FACTS ABOUT D-DAY

1. When America entered the war, the American military leaders wanted the invasion of northern France to occur in 1942 to open a second front to help take pressure of the Soviet Union and to get into the fight. Churchill and the British high command wanted to postpone the invasion and invade North Africa first.  Churchill convinced FDR to postpone.  The Americans pushed for the invasion in 1943 (Operation Sledgehammer), but again the British had their way and instead Sicily and Italy were invaded.  Churchill had convinced FDR to attack the “soft underbelly” of Europe.  Finally, in 1944, the British were on board for Operation Overlord.
2. The D in D-Day does not stand for “departure” or “destination”. It stands for nothing.  In fact, any amphibious invasion (D-Day was the biggest in history) is called d-day.  The hour that you land is called H-Hour.  Obviously, the H does not stand for anything.
3. Operation Fortitude – This was a  deception campaign to make the Germans think the invasion would come at Calais (the closest landing area in France).  Gen. George Patton was put in charge.  He was under suspension at the time for slapping two shell-shocked soldiers on Sicily.  The Germans did not know this and assumed that if America’s best general was building up forces opposite Calais, it must be the real thing.  The operation used fake radio traffic to fool the Germans.  When German reconnaissance aircraft passed over the area, they took pictures of fake tanks and other vehicles.  The effort worked because it played into Hitler’s belief that the invasion would occur at Calais.  Even after D-Day, Hitler still felt it was a diversion and refused to release forces to attack the beachhead.
4. Exercise Tiger – A practice landing on a British beach was a disaster.  German E-boats swooped in and loosed numerous torpedoes on the Allied ships.  Over 900 soldiers were killed.  This happened two months before D-Day.  The public did not find out about the tragedy because of press censorship.
5. Gen. Erwin Rommel was in command in Normandy. He built up the “Atlantic Wall” to stop an invasion.  Millions of tons of concrete was poured into fortifications like bunkers and pillboxes.  4 million land mines were planted on beaches.  Obstacles like hedgehogs were placed on the beaches to hinder landing crafts.
6. The landing crafts were invented by Andrew Higgins. The LCVPs (landing craft vehicle personnel) were called Higgins boats. Eisenhower later stated that Higgins invention was a major factor in the Allies winning the war.
7. Eisenhower was in command with most of his subordinates being British. Ike had some disagreements with Churchill.  One of these was over what to use the Allies air power.  He threatened to resign if Churchill did not agree to focus bombing on French infrastructure lie railroads.  Arthur “Bomber” Harris (the head of British Bomber Command) wanted to keep bombing German cities.  Ike was right and his threat got Churchill to agree to his plan.
8. In the 24 hours before and during the invasion, 2,200 bombers dropped 7 million pounds of bombs. Unfortunately, the bombardiers, for fear of killing their own soldiers, tended to drop the bombs away from the beaches. 113 aircraft were shot down by anti-aircraft.  None were lost to German fighters.
9. The night before the invasion, 24,000 American and British paratroopers parachuted or landed by 867 gliders behind enemy lines. Only 1 in 6 landed in their designated areas.  The Allies also dropped dummy parachutists (called “Ruperts”).  The dummies were equipped with fireworks to confuse the Germans.
10. The invasion was scheduled for June 5, but bad weather forced a postponement until June 6. Ike made a tough decision based on an optimistic forecast.  If he had decided the risk was too much, the next date with the necessary tides and moonlight was not until July.
11. The invasion armada consisted of almost 7,000 ships.
12. About 156,000 soldiers were landed. This included 73,000 Americans (Omaha and Utah beaches), 62,000 British (Gold and Sword), and 21,000 Canadians (Juno).  The casualty totals were 6,600 Americans (mostly on Omaha), 2,700 Brits, and 1,000 Canadians.  There were about 50,000 Germans in Normandy. Their casualties were between 4,000 – 9,000.
13. The Allied landing force included: Americans. British, Canadians, French, Australians, Belgians, Czechs, Dutch, Greeks, New Zealanders, Norwegians, Rhodesians, and Polish.
14. Because of the bad weather, Rommel felt there would be no invasion for a while. He went back to Germany for his wife’s birthday. He was there when word came of the invasion.  When he called Hitler to get him to release tank forces to smash the landings, the Fuhrer was sleeping and no one dared wake him.  When he did wake up at midday, the refused Rommel’s request.
15. Most of the Duplex-Drive floating tanks did not make it to the beach. They sank in the heavy surf and drowned many of their crews.
16. The American army was still segregated. The only black soldiers that landed were with the 320^th Barrage Balloon Battalion.  Waverly Woodson was a medic who was wounded during the landing, but continued to help save soldiers.  He rescued three from drowning.  He received the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.  He deserved the Medal of Honor, but he was black so…  There is a current effort in Congress to get him the Medal of Honor.
17. Several future actors participated in D-Day. Henry Fonda was the quartermaster on the destroyer USS Satterbee.  David Niven was a  British commando and was one of the first ashore.  James Doohan (Scotty on Star Trek) landed with the Canadians on Juno and killed two German snipers.  He was wounded that evening by a nervous sentry.  He was shot six times and lost a middle finger.  Charles Durning earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart at Omaha.
18. 13 Comanche code-talkers came ashore to use their language to send indecipherable messages.
19. Army Rangers scaled the 100 foot cliff at Pointe du Hoc to take out some large enemy artillery pieces that could have done a lot of damage. The guns had been moved and were not ready for combat.
20. American soldiers carried around 80 pounds of weapons and gear.
21. There are 33 pairs of brothers interred in the Normandy American Cemetery. There is one father-son pair.
22. 12 Medals of Honor were awarded for D-Day. Teddy Roosevelt’s son Theodore, Junior was one of the awardees.  When American forces were landed far from the designated Utah Beach, he made the decision to “start the war from here”.  He died of a heart attack soon after. 

https://www.history.com/news/d-day-normandy-wwii-facts

https://www.history.com/news/d-day-7-surprising-facts

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-d-day

https://www.historyhit.com/fascinating-facts-about-d-day/

https://stacker.com/stories/4195/50-facts-and-figures-about-d-day