Pinch
Old Oak
I'm doing this now as we approach the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings WW2 6th June 1944.
You might remember the write-up I did last year on the Battle of the Somme. This was soon after Mrs P and I returned from our France trip. Here’s the thread for those who didn’t read it. viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1180
I ended the above thread with ‘Part 2 to come’. I didn’t anticipate taking a year to do it, but that’s the busyness of life flying by I guess.
Our trip last year was all about travelling to various WW1 sites and battlefields, and we stayed on the Somme for the week. Another part of our plan was to travel up to Normandy to get a flavour for the beaches and the horrors that happened there 72 years ago. On our day of travel, we had lunch with AndyP and his good lady & family, which was very tasty and enjoyable – thanks again Andy! I’m already looking forward to our next visit and the Full English in return is still on the table – so to speak. I wish we could have stayed longer to chat about woody stuff, but we were only staying in Bayeux, Normandy for one night, and then travelling back to the Somme the following day.
After leaving Andy’s, we drove to Pegasus Bridge. A part of the D-Day operation was to fly in thousands of paratroopers during the night and early hours into the 6th June 1944 to disarm the German artillery and secure certain areas in preparation of the beach landings, scheduled for 7:30 that morning.
On the night of 5th June 1944, 181 men took off from Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, Southern England (just a few miles from where Mrs P and I live) in 6 Horsa Gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge, and also Horsa Bridge a few hundred yards to the east. The operation’s objective was to prevent German armour from crossing the bridges and attacking the eastern flank of the landings at code named Sword Beach.
Our troops poured out of their battered gliders 16+ minutes past midnight, completely surprising the German defenders and took the bridges within 10 minutes. They lost two men in the process; Lance corporal Fred Greenhaigh who drowned in a pond when his glider landed, and Lieutenant Den Brotheridge who was killed when crossing the bridge during the first minutes of the assault. This was to be the first member of the Allied armies to die as a result of enemy fire on D-Day.
The picture below was taken by Mrs P and you can see poppy wreaths marking the spot where Lieutenant Brotheridge fell.
Incidentally, the original bridge is now a part of the Pegasus Museum and is no longer in service. A new bridge was commissioned and built as a replica of the original, but wider to take the modern volume of traffic.
Here is Pegasus Bridge relocated within the grounds of the museum – only yards from when it was in service across the Caen Canal.
And here, you can still see bullet holes from the assault that night. There are more bullet holes actually on the bridge as well, but I don’t know what’s happened to the photos we took.
This picture is a replica of the Horsa Glider. There are some bits of the original battered gliders in an outbuilding close by.
One of the members of the 7th Battalion reinforcements was Captain Richard Todd, a young actor, who would, nearly two decades later, play Major John Howard in the film ‘The Longest Day’. Major John Howard led the operation from take-off in Dorset to capturing Pegasus Bridge.
Through the early hours of 6th June, 1944, Operation Overlord (The Battle of Normandy) was now in full operation with a 1,200-plane airborne assault over Normandy, and Operation Neptune (Normandy beach landings, commonly known as D-Day) was ready to start the amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6th June and more than 2 million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The D-Day landings consisted of 5 code named beaches upon which thousands of Allied troops were to land and secure the beaches against the German Forces – and as quickly as possible. From west-to-east, there was Utah Beach (this was ‘Pointe du Hoc’) where 200 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion were to scale 30M cliffs with ropes and ladders to destroy the gun battery located there; then there was Omaha Beach (the most heavily defended sector) assigned to the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and supplemented by the 29th Infantry Division; and then Gold, Juno and Sword Beach were assigned to the British and Canadian troops. The overall distance of the invasion beaches was approximately 50 miles.
During the invasion, all of the beaches had their own problems with landing; Sword Beach for example was delayed due to very rough seas; Gold Beach experienced high winds, making the landings extremely difficult and unpredictable. But through this 50 mile stretch of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, the most heavily defended sector was Omaha Beach, and consequently, the casualties here were very high. The estimated figure for Allied casualties on D-Day alone is 9,000.
The preparation for D-Day was immense as you can probably imagine. Mrs P and I only recently learned whilst visiting Wilton House in Wiltshire a few weeks ago, the southern headquarters in preparation and during the Battle of Normandy was Wilton House, where Churchill and Eisenhower met on several occasions.
With all these major historic events, it’s not until you’re actually there in the physical reality, you then start to get a flavour of the sheer volume of the whole campaign. I felt exactly the same when we were on the Somme. It’s truly staggering – the logistics, the manpower and the sacrifice they made to win peace in Europe. I shall never forget walking into the huge American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach and seeing the masses of brilliant white crosses. The silence & peace, and the air was complete tranquillity. A total contrast to 72 years ago.
