had to travel to Guildford to fetch modified trucks to carry all the gear they needed. "The commandos were sent out before us and drawn most of the fire. Working through the night was hard, we needed light to see by but whenever we turned one on we got fired at by the Germans." (surreycomet.co.uk)
5 WW2 veterans return to Normandy for the 65th anniversary of D-Day
65 years after they went through a blizzard of gunfire, these 5 veterans - who each landed on one of the 5 D-Day beaches - met to remember the fallen. The barbed wire, machine-gun nests, and blood-soaked sand have long gone but the memories remain vivid. The first to set foot on Nazi territory was American Arden Earll on Omaha beach. "At about 6.30am I saw the beach... Half an hour later, bullets were passing through the thin wooden sides of vessels... One shell even exploded in the sea next to me. If it had hit I probably wouldn't be here today. We had 19 tanks scheduled to give us back-up on the beach but only 1 made it as the rest sank." (newsoftheworld.co.uk)
Double agent blocked 2 German tank divisions and 19 infantry divisions from D-Day battles
As WWII loomed, Juan Pujol Garcia contacted the British authorities offering to spy for UK. Turned down, he offered himself to the Nazis in the hope he could betray them. From Lisbon he sent made-up reports and the Germans were convinced - so were the Brits who enlisted him as a double agent with the codename Garbo. Garcia warned the Nazis that the Normandy attack was a fake and as a result the Germans kept 2 armoured divisions and 19 infantry divisions on the Calais coast, waiting for the "real" invasion. 6 weeks after D-Day the Spaniard was granted the Iron Cross by a grateful Third Reich - and the MBE by a grateful Britain. (walesonline.co.uk)
D-Day veteran tells of hell on the Normandy beaches in 1944
Before June 1944, Michael Brennan had been through several mock landings while training in Scotland and the Isle of Wight. But nothing could have prepared him for the feeling his belly during the two hours in the landing craft as dawn broke on Gold beach on June 6, 1944. "We were about to be decimated, but thankfully we didn't realise it... we only managed to overpower the Germans through sheer weight of numbers. As an 18yo, you don't have a real sense of your own mortality. People tend not to realise how far out the landing craft stopped... I found myself chin-high in sea, and some of the shorter men drowned there and then." (thisisbristol.co.uk)
World War II veteran travels back to Normandy for the D-Day anniversary
William Tritt still recalls the day he parachuted into Normandy, jumping out C-41 plane only 800 feet above Utah Beach. And he recalls carrying 40 pounds of gear and not showering or changing his uniform for 30 days - and seeing many of his comrades from the 82nd Airborne got shot. "We knew we were in for the duration. The only way you were getting home was in a box or with missing limbs." Tritt made 11 jumps, seeing Rome, Paris, the Rivera and many beaches in Normandy. Soon he will travel back those same places - now historical attractions - with a lot less pressure: "It will be nice to see the towns and some of the guys. You never know... who you might run into." (jacksonville.com)
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor [book review]
Great WW2 books have been written about Overlord by Max Hastings, John Keegan and Carlo D'Este, and "D-Day" by Antony Beevor (author of The Fall of Berlin 1945 and Stalingrad) deserves its place beside those. The chapter on the Omaha Beach is the literary version of the opening scene of the film Saving Private Ryan, with the same horror and pace. The German high command is well covered, especially for the absurd system whereby there was no central command in France, with tasks being shared between Rundstedt and Rommel, who disagreed about how to handle the invasion. The Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine commands were separate from the Wehrmacht. (telegraph.co.uk)
D-Day: Battle in Port-en-Bessin and the men of 47 RM Commando
There were just 420 green berets of 47 Royal Marine Commando in all, and they had been given the near-impossible task of seizing Port-en-Bessin : heavily-fortified key port from the same crack German unit – 352 Infantry Division – that would wreak such mayhem with the American landings on Omaha Beach. Stand on the harbour wall, with your back to the sea, and you'll understand what a challenge these soldiers faced. Rising up either side of you are two mighty cliffs which, under Erwin Rommel's Atlantic Wall defence plan, had been filled with a network of trenches, mortar pits, dugouts and bunkers, guarded by minefields, barbed wire and flame-throwers. (telegraph.co.uk)
D-Day: Ten soldiers lay wounded on the beach. One of our tanks rolled straight over
In the extract from a book (Never Surrender: Lost Voices Of A Generation At War 1939-1945), marking the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2, the 1944 D-Day is remembered. --- Bill Millin, with 45 Commando, saw 10-12 injured British soldiers lay across a road leading from the beach. Then a flail tank come to detonate the mines. "The commander couldn't see them and his tank came straight on and crushed its way up ... over the top of the soldiers." One grim sight was seeing a flame thrower burn out the Germans in pill-boxes. Harry Reid never understood why there were so many wireless operators, until he learned that "they expected 50% casualties on the landing." (dailymail.co.uk)
