D-Day

D-Day

=Decision Day= Eric S.


 * [|D-day] was the largest air, land, and sea operation since June 6, 1944
 * landing included 5,000 ships 11,000 airplane, and over 150,000 service men
 * the Allied forces suffered over 10,000 casualties
 * more than 4,000 were dead
 * D-Day is a term used in military parlance to tell the day in which an attack or operation is begun
 * the best known D-Day is June 6th, 1944, the day on which the battle of Normandy began
 * many other invasions and operations had a designated D-Day, both before and after Operation Overlord
 * the terms D-Day and H-Hour are used for the day and hour in which an attack or operation is started
 * planning papers for large-scale operations are made up in detail long before specific dates are set
 * D-Day for the invasion of Normandy by the Allies was originally set for June 5th, 1944, but bad weather and heavy seas delayed it
 * the 5,000-vessel armada stretched as far as the eye could see
 * it transported over 150,000 men and nearly 30,000 vehicles across the channel to the French beaches
 * 6 parachute regiments carrying over 13,000 men were flown from 9 British airfields in over 800 planes
 * more than 300 planes dropped 13,000 bombs over coastal Normandy immediately in advance of the invasion
 * by nightfall on June 6th, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded
 * but more than 100,000 had made it ashore, securing French coastal villages
 * captured Germans were sent to American Prisoner Of War camps at a rate of 30,000 P.O.W.'s per month
 * this happened from [|D-Day] until Christmas of 1944
 * 33 detention facilities were in Texas
 * As 1944 began, Axis forces were on the defensive from Russia to Greece, Italy to the South Pacific.
 * Massive Allied offensives were launched to liberate Axis-occupied countries.
 * Americans wade toward the beaches from their landing crafts during the invasion of Normandy on June 6.
 * Allied forces forced their way through Italy and captured Rome in early June.
 * Italy surrenders, but German troops stubbornly kept fighting.
 * On the eastern front, the siege of Leningrad ended as the Soviets drove the Nazis back.
 * Soviet troops finally entered Germany itself in October.
 * In the Pacific, United States forces continued to island hop, moving closer to Japan with every island taken.
 * The U.S. Navy led the way to winning back the Pacific.
 * The Japanese fleet retreated after heavy losses.
 * American troops invaded the Philippines in October.
 * The navies fought the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
 * The result was a decisive Japanese defeat.
 * Japanese forces were now on the defensive throughout the East as the British fought to win back Burma, and Chinese forces in China battled the Japanese invaders.
 * To defend against an invasion from Britain, Hitler had to build the "Atlantic Wall."
 * This line of heavy guns and concrete bunkers stretched along the coasts of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
 * On June 6th, the Allies attacked this wall, sending a massive invasion force onto the beaches of Normandy, France.
 * The Allies broke through German defenses liberating Paris that August.

At dusk on July 29th my convoy of ships, largest of the war since D-Day, reaches broad sandy Utah Beach on the Normandy Coast. Like Omaha Beach a few miles o the north and clearly visible below its bluffs, Utah was the scene of D-Day landings by our troops nearly two months ago. But here there are no bluffs and resistance was weak rather than strong as at Omaha. Gentle meadows spread inland. The beach swarms with men and machines. It is the chief port of entry for U.S. forces invading France. In the distance anti-aircraft shells explode n the evening sky and a dull roar of heavy artillery marks the front line. Dozens of barrage balloons, like big sausages tethered to earth by cables, float close overhead to protect the landing area from low-level air attack. Shortly before midnight our blunt-nosed L.S.T.'s scrape their flat bottoms to a halt in shallow water three hundred yards from shore. In the morning when the tide recedes they open their bow doors and the jeeps and trucks of the 825th Tank Destroyer Battalion, followed by half-tracks towing 3-inch guns, emerge onto hard-packed sand nearly as firm as tarmac and move inland. We're part of General George S. Patton's U.S. 3rd Army and Patton is already legendary. In Sicily he slapped the face of a combat-fatigues G.I. for speaking in a hysterical manner. but in Sicily as in North Africa he distinguished himself as a fighting leader. Now his mission is to lead the 3rd Army in a breakthrough that will reach toward Paris and beyond. The fact he comes from Los Angeles adds to my interest. Before sailing I'd read with amusement his fiery exhortations included among routine information in the mimeographs poop sheets distributed daily to all 3rd Army units: "Grab the enemy by the nose and kick him in the tail!" Or: "When in doubt, do something!" I hope to catch a glimpse of the eccentric general who reportedly wears a six-shooter at his hip in open holster and addresses poems to the God of Battles. Our first evidence of actual battle is anything but poetic. Behind a wall-like hedgerow is a series of abandoned foxholes, each surrounded by a litter of used K-ration cartons, tin cans, empty cartridge casings, dried human feces. This has been the front line. It is eloquent of a new reality, the feces perhaps most eloquent. There'd been no time to relieve yourself leisurely, cover your deposit afterward, and no such niceties as toilet paper. Like an animal afraid for your life you jumped out of your hole, excreted, jumped back in. The dead or wounded had of course been removed to the rear long before we passed. The able-bodied had gone forward as we were going. Again the courage and blood of others paved the way. At Sotteville not far from the Cherbourg the 825th is deployed as a security force guarding lines of communication, watching for German stragglers and French or German spies and saboteurs, while the rest of 3rd Army prepares for its historic breakout. Meanwhile Jane is gently influencing her mother toward selling their home at 317 Burlingame Avenue and moving to Santa Barbara, as a decisive step in coping with the sorrow of her father's death. The children continue to be a source of life and hope for them both, as they crave yet dread each day's mail, newspaper, radio broadcast.
 * The long low dark coast of Europe looms ahead**

Eric W.
 * D-Day** (of Operation Overlord)

//Term// //Following Liberations// A quote from a Jewish American soldier when liberating a concentration camp: "As we got there, we saw 30-40 bodies just lying around. And you could see the bullet holes in their backs...
 * Term D-Day used in military for day on which attack will occur when actual date is still variable or top-secret
 * "D" in "D-Day" actually means nothing, but represents a variable
 * Other terms like h-hour exist
 * Numbers can be added to d or h to represent a time before or after the actual date
 * H+2 is 2 hours after h-hour
 * D-3 is 3 days before d-day
 * terms used first in WWI