We quietly walked around the grounds for ages and they are so beautifully kept. The monuments are staggering as well. I guess we were very lucky with the weather which would have enhanced the stillness in the air. A windy rainy day would have been very different.
Here are a few photos of the cemetery.
The crosses just keep on going and going... all 9,387 of them.
Here’s looking down onto Omaha Beach from the cemetery.
The next two pictures are actual photos taken by the war photographer Robert Capa during the landings on Omaha Beach. I’ve watch TV documentaries with lots of mention about Robert Capa. He went through the landings with the troops which is why he managed to capture so many powerful images.
And here’s Omaha Beach 72 years on - although these were taken last year. I’ve taken this shot over my shoulder looking back onto the beach for impression – forgive the ciggy, I don’t do that anymore.
These two views are from Omaha looking west towards Utah Beach – Pointe du Hoc.
And this one is viewing east towards Gold Beach.
If you were lucky enough to have made it this far, you would be at the foot of the sand dunes – just below the German barrage of death.
Looking east.
And looking west.
Looking over the sand dunes into the fire of the German machine guns.
This is also looking west and apart from Mrs P in the picture, there’s an American flag in the sand. Somebody had also used several pebbles and spelt the words ‘Thank You’ on the sand. I wish I took a picture of it.
Finally... this was Omaha Beach, June 2015.
And this was Omaha Beach, June 1944.
Over the 100 days following D-Day, more than 1,000,000 tons of supplies, 100,000 vehicles and 600,000 men were landed, and 93,000 casualties were evacuated via Omaha.
The estimated casualties for the Battle of Normandy as killed, wounded and missing, are; Germany – 320,000; United States – 135,000; United Kingdom – 65,000; Canada – 18,000; France (civilians) – 12,200.
Total: 550,200.
France is a beautiful country with gorgeous countryside, stunning architecture, bounds of history and magical arts of romanticism. Yet, there are probably more war cemeteries and memorials in France than there are throughout the whole world.
I do wonder sometimes, how long peace in Europe will last. Although, I suppose it’s never really started.
John Lennon springs to mind – Imagine.
Look where that got him.
It’s a mad world.
You might remember the write-up I did last year on the Battle of the Somme. This was soon after Mrs P and I returned from our France trip. Here’s the thread for those who didn’t read it. viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1180
I ended the above thread with ‘Part 2 to come’. I didn’t anticipate taking a year to do it, but that’s the busyness of life flying by I guess.
Our trip last year was all about travelling to various WW1 sites and battlefields, and we stayed on the Somme for the week. Another part of our plan was to travel up to Normandy to get a flavour for the beaches and the horrors that happened there 72 years ago. On our day of travel, we had lunch with AndyP and his good lady & family, which was very tasty and enjoyable – thanks again Andy! I’m already looking forward to our next visit and the Full English in return is still on the table – so to speak. I wish we could have stayed longer to chat about woody stuff, but we were only staying in Bayeux, Normandy for one night, and then travelling back to the Somme the following day.
After leaving Andy’s, we drove to Pegasus Bridge. A part of the D-Day operation was to fly in thousands of paratroopers during the night and early hours into the 6th June 1944 to disarm the German artillery and secure certain areas in preparation of the beach landings, scheduled for 7:30 that morning.
On the night of 5th June 1944, 181 men took off from Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, Southern England (just a few miles from where Mrs P and I live) in 6 Horsa Gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge, and also Horsa Bridge a few hundred yards to the east. The operation’s objective was to prevent German armour from crossing the bridges and attacking the eastern flank of the landings at code named Sword Beach.
Our troops poured out of their battered gliders 16+ minutes past midnight, completely surprising the German defenders and took the bridges within 10 minutes. They lost two men in the process; Lance corporal Fred Greenhaigh who drowned in a pond when his glider landed, and Lieutenant Den Brotheridge who was killed when crossing the bridge during the first minutes of the assault. This was to be the first member of the Allied armies to die as a result of enemy fire on D-Day.
The picture below was taken by Mrs P and you can see poppy wreaths marking the spot where Lieutenant Brotheridge fell.
Incidentally, the original bridge is now a part of the Pegasus Museum and is no longer in service. A new bridge was commissioned and built as a replica of the original, but wider to take the modern volume of traffic.
Here is Pegasus Bridge relocated within the grounds of the museum – only yards from when it was in service across the Caen Canal.