Secret footage shows American troops practising D-Day invasion [video clip, still pics]
A Sherman tank rolls ashore while behind it soldiers step through the waves holding their rifles. But for the seaside guesthouses in the distance it could be a view from the D-Day landings. In fact, the pictures show American troops practicing for the amphibious invasion of Normandy on beaches in North Devon. They are stills from footage (shot October 1943 - June 1944) that has not been seen since WW2. The film also shows Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower visiting the troops in 1944, a few weeks before the D-Day. The collection of 10-minute reels have collected dust in a National Archive in Baltimore since the end of the world war 2. (dailymail.co.uk)
D-Day tour on the beaches of Normandy
For those with a passion for military history, not to mention war stories, a tour of Normandy's D-Day landing beaches offers a seaside break with a difference. Whether you're looking for a boys' own holiday adventure or would like to retrace the footsteps of your ancestors who fought in world war 2, a tour of the museums, memorials and military cemeteries along the northern French coast makes for a memorable experience. For an independent tour, hire a car and follow the coast road to Sword, Juno, Gold and Omaha beaches, Utah beach is just a little further afield. Off Gold beach you can see the remains of the floating Mulberry Harbour. (travelbite.co.uk)
D-Day and the Invasion of Europe - Operation Overlord landings in Normandy of 6 June 1944
By the end of June 1944, over 1 million soldiers from 7 countries were ashore, pushing back the Nazis. "If the Germans decided to bring their maximum forces to the beachheads, the Allied armies could have been defeated on the shore," says Sir Martin Gilbert. The quick arrival of the 21st panzer division and the 12th SS panzer division might have tipped the scales against the Allies - Luckily Panzers could be moved without Hitler's approval. If D-Day had failed, the war would have continued long time, with the Germans deploying more V-2 rockets with new 1-ton warheads, new types of mines and U-boats, and 1/3 of the Wehrmacht could have been moved to the Eastern Front. (telegraph.co.uk)
Photos of the D-Day (British Centaur CS IV) tanks at the bottom of the English Channel
Scuba divers searching for hidden treasures were dumbfounded after they stumbled across two Second World War tanks at the bottom of the English Channel. But the mystery was figured out after a probe involving over 80 dives and checking details on the sunken vehicles against historical records. They were rare British Centaur CS IV tanks, heading for the D-Day landings. The battle tanks fell overboard when a landing craft overturned on its way to the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. The vehicles were relatively well preserved with guns still intact. (dailymail.co.uk)
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.co.uk)
World War II veteran Eugene Lyons fought on D-Day 1944
Eugene Lyons' first day in Normandy was nearly his last, twice. The ship that carried him hit a mine and sank. Ashore he saw the dead American paratroopers hanging in trees. Digging a trench with helmet, Lyons saw a German plane coming: He dived for cover, while bullets stitched the sand. Tensions between white and black GIs flared in the US Army: Once a brawl between his unit and airborne troops had to be broken up by British forces. Another time "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.com)
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)
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)
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)
15 things you don't know about D-Day - The invasion of Normandy (Article no longer available from the original source)
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)
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)
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)
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 travelled 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)
Eroding Pointe du Hoc cliff - Allied D-Day Normandy invasion (Article no longer available from the original source)
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)
2nd Ranger Battalion - Cliffs west of Omaha Beach on D-Day (Article no longer available from the original source)
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 travelled back 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)
"Youngest vet" of D-Day landing in Normandy (Article no longer available from the original source)
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)
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)
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)
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 traveled back to his headquarters in France - it was too dangerous for him to fly as the Allies had huge air superiority. (bbc)
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)
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)
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 seized 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 30km from us." At 8am my machine gun failed and I had to use my pistol to protect myself, it just fired single shots. (guardian.co.uk)
See also:
D-Day tours
WWII battlefield tours
Erwin Rommel
WWII Militaria, Collectables
American Paratroopers
U.S. Army Rangers
Omaha Beach
Utah Beach
D-Day reenactments.