June 6, 1944: D-Day
June 6th, 1944.
This is a monumentally important date in history, for on this day, forces of the Western Allies under the command of General Dwight D Eisenhower stormed beaches in Normandy, France.
The liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation had begun.
It was a massive operation that had been in the works for months. It took time for troops to be gathered in Britain and then properly trained for the attack. Another big problem was that the Germans knew an invasion of some kind was coming, but the German High Command didn’t know for sure exactly when or where it was going to strike. So the Allies conducted massive deception operations to try to the confuse the Germans. These included creating a phantom army with fake tanks and aircraft, fraudulent radio transmissions, and the use of double agents. The purpose of all this was to hopefully fool the Germans into thinking that the main attack was going to occur at Pas de Calais, which is the narrowest point between Britain and France. The deception operations also tried to mislead the Germans into thinking there were other possible targets such as Norway.
Another issue facing the Allies was about when atmospheric conditions would be optimal for an invasion. Planners had a set of criteria that they wanted met for an attack to take place. One example was going in under a full moon. You must remember that in those days, they didn’t have modern night vision goggles like today, so a full moon was important for the pilots, airborne/glider troops, and navy personnel who would be operating the night before soldiers would be storming the beaches. They also wanted the landings to occur at or just before dawn between low and high tides with the tide going in. Part of this was so that attacking forces could see some of the obstacles that the Germans had set up, but at the same time they didn’t want soldiers to be too far out since they would have to run across the open beaches under fire. Hitting at dawn also allowed the ships to get closer, hopefully undetected by the Germans. The result of all this was that there were only a few days each month that would work for the invasion. And the more postponements that occurred, the greater the chances that the Germans would see through the deception operations that were going on and realize the attack was going to be at Normandy. If that had happened, it would have been a disaster because German forces could have focused on the Normandy beaches and then badly outnumbered Allied troops trying to come ashore.
General Eisenhower and the High Command were initially going to invade June 5th, but it was postponed because meteorologists were predicting really bad weather that day. As a matter of fact, when word came of the postponement, some ships had already set sail so that they had to turn around and return. On the 5th, meteorologists predicted that there would be a window of better weather for June 6th, but as we all know, meteorology is not an exact science and there was always a chance they would be wrong. Trying to land troops in stormy seas would likely have been disastrous, but the longer the Allies waited, the greater the chances the Germans would see through the ongoing deception operations. So the decision of go or no go on June 6th must have been agonizing. But General Eisenhower and the High Command made it.
June 6th was set for D-Day.
Just after midnight, approximately 23,000 British and American airborne and glider troops began landing behind German lines. Their job was to sabotage targets like bridges and railway lines, seize important points, and create general confusion.
An armada of over 5000 landing craft and other ships had crossed the English Channel and at or around 6:30 a.m. begin landing troops on five different beaches. British and Canadian forces attacked three that had been codenamed Gold, Sword, and Juno while American forces attacked Utah and Omaha. Soldiers landed on the beaches, which held various obstacles designed to damage landing craft or tanks that got in too close, barbed wire, and mines (many of these were attached to the obstacles). Allied troops had to get through this in the open while under bullet, grenade, and artillery fire from German troops who were fighting from entrenched and fortified positions.
On that first day, progress had gone fairly well at Gold, Sword, Juno, and Utah beaches, but Omaha was another matter. The American forces who hit Omaha took heavy casualties. Germans had strong entrenchments and fortifications on the bluffs above and rained terrible fire upon the soldiers who were trying to cross the open beach below. Another complication for the Americans at Omaha was that of the 29 specially designed amphibious tanks, 27 sank in the choppy waters and never made it to the beach. And of the other tanks that had been taken to the beach on landing craft, many were knocked out. So it was pretty much up to infantry. They had to work their way across the open beach with little or no cover and deal with barbed wire while under withering fire and then battle their way up the bluffs to take out German soldiers who were fighting from entrenchments, bunkers, and pill boxes.
By the end of the day, Allied forces had established beachheads at all five sectors and had landed over 156,000 troops in France. But it came at a price. Allied casualties are estimated to have been over 10,000 on that day. Of those, 4400 were killed in action.
The liberation of Western Europe had begun.
William Carney, African American Hero In The American Civil War
William Carney was born a slave in Norfolk, Virginia in 1840. His father, William Sr, escaped North via the Underground Railroad and after working hard, was able to buy freedom for the rest of his family. They settled in Massachusetts where young William learned to read and write, planning to become a minister.
However, in 1863, 23 year old William Carney joined the 54th Massachusetts Black Regiment. He was now a soldier in the American Civil War.
In July of that year, the 54th had joined other Union forces outside Charleston, South Carolina to take part in the assault on Fort Wagner, one of the installations guarding Charleston Harbor. On the 18th, the 54th was taking cover behind sand dunes about 1000 yards from the fort. When nightfall arrived, orders were passed down the line. The 54th was leading the attack on Fort Wagner.
After dressing their lines, the regiment advanced across open ground under withering cannon and musket fire. Seeing the color bearer start to fall, Carney quickly dropped his gun and grabbed the flag moving to the front of the line. He and the 54th continued forward through a storm of bullets and artillery fire. Soldiers fell with terrible wounds but the regiment kept going with Carney at the front holding the American flag aloft.
He crossed a ditch and clambered up the fort’s earthen wall. When Carney arrived at the top and looked around, he realized he was the only one standing as wounded and dead soldiers surrounded him.
Seeing Confederate forces moving in on him, Carney worked his way back down the wall through the carnage and made it to the ditch that was now waist deep in water. Crouched down, he thought about the best course of action. As he rose up to get a look around, William Carney was shot. A second bullet struck him shortly after. While Carney was painfully pushing his way towards friendly lines, a soldier from another regiment spotted him and asked if he was wounded. As Carney responded, a third bullet grazed his arm. The Union soldier helped him, and together they struggled back to Union lines during which a fourth bullet grazed Carney’s head.
When they made it back, he refused to give up the flag to anyone except another member of his regiment. Once they reached survivors of the 54th, Carney said, “Boys, the old flag never touched the ground.”
In 1900, William Carney was awarded The Medal of Honor.
The Story Of Rin Tin Tin
I wonder how many people know the true story of Rin Tin Tin. Sadly, these days, most probably don’t even know who he was. But in his day, Rin Tin Tin was a movie star!
A canine movie star!
Yep, you heard me right!
It all started during the horrors of World War 1.
The year was 1918 in the Lorraine part of France. Corporal Lee Duncan was an American soldier caught up in the bloody conflict. On September 15, his unit was investigating a bombed out kennel when they discovered among the wreckage a German Shepherd mother with a litter of 5 puppies.
Duncan took two of the puppies, naming them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette, after a couple of puppets popular with French children. Sadly the others didn’t survive.
Duncan realized how intelligent Nanette and Rinty (Rin Tin Tin’s nickname) were. He sought out the German Army Kennel Master, who had been captured, to learn more about the two and German Shepherds as a breed.
Duncan started training them and was impressed with how quickly they took to it. After the war came to an end, Duncan was sent home aboard a ship across the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, Nanette came down with distemper during the voyage and died.
Only Rinty was left.
Duncan took him back to Los Angeles where in 1922, Rinty began his movie career.
He starred in some 2 dozen movies and is credited by many with saving Warner Bros Studio from bankruptcy. He also received the most votes for Best Actor for the First Academy Awards, though it was decided to give the award to a human instead.
Rin Tin Tin passed away on August 10, 1932 in his front yard in the arms of famous actress Jean Harlow, who lived in the same neighborhood.