D day at Omaha beach

[John Arton]

With the 80th anniversary of the d day landing approaching, on BBC4 last night there was an interesting documentary on how the American landing on Omaha beach almost failed along with the loss of life on the first day. New research claims that the casualty list was in the region of 6000 killed or wounded.
The USA air force had promised that using their precision bombing skills they would eliminate any beach obstacles and gun emplacements. In reality the thousands of tons of bombs they dropped missed the beach and the machine gun emplacements completely, so when the first American troops landed they were met with withering machine gun fire mowing down them in their thousands. It also didn't help that many of the landing craft missed their assigned landing spots so that by the time they actually landed their troops the tide was going out so they had large stretches of beach to cross before they reached their objective. The day was only saved when the second wave of rangers managed to get ashore and get through the German defence and attack the machine gun position from the rear.
Well worth a watch if you can find it on BBC iPlayer.
Rgds
J.A

[j.sabourn]

Wasn’t that particular episode made into a movie or was part of the movie The Longest Day.?.
Don’t think it dwelt on the casuality numbers though originally. Read a book on the various islands in the Pacific that US troops had to take back , but before hand an estimate on expected casualitys were made . If too high they jumped that island and went to the next , probably where the term Island Hopping came from. Even in war the sensibilities of the general public have to be adhered to. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
If some great mind analyzed the D-day landing they would come up with the fact we had a few lucky breaks which gave us the success that was achieved. Far to many young men lost their lives from maybe gung ho, I remember watching the American troops passing our village, streams of young blokes, took all day to pass, as I remember they certainly were not hardened soldiers.
Des

[j.sabourn]

Remember them as well Des as they passed the end of Richmond Park Road on their way to to the south coast ports, truck after truck , tank after tank, and as kids we used to shout at them “ Any Gum Chum “, usually a barrage of sweets used to greet us. A lot of them must have forebodings that ther future was limited so the sweets were a dead weight. JS

[j.sabourn]

#3 If you can believe the writers of history , then the luckiest break was when Hitler overruled Rommel who at that time wanted to move certain divisions of his panzer regiments nearer the channel ports. Hitler overruled him thinking he had a longer breathing space. Shows the difference in thinking between generals and corporals I suppose. Cheers JS.

[happy daze john in oz]

Good article in the paper today about 'D Day landing'.

Montgomery was quoted as saying 'I wish the Australians were here now"

They were fighting in Asia by then but had made their mark at El Aleman and other placers.
Monty had a great admiration of their fighting spirit.

[j.sabourn]

Being brought up during the war years , a lot who were will have different memories of different sayings according to their own family elders at the time , the one I most heard was one the media picked up and was very common viz re the US troops in Britain who were Over Paid , Over Sexed , and Over Here. William Joyce who gave out the propoganda on the Wireless for the Nazi who had the nickname of Lord Haw Haw was always a bone of contention as to whether his news was right or not. The same as Tokyo Rose in other parts of the world. Churchill according to most soldiers returning home to my family at least was considered a warmonger which on looking back was a bit hard on a war leader who did his job. Montgomery by many was considered to be too effeminate also by many and was always at odds with the American general in charge later to become president of the USA.. The list was long and not black and white by any means. Another well known saying during the war years was , Loose lips sinks ships. There was no love lost between Churchill and DeGaulle and his small band of free French , who was a bird Colonel when he escaped from a doomed French Nation, but he still held the advance back into deeper parts of Europe , to allow the small contingent to enter Paris first. Appearances , Appearances , Appearances. Still goes on today but in far greater depths. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

NO WHERE in any media be it, TV,Newspapers, Radio, tiktok, X or any other faction will you find mention of the 864 MN vessels and 30,000 MN personnel who took part in the D-Day landings.

I have yet to be proved incorrect. Perhaps a blitz of letters to all media from all members may alter the unforgiveable ommission.

[j.sabourn]

Good to see you in print Ivan , hope you are well or as well as most of us can expect to be as the years seem to roll past quicker than ever these days. Good on yah ! JS.

[Brenda Shackleton]

AMEN to that , Ivan.
AMEN
regards
Brenda