Archive for the ‘The D Day Story’ Category
The D Day Story Part 7
Ste. Marie Du Mont
The D Day Story Part 4
Merville Battery
About 165 miles to the East, the British Army’s 9th Battalion Parachute Regiment was dropping on the Merville Battery, which was perceived as a major menace to the landings at Sword Beach. It was therefore vital that the four 150 mm guns, embedded in 12 feet of concrete and soil, heavily protected by mine fields, anti-tank ditches plus pill boxes, were quickly disabled. The strength and defences of the Battery meant it could only be silenced by a direct assault and hand to hand combat.
The D Day Story Part 3
Ste Mere Eglise the 82nd and 101st paratroopers invade
One particular landing site for the American 82nd and 101st airborne paratroopers was Ste Mere Eglise. Despite the drop starting after 12 pm many of the paratroopers were illuminated by houses that had caught fire. The occupying forces opened fire and ordered the civilians who were trying to put out the house fire back to their homes. Some paratroopers were caught in the house fires, others on telephone poles and trees.
One US Paratrooper John Steele was left hanging from the church roof in the middle of the square when his parachute got caught on the steeple of the village church in Ste-Mère-Église, leaving him dangling precariously to witness the carnage unfolding below. Wounded and in pain he hung there pretending to be dead for two agonizing hours, before the Germans took him prisoner. An effigy of John Steele and his parachute can still be seen hanging from the church in the square. The story was recaptured in the film, ‘The Longest Day’
The D Day Story Part 2
Preparation: The build up to D Day
After extensive planning and training the Allied forces began the Normandy invasion codenamed Operation Overlord. Many factors dictated the choosing of the Normandy beaches, including the lessons learned from Dieppe and the range of air support.
Preparations included an appeal to the British public to send their holiday photos of Normandy to help create a detailed picture of the area and covert operations involving divers collecting sand samples from the beaches that later became known as Omaha and Utah.
The D Day Story Part 1
Quineville Museum
The French people had suffered under the German occupation for 4 years. Rationing of basic food such as sugar and milk products were well established by July 1940. The hardships of families struggling to feed themselves were compounded by the lack of farmers, and the influx of refugees from neighbouring Belgium and Holland.