And here, you can still see bullet holes from the assault that night. There are more bullet holes actually on the bridge as well, but I don’t know what’s happened to the photos we took.
This picture is a replica of the Horsa Glider. There are some bits of the original battered gliders in an outbuilding close by.
One of the members of the 7th Battalion reinforcements was Captain Richard Todd, a young actor, who would, nearly two decades later, play Major John Howard in the film ‘The Longest Day’. Major John Howard led the operation from take-off in Dorset to capturing Pegasus Bridge.
Through the early hours of 6th June, 1944, Operation Overlord (The Battle of Normandy) was now in full operation with a 1,200-plane airborne assault over Normandy, and Operation Neptune (Normandy beach landings, commonly known as D-Day) was ready to start the amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6th June and more than 2 million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The D-Day landings consisted of 5 code named beaches upon which thousands of Allied troops were to land and secure the beaches against the German Forces – and as quickly as possible. From west-to-east, there was Utah Beach (this was ‘Pointe du Hoc’) where 200 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion were to scale 30M cliffs with ropes and ladders to destroy the gun battery located there; then there was Omaha Beach (the most heavily defended sector) assigned to the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and supplemented by the 29th Infantry Division; and then Gold, Juno and Sword Beach were assigned to the British and Canadian troops. The overall distance of the invasion beaches was approximately 50 miles.
During the invasion, all of the beaches had their own problems with landing; Sword Beach for example was delayed due to very rough seas; Gold Beach experienced high winds, making the landings extremely difficult and unpredictable. But through this 50 mile stretch of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, the most heavily defended sector was Omaha Beach, and consequently, the casualties here were very high. The estimated figure for Allied casualties on D-Day alone is 9,000.
The preparation for D-Day was immense as you can probably imagine. Mrs P and I only recently learned whilst visiting Wilton House in Wiltshire a few weeks ago, the southern headquarters in preparation and during the Battle of Normandy was Wilton House, where Churchill and Eisenhower met on several occasions.
With all these major historic events, it’s not until you’re actually there in the physical reality, you then start to get a flavour of the sheer volume of the whole campaign. I felt exactly the same when we were on the Somme. It’s truly staggering – the logistics, the manpower and the sacrifice they made to win peace in Europe. I shall never forget walking into the huge American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach and seeing the masses of brilliant white crosses. The silence & peace, and the air was complete tranquillity. A total contrast to 72 years ago.
We quietly walked around the grounds for ages and they are so beautifully kept. The monuments are staggering as well. I guess we were very lucky with the weather which would have enhanced the stillness in the air. A windy rainy day would have been very different.
Here are a few photos of the cemetery.
The crosses just keep on going and going... all 9,387 of them.
Here’s looking down onto Omaha Beach from the cemetery.
The next two pictures are actual photos taken by the war photographer Robert Capa during the landings on Omaha Beach. I’ve watch TV documentaries with lots of mention about Robert Capa. He went through the landings with the troops which is why he managed to capture so many powerful images.
And here’s Omaha Beach 72 years on - although these were taken last year. I’ve taken this shot over my shoulder looking back onto the beach for impression – forgive the ciggy, I don’t do that anymore.
These two views are from Omaha looking west towards Utah Beach – Pointe du Hoc.
And this one is viewing east towards Gold Beach.
If you were lucky enough to have made it this far, you would be at the foot of the sand dunes – just below the German barrage of death.
Looking east.
And looking west.
Looking over the sand dunes into the fire of the German machine guns.
This is also looking west and apart from Mrs P in the picture, there’s an American flag in the sand. Somebody had also used several pebbles and spelt the words ‘Thank You’ on the sand. I wish I took a picture of it.
Finally... this was Omaha Beach, June 2015.
And this was Omaha Beach, June 1944.
Over the 100 days following D-Day, more than 1,000,000 tons of supplies, 100,000 vehicles and 600,000 men were landed, and 93,000 casualties were evacuated via Omaha.
The estimated casualties for the Battle of Normandy as killed, wounded and missing, are; Germany – 320,000; United States – 135,000; United Kingdom – 65,000; Canada – 18,000; France (civilians) – 12,200.
Total: 550,200.
France is a beautiful country with gorgeous countryside, stunning architecture, bounds of history and magical arts of romanticism. Yet, there are probably more war cemeteries and memorials in France than there are throughout the whole world.
I do wonder sometimes, how long peace in Europe will last. Although, I suppose it’s never really started.
John Lennon springs to mind – Imagine.
Look where that got him.
It’s a mad world.
:lol: