CARELESS TALK
In spite of all precautions taken to protect the secrets of D-day, some officers still engaged in ‘Careless Talk’. One such case was that of US Major General Henry Miller, chief supply officer of the US 9th Air Force, who, during a cocktail party at London’s elegant Claridges Hotel, talked freely about the difficulties he was having in obtaining supplies. He added that things would ease after D-day declaring that would be before June 15.
When Eisenhower learned of this discretion he ordered that Miller be reduced to the rank of colonel and sent back to the US where shortly after, he retired from the service.
MILLION-TO-ONE
Around midnight on June 5, 1944, Private C. Hillman, of Manchester, Connecticut, serving with the US 101st Airborne Division, was winging his way to Normandy in a C-47 transport plane. Just before the jump Private Hillman carried out a final inspection of his parachute. He was surprised to see that the chute had been packed by the Pioneer Parachute Company of Connecticut where his mother worked part time as an inspector. He was further surprised when he saw on the inspection tag, the initials of his own mother! ( This is funny I live in Manchester Ct LOL )
D-DAY LANDINGS (June 6, 1944)
* Utah Beach - 23,250 American troops were landed. US 1st Army 7 and 5 US Corps
* Omaha Beach - 34,250 American troops were landed. " " 29 and 1 US Div.
* Gold Beach - 24,970 British troops were landed. British Second Army 50 Division
* Juno Beach - 21,400 Canadian troops were landed. " " " 3 Canadian Div.
* Sword Beach - 28,845 British troops were landed. " " " 3 British Div.
By June 12, 326,000 troops were on the beaches, plus 54,000 vechicles. By July 2, another 929,000 men and 177,000 vehicles were put ashore. The ship armada at Normandy totaled 6,939 vessels of all kinds. In the 10 days after D-day (June 6 to June 16) a total of 5,287 Allied soldiers were killed. The number of French civilians killed during the landings has never been established but must number in the hundreds. From D-Day till the end of the war, British casualties were 30,280 dead and 96,670 wounded.
FIRST USE OF NAPALM
This was first used on July 17, 1944, when US P-38s attacked a fuel depot at Coutances, near St.Lo, France. The next use of napalm was in the Pacific when US forces invaded the island of Tinian in the Marianas. It was also used in the bombing of Tokyo. This jellied fuel became the standard fuel explosive, later used widely - and notoriously - during the Vietnam War.
FIRST D-DAY CASUALTIES
It has been generally accepted that Lieutenant Den Brotheridge of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regiment, British 6th Airborne Division, became the first British soldier to be killed in the invasion of Europe (D-Day, June 6, 1944) While he led his platoon of twenty-one men on the attack on the Orne Canal bridge at Benouville, he was hit in the neck by a bullet fired from the guns of the German sentries defending the Pegasus Bridge. Seconds before, a burst of fire from Brotheridge’s Sten-gun killed one of the sentries, seventeen year old Private Helmut Romer, who became the first German to die in the defence of Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europe’. It has since been discovered that when Lieutenant Brotheridges’ glider landed near the bridge, 29 year old Lance Corporal Fred Greehalgh of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, drowned when exiting the glider. This would make him the first D-Day casualty. (Just months before the 50th anniversary of the landings, the Pegasus Bridge was demolished) Meanwhile, over the town of St-Mare-Eglise twenty eight year old Lt. Robert Mason Mathias of the 508th Parachute Regiment, US 82nd Airborne Division, was preparing to jump from his C-47 Dakota, when he was wounded by a shell burst. In spite of the wounds in his chest he commanded his men to ‘Follow me’ and hurled himself from the aircraft. Some time later, his men found his dead body, still strapped in his chute. Lt. Mathias was the first American soldier killed on D-day.
US CHUTE’S DEADLY DELAY
The 957 men of the US 82nd Airborne Division suffered a 16% casualty rate on landing among the Normandy hedgerows. Twenty five men were killed, fourteen missing and 118 wounded. Everything depended on a quick dispersal after landing and to get to the nearest cover. The delay caused by the difficulty of getting out of their chute harness proved fatal to many.
In later drops, the buckles were dispensed with and the British quick-release mechanism was adopted.
COPY CAT
In 1944, three of the most advanced stratagic bombers to date, the B29 Superfortress, made a forced landing on Soviet territory after a raid on Japan. Stalin ordered that they be impounded. Two were dismantled completely and rebuilt in every last detail. The Soviet version made its first appearance after the war as the Tupolev TU-4.
SHELL SHOCK
The US Army suffered a total of 929,307 cases of ‘Battle Fatigue’ during the war. In June alone, in Normandy, an alarming 10,000 men were treated for some form of battle fatigue. Between June and November, 1944, this amounted to a staggering 26% of all US casualties.
COURT MARTIAL
During the battle for Normandy, four British officers and 7,018 other ranks were court martialled for desertion. Fifty-nine officers and 3,628 other ranks were court martialled for other offences.
THE LOST DIVISION
This was the name given to the American soldiers who had deserted in France and in Germany at the end of 1945. They numbered around 19,000, many living on farms and working as labourers, as black market racketeers, or in safe hiding places in their new found girl friends houses. By 1948, about 9,000 had been found. In 1947, the British Covernment announced an offer of leniency for British deserters and 837 gave themselves up.
Some Good Stuff Here
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/1944.html#lesser_known_1944