Saturday 6 June 2009

6th June - Take a minute

It's 6th June. 65 years ago, tens of thousands of British, American and Canadian men stormed the beaches of Normandy. The Americans handled two of the big guns - Omaha and Utah. The Brits took care of Shield and Gold, while the Canadians took Juno beach.

Approximately 150,000 Allied troops assaulted Normandy that day, by sea and air, facing more than double that number in Nazi Germans. The Allies lost more than 10,000 men that day alone. Working with the French Resistance, the survivors marched on, beating back the Nazis until they had liberated France. Along the way, they worked with Poland forces, Greeks, Norwegians, Belgians and Czechs.

This mission was part of Operation Overlord and is one of the largest Naval assaults in history. The attack was initially set to take place on June 5th, but due to weather conditions, it was put back a day. The Airborne would never have been able to drop behind enemy lines had they not.

The beaches were heavily armed with anti-aircraft weaponry. The planes took evasive action and as a result, there were mis-drops everywhere. Nevertheless, the Airborne sabotaged enemy communications and power and linked up with ground troops in France.

65 years on, there is a huge celebration taking place in France to recognise the sacrifice made by the Allied forces.

Take a minute and spare a thought for those brave men who sat in those planes and boats, preparing to fight for our freedom.

June 6th 1944 - D-Day.

As Churchill said - "we shall fight on the beaches"


2 comments:

The Kid In The Front Row said...

Great blog. Still blows my mind what happened on this very day, 65 years ago.

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