OT: During the D-Day Invasion. What were all of the blimps above the boats for?
- Thread starter Mr. Potter
- Start date
make it hard for the germans to strafe or bomb any boats.I think they called them barrage balloons
To prevent enemy planes from flying in and strafing the troops/boats. The enemy planes would get caught in the wires connecting the blimps if they tried to fly through.
Although the Luftwaffe was presumed to not be much of a threat at that point, they were taking no chances.
If you look closely at the blimps you'll see, "THIS INVASION BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOODYEAR!!" Most are written in English but some are in French and German.
... may be funny to you...
... but not to those who lost friends and relatives during the invasion...
...oh, well...
... but not to those who lost friends and relatives during the invasion...
...oh, well...
Yes. The cables attached to the balloons sheared the wings off low flying aircraft. You will see the bpalloons in pictures of London during the Blitz.
God Bless every family of every man on that beach that day for our Allied troops. Heroes, every one of them. The courage and valor it had to take that day, and every day for that matter in that war.....True men in every sense of the word, and heroes.
Yep. Taking no chances. By this time, the introduction of the Mustangs had turned the tide of the air war.
Fact is, the word that went out to the landing forces was: "If you see any planes over you, they will be ours."
Although the harassment of London continued after D Day, it was no longer by bombers. It was now the rockets.
Currently finishing a real good book which I recommend even to folks like me who do not know a great deal about the events prior to and immediately after our entry into the war: Lynne Olson's Citizens of London. It tells the story of Ed Murrow, Averell Harriman and my new hero, Gil Winan. For me, the book is kind of a non-fiction version of Wouk's Winds of War.
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My great uncle survived a portion of it under a dead body. Didn't talk about any of the war until the last couple of years of his life and only to me since I was serving. Can't even imagine how he lived and lived with it. I have a couple of things that he brought home with him from war. One of which I have seen a nearly identical version in a museum. I'm not sure that the American people of today could ever stomach the sacrifice that generation made even if our existence was on the line.
Bro went in @ Utah w 4th Inf Div. Other than being scared and the smell, he didn't talk about it very often. Did have nightmares for yrs.
People are not all that different today than they were back then.
Reading the book I cited above, I was real surprised at how isolationist and aloof the American people were. We had no stomach for more after WWI. Then came Pearl.
Having said that, those boys on D Day were the most heroic thing in American history, imho.
...a bit of wrestling trivia...
...former coach Bill Koll landed at Normandy on D-Day ...
...years later he learned that PSU wrestler Andy Matter's dad was also there.... they became good friends and later on journeyed back to Normandy together on an anniversary of the landing...
...former coach Bill Koll landed at Normandy on D-Day ...
...years later he learned that PSU wrestler Andy Matter's dad was also there.... they became good friends and later on journeyed back to Normandy together on an anniversary of the landing...
The invasion wasn't funny at all. With the NBA news on my mind, my post was making light of the fact they'll slap advertisements on anything. Some people go out of their way twist things in order to feed their need to be offended.
Oh, well.....
There was not a thing wrong with your post .
