One of things that convinced the Germans this was real is that the Allies put Gen George Patton in charge. Patton has destroyed the vaunted Afrika Corp and stormed through Italy and the Germans. They respected him as the best General in our Army….didn’t believe he would be restricted to a minor rule after slapping a shell shocked shocked soldier in a hospital.
I've read alot about the ' Ghost Army ' the last 20 years. Pretty impressive what they accomplished by fooling the Germans.
Another thing. Wonder if any of these still exist? Would be great to have them for front yard inflatables to use on Memorial Day, D-Day, Veterans Day, even the Fourth of July. More impactful than skeletons and ghosts, reindeer and Santa Clause, Easter bunnies and eggs.
apimagesblog.com
thisworldrocks.com
Teddy Jr. was injured in WW1 and had to use a cane the rest of his life and on the D-Day beaches. He was awarded the MoH for his heroism in WW1.
There is one in the Spy Museum near Washington, D C. Saw it last November.
Looking at that map you can see why Utah and Omaha were so heavily defended as those beaches guarded a natural port. Having a port protected from the huge North Atlantic storms that hit often was very important.As we pay our respects, I find this map to be helpful. IIRC, Omaha was the worst in terms of casualties followed closely by Utah. Sword and Juno were, in many cases, a simple landing and walk-up. Juno was almost abandoned and the troops simply needed to navigate minefields and artillery ("simply" probably not the right word). Gold ended up being very important as this is where most of the Marberries were build and where the equipment landed on D-Day +X. Interestingly, the Mulberrys were damaged in a major storm just days after the landing (June 18th and 19th). (legend is that they were the vision of Sir Winston Churchill).
I stayed at the Hotel De Normandy in Arromanches.
D-Day was a terrible day for Bedford, VA
The Bedford Boys
Among the hundreds of thousands massed off the shores of Normandy on the morning of 6 June 1944 were 44 soldiers, sailors, and airmen from the town and county of Bedford, Virginia. Thirty-seven of these young men belonged to Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division. For almost all of them, this would be their baptism of fire. Of the 37 assigned to Company A, 31 loaded into landing craft and headed for Omaha Beach in the first wave; the remainder belonged to supply details and would arrive later. En route, a landing craft struck an obstacle and sank, stranding dozens far from shore, including five of Bedford’s own. The remaining 26 successfully reached Omaha Beach, where 16 were killed and four wounded within a matter of minutes. Three others were unaccounted for and later presumed killed in action. Another Bedford soldier was killed in action elsewhere on Omaha Beach with Company F, bringing Bedford’s D-Day fatalities to a total of 20. In comparison with its wartime population, Bedford suffered the Nation’s highest known per capita D-Day loss, a somber distinction for the rural Virginia community.
Yeah..jeeze. If you want to get a story google Hal Baumgarten. IIRC, his rifle got shot and blocked a bullet. He gets hit in the face with shrapnel. he ends up being left for dead in a pile of bodies. Some Germans came to the pile of bodies to search for cigarettes and found him alive. he wouldn't talk about it until someone convinced him that he had to talk about it to ensure that everyone knew what they had gone through. He became great friends with Steven Ambrose (band of brothers).
I thought I read that the intel was bad and all of the guns at the top of point-du-hoc were gone.First Sargent Leonard Lomell. Wounddd on shore. Scaled the cliffs, found znd destroyed three of the big guns, went back to get more grenades, is credited for destroying two more.
But he wasn’t done yet. Months later, as a 2nd Lt, earned a Silver Star while leading his battalion to capture Hill 400 in Germany.
And still wasn’t done. Was wounded again in the Battle of the Bulge.
Leonard Lomell - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
They were not on the bunkers. So Sgt Lomell and Staff Shy Jack Kuhn went on patrol in a search mission. They found the guns in an orchard a couple klicks away. Sgt Kuhn provided cover while Sgt Lomell approached and destroyed the guns using thermite grenades which burned so hot they fused the gears of the turrets in place.
