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Commemorating D-Day aka Operation Overlord

DawgBones

On this day I always take a moment to remember those that gave all on this day 77 years ago. The significance that this day honors may soon be forgotten (Google didn't even acknowledge it) but the out come was pivotal to saving the freedoms that we enjoy today. This classic1960 piece from the Atlantic relives that day better than any movie or novel can. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/

My late father was a young field Medic from North GA College, who landed the day after. He never got over the horror of that war and to his last day shed tears for the young Americans that will rest there forever.

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Comments

Razor2027

Probably the single most pivitol day of the entire war...if we get pushed off the beaches, the war most likely goes on another 3-5 years by most historical analysis, and the overall outcome is most likely a negotiated peace. The world would be a very different place.

BillyDawg1

The misdirection leading up to the invasion was both critical and brilliant. From blow up tanks to faking a plane crash and putting fake documents on a body taken from a London morgue pretending to reveal a planned landing near Dunkirk, in sports language, we faked them out of their shoes. Imagine if the coast was heavily defended and Hitler had allowed his generals to move Panzer units into the landing area as soon as the invasion started.

PerroGrande

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJT1hbOhfEs

Great read....A good video mentioning some of the same guys.

Filo_Betto

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523343#Comment_523343

Yes, definitely a hinge point of the 20th century. Stalin was begging for GB and us to open up a second front much earlier but a successful channel crossing was logistically impossible anytime before '44.

Had we not landed when we did, the Soviets would have still eventually taken Berlin but would have installed puppet regimes in all of Germany and had friendly governments in France, Italy and likely all of western Europe and Scandinavia.

Just a reminder that a free and prosperous world doesn't happen by accident and requires constant maintenance.

Munsoning

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/24560/commemorating-d-day-aka-operation-overlord

"Google didn't even acknowledge it."

Not surprised. Now, if June 6 were the birthday of some obscure scientist or mathematician who checked all the right demographic boxes, Google would've gone all out. But a bunch of white guys who risked and in many cases lost their lives in the service of their country, to protect the world from fascist tyrants, don't rate a doodle.

Great book about the Allied espionage operation that paved the way for victory on D-day:

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Cross-Story-D-Day-Spies/dp/0307888770

Filo_Betto

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523348#Comment_523348

For anyone interested in taking a visit to Normandy one day, highly encourage a stop in Bayeux about 45min from the cemetery. Bayeux has the world famous tapestry depicting the Norman conquest of England.

https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/

Normandy may be one of the prettiest landscapes in all of Europe and most of the area looks much like it did 50 years ago. Not much commercial development, farms and villages right out of a post card. Great oysters and mussels too if you like seafood.

DawgBones

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523361#Comment_523361

Spot on and must add that the people of Normandy and Brittany are some of the friendliest French you will meet.

BillyDawg1

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523361#Comment_523361

Are the endless hedgerows still there ? It's amazing Allied planners didn't take them into account.

how2fish

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523372#Comment_523372

The father of a friend of mine , was a Capt of Engineers on D day, he told me no one thought the hedgerows would be that big a challenge. Because no one thought shrubbery could stop a tank.

DogsNotDawgs

Was not Churchill’s strategy at all:

https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2013/January%202013/0113churchill.pdf

Filo_Betto

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523372#Comment_523372

I'm sure many of them are; I don't remember them being that prominent where we drove.

I was impressed with what the Rangers did that day. Scaled these cliffs to take out the gun emplacements.

Picture of Pointe du Hoc where the Rangers scaled the cliffs and gun emplacement just beyond.

Hipdawg

I think the Germans are STILL expecting the invasion at Pas de Calais.....

Munsoning

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523372#Comment_523372

Also amazing that no one said, "Hey, maybe we shouldn't send these guys into the boats with fully-loaded packs, 'cause they'll sink like rocks if they end up in the water instead of on the beaches." So many members of Able Co. drowned because their boats stopped too far from land.

Now, this is a bad dude: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/06/i-would-do-it-again-says-d-day-omaha-beach-suicide-wave-veteran. Greatest generation, indeed. Now we've got older folks getting cancelled by teens they dare to disagree with.

BillyDawg1

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523381#Comment_523381

I think The Corp Of Engineers eventually came up with a V shaped bull dozier like attachment that was bolted to tanks to clear a path thru the rows, but it wasn't even conceived till after the invasion.

BillyDawg1

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/523653#Comment_523653

In hind sight putting floatable pallets on Higgins Boats with all the packs for the soldiers might have been a viable idea. The only essential gear needed at the time of the landing for non-specialists would have been a weapon, ammo and water.