D-Day

"Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have
striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The
hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on
other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war
machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of
Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well
equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of
1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats,
in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their
strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home
Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions
of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.
The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to
Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in
battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great
and noble undertaking."

This Speech was given by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Western Europe.

6 June 1944 - 66 years ago

As dawn broke over the English Channel that morning, German coast artillery troops along a 30-mile stretch of the Normandy Coast saw an apparition that could have been custom-designed as their worst nightmare. The grey light gradually revealed a horizon filled with ships, rolling towards them in black waves: minesweepers, warships, transports and merchantmen. One German officer purportedly said, in disbelief, "It's impossible ... there can't be that many ships in the world."

Nevertheless, there were. Never before have there been that many ships in one area at any one point. The Spanish Armada rivals closest with only 197 ships. Even the early battles of World War II pale in Comparison to the Armada Force that which of D-day. The Battle of Midway, the largest early Naval Battle of the Pacific, had only seen 26 US ships and 126 Japanese ships.

150,000 Allied Troops landed that hour including 4 British and Canadian Divisions, the 3rd British Infantry Division, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, the 50th British Infantry Division and the 79th Armored Division, along with 3 American Divisions, the 29th, 1st, and 4th Infantry Divisions.

The D-Day Landings were enormously significant. It was the beginning of the end of the war which meant the destruction of Nazi tyranny and oppression. It provided a beachhead along the Atlantic Wall which Allied Forces would begin to liberate the rest of Europe. After D-day, Bocage, or hedgerow fighting, followed in which fierce firefights broke out, towns leveled by heavy bombing, and corn fields scorched. The British and Canadian Forces flanked eastward of and would take Caen while American Forces would flank westward and take the port city of Cherbourg and the towns that lay across the the western coast. The Forces would then unite and form the Falaise Pocket which surrounded a numerous amount of German Forces. American forces advanced rapidly from the counter-offensive Operation Luttich. British, Canadian, and Polish Forces advanced from Operations Totalize and Tractable.

We must never forget what was done today. With almost 9,000 casulties that happened on the landings, it was not an easy mission. Many soldiers drowned, accumulated seasickness, burned alive inside knocked out tanks, pieced up by German Bunkers housing MG-42s, and lost buddies right beside them as the doors opened up on the front Landing Crafts.

To commemorate this day and the other operations of which the Allied Forces conquered Normandy and defeated German Opposition, our Battlefield Division will host a few events between now and into the latter parts of this year (hopefully) which correspond to real Operations that happened 66 years ago.

The 1st One, will start today and will continue into tomorrow because of late posting. I, along with some other BF Division Officials, will get it started today.

Yours truly,
Colonel thebronxbomber