SHANGRALA'S
NORMANDY
THEN
AND
NOW!
They called it 'D Day' in America or 'Operation Overlord'.
The rest of the world knows it as the invasion of Normandy. Normandy today is a
quiet coastal area, the signs of the worst war ever to visit humanity are
hidden between the cracks of history, and the towns and villages of this area
continue on.
Here's a look at it during and after that great war. Enjoy! :)
It was 1944 and WWII was finally shifting in favor of the allied forces. Hitler
was expecting an invasion but he didn't think it would be Normandy, he thought
the allied forces wouldn't attack such a well defended post.
But they did. They took the beach of Normandy on June 6th to defeat Nazi Germany.
It is estimated that nearly 2 million soldiers, sailors and airmen were involved
in Operation Overlord, including U.S., British, and Canadians who were scheduled
to fight after men on the ground secured a Normandy bridgehead. It was the largest
amphibious operation ever to take place.
Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on June 6th came from Canada,
the Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Until the very last minute, the place of invasion - Normandy - was the most heavily
guarded secret on the planet. Even the units conducting the initial assaults did not
know the locations of their landings.
In the weeks following the invasion, Polish forces also participated, as well as
contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. Most of the
above countries also provided air and naval support, as did the Royal Australian
Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the Royal Norwegian Navy.
195,000 naval personnel manned 6,939 naval vessels including 1,200 warships
and 15 hospital ships.
Air-support operations - often overlooked in the success of D-Day - sustained
significant losses: Between the 1st of April and the 5th of June, 1944, the
Allies flew 14,000 missions losing 12,000 airmen and 2,000 aircraft.
127 more planes were lost on D-Day. By the end of the Normandy campaign, 28,000
airmen were dead.
There are 9,386 graves in the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. Each grave
faces west, toward America.
307 of those graves contain the remains of "unknown" soldiers. 1,557 names are
listed in The Garden of the Missing for those who were never found.
4,868 British dead are buried in the Bayeux Cemetery. 1,837 British names are
listed at Bayeux for those who were never found. There were 946 Canadian casualties
in the Normandy campaign.
21,500 German dead are buried at LaCambe.
Had it not been for the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming (in 1928)
and further research and testing by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain (in the late
30s and early 40s) - proving that penicillin could successfully treat infections,
the death tolls would have been far greater.
Five years before he died, General Eisenhower (who was a conquering hero at
war's end and later served two terms as America's president) came back to
Colleville-sur-Mer. It was the first, and only, time he made that journey
after the war. Looking over Omaha Beach, he spoke from his heart:
These men came here - British and our allies, and Americans - to storm these beaches
for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any
ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom. Many thousands
of men have died for such ideals as these, but these young boys, were cut off in
their prime. I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as
these. I think and hope, and pray, that humanity will have learned. . . we must find
some way . . . to gain an eternal peace for this world.
("Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life," by Carlo D'Este, p. 705.)
Decades after D-Day, even though humanity seems farther than ever from finding
'some way to gain an eternal peace for this world,' everyone can agree on at
least one point. Those who fought, and died, to free Europe on that day altered
the course of history.
Please Share This And
Help Remember Their Lives
By Forwarding This
Far And Wide. Because...
Freedom Is Not Free - Nor Has It Ever Been
SEE ALSO: Sands Of Normandy!
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