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<strong>The</strong> Historical Tommy Atkins <strong>The</strong> 6th of June marks the 72nd anniversary of D-Day. What was D-Day all about? I was never into history when I was younger, it just didn’t interest me like music or english literature. However as I’ve got older I have a new respect and interest for the years that have passed. How people lived, who people were, and especially the sacrifices people made. I think that is why I am enjoying writing these historical Tommy Atkins articles so much. If I’m really honest, I know very little about the 2nd world war, apart from what I was taught at school and the few things I’ve learned over the years, so this article is written by a novice of military history, with the help of books, websites and documentaries on the subject. Oh and of course watching the amazing Band of Brothers series. If you haven’t seen it I would highly recommend it! My first question is what was D-Day? It was the date that marked the start of the allied landings in <strong>No</strong>rmandy, France, during World War II. This was the 6th of June 1944. Although the day that marked the landings was called D-Day the whole operation was codenamed Overlord, and its assault phase, codenamed Operation Neptune, took place between D-Day and 30th June 1944. <strong>The</strong> assault is known as the largest seaborne invasion in history and led to the liberation of northwest Europe from Nazi control. Over 156,000 allied soldiers stormed the beaches. So, why was it called D-Day? <strong>The</strong>re are varying opinions on this. According to Portsmouth’s D-day Museum it was a military term. <strong>The</strong> ‘D’ was used by the military to denote ‘day’, just as ‘H’ was used to mark ‘hour’ & ‘M’ ‘minute’. Thus D-Day was the day on which a military operation began. Others believe that the timing of the invasion was limited to a few possible days of good weather in June and each day was assigned a letter A, B, C D, etc. On advice from the weather men Eisenhower (more about him later) decided that ‘D’ day D-Day <strong>The</strong> Facts <strong>The</strong> beaches, the air, the land, the sea. <strong>The</strong> soldiers who bravely fought on against major adversity and a ferocious enemy. How their sacrifices and quick thinking helped to win the war. was the most likely to succeed with the landing in <strong>No</strong>rmandy. However no-one knew until the night before, that ‘D’ day was the day of invasion. <strong>No</strong>wadays D-day is the term used to commemorate that first day of the <strong>No</strong>rmandy landings. <strong>The</strong> first thing I was interested to learn was that there were 5 landing points along the coast of <strong>No</strong>rmandy, France. <strong>The</strong> points were split between allied forces with the Americans taking two (Utah & Omaha), Canada one (Juno) and Britain two (Gold & Sword). D-day kicked off the Allied invasion of Western Europe during World War II. More than 61,500 British soldiers, 73,000 Americans and <strong>21</strong>,400 Canadians, landed in <strong>No</strong>rmandy on the first day of the invasion. Troops from other countries took part in D-Day and the Battle of <strong>No</strong>rmandy, which refers to the fighting between D-Day and the end of August 1944. Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, <strong>No</strong>rway and Poland played a role in the historic invasion. <strong>The</strong> liberation of Paris from the Nazis on August 25th 1944 is sometimes used to mark the end of the Battle of <strong>No</strong>rmandy. Who headed up Operation Overlord? With the Americans contributing the most men and money to the operation, it was politically necessary for the man in overall command to be an American, and that man was General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1860- 1969). However the execution of the landings fell to the four men immediately beneath him, all of them British. Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder was Eisenhower’s deputy in the operation so that the two top positions were split between the Allies. Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay commanded the naval operations that kept the English Channel clear and saw thousands of men ferried from their starting point to the landing beaches. Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory commanded the aerial forces that provided support and transportation for the ground offensive. And last but most famously, General Bernard Montgomery, veteran of the fighting in <strong>No</strong>rth Africa, commanded the ground forces. <strong>The</strong> lack of Americans in these key command positions caused some resentment among officers from the United States, but Eisenhower was experienced at managing the rivalries that arose between the two armed forces. It was his skill in handling these tensions that had earned him his prestigious position heading up the landings. www.sandbagtimes.co.uk 17 |