Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes

Panzer Leutnant Günter Halm

‘I was asleep when the invasion began. The first bombardment started at about 01:00, and it was so loud and shocking that all of us knew instantly it was something out of the ordinary. I shot out of bed and went straight to the battalion staff quarters to organize my men. Then we hung around until 07:00, waiting for orders. Feldmarschall Rommel was away and so was our divisional commander so there was no one to give orders. We were told to push on to the coast in our armoured personnel carriers and we had almost got there when we fell upon English troops. I’ve no idea to this day who they were but they were on foot. During that night, my battalion lost three-quarters of the men. I’ve no doubt that if we had not wasted those valuable first hours waiting for orders, we could have pushed the Allies back right away. Those hours from 01:00 to 0:700 were critical and our tanks were left idle for too long.’

Andre Heintz, 23

French Resistance fighter.

‘I shall never forget that night or the thrill of knowing the Allies were coming to expel the Nazis at last. My mother woke up in the early hours when she first heard the noise and said, “It must be the landings.” But I dared not confirm it, even to her, because I knew that the Germans thought it might be a diversionary tactic. So I told my own mother nothing. In the morning a friend called and told me the sea was black with ships. Then the bombing began. I was helping to take the injured to our local hospital, which was run by nuns, but there was nothing to distinguish it from other buildings the Germans had been using. We couldn’t paint a red cross because the Germans had requisitioned all the paint so the nuns brought out the sheets, red with blood, that had been in use in the operating theatre and we spread them out in a cross.

‘I’ll never forget the next RAF plane to fly over us. It waggled its wings, and we all knew it had worked. The bombing stopped in our area.’

Civilian June Telford

‘I was catching a bus to work when I noticed things where different. Usually the town was full of commandos and as I stood there, wondering what was different, it came to me . . . silence. There were no boots, no troops, not even the usual singing. We were planting tomato plants on the farm, so we didn’t miss anything in the air over the Isle of Wight. We saw the planes returning, some on fire, and some with smoke pouring from them and many spaces in their formations.’

Countdown

18 May 1944

German radio broadcast that ‘the invasion will come any day now’.

23 May 1944

Camps containing the soldiers who will land on D-Day are sealed with barbed wire. Senior Commanders told that D-Day is 5 June. Detailed briefings begin.

28 May 1944

Time the leading troops are to land (‘H-Hour’) is set at a few minutes before 06:00 hours and after 07:00 hours. Americans are to land first on Utah and Omaha then minutes later, to allow for the difference in the time of low tide, the British and Canadians agree to land on Gold, Juno and Sword. Eisenhower and Montgomery move elements of their HQs to HMS Dryad at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, to be near the embarkation ports.

31 May 1944

Group Captain Stagg, chief met officer, warns Eisenhower to expect stormy weather for several days to come.

Trucks and vehicles at Southampton waiting to board for sailing to Normandy.

Southampton Evening Echo

Jean Lancaster-Rennie

an English schoolgirl.

‘Every day we’d heard the bombers go out and every evening we heard them return. But there was something different enough to send us, at dawn, from our beds to windows that looked out on chimney pots and slates and beyond to the clear blue sky with tiny white clouds. The bombers seemed to come from nowhere in perfect, geometric formation. They kept coming and coming; as if the whole sky belonged to them as they roared away to deal death and destruction. It was D-Day.’

Stan Bruce

5th/7th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders.

‘When I joined the 5th/7th Gordons they were training for the invasion of Normandy. I was quite proud to be joining, as my father served in the 7th Battalion Gordons in WWI. Plus we had heard so much about the famous 51st Highland Division and their exploits against Rommel in the desert campaign. All we did was train and you could feel the tension in the air. We knew that the invasion was coming and the old hands knew what was in front of them. I was going to win the war single-handed. Dream on Bruce. What an idiot! Us young lads did not know what it was like to really be under enemy fire and still thought that war was a great adventure. That thought would soon be shattered and quite a few of us did not survive. One day all leave was cancelled, and we were moved nearer the coast and put in a huge compound under canvas. The Battalion was on the move and heading for the embarkation port and the invasion.’

Men of “Force B” (Backup force) on the dockside at Plymouth to commence loading operations on 1 or 2 June.

National Archives

Lieutenant Ed Wanner

B-24 Liberator pilot, ‘Asbestos Alice’, 700th Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, 2nd Bomb Division, Tibenham, Norfolk, whose crew were recent replacements.

‘Here we were in a foreign land where they drove on the wrong side of the road, where “knocked up” meant they were busy that night, and where the great Normandy Invasion Landing was happening.’

Ben Smith Jr

radio operator-gunner, Chicks Crew, 303rd Bomb Group, 1st Bomb Division, 8th Air Force, Molesworth.

‘Stars and Stripes gave American losses over Europe in the five months preceding D-Day as 1,407 heavy bombers, 673 fighters and 100 medium bombers. These figures do not include those killed or wounded when the planes returned to their home base or crashed in the United Kingdom. Over 14,000 men were lost in the heavies alone. The British had parallel losses.

In June, after six months of intense training, we were assigned, as a crew, to a B-17G at Kearney, Nebraska. We flew it overseas to England where we started flying combat missions immediately, just in time to join the D-Day invasion support flights. The first few short-haul sorties were milk runs, giving us the false impression that this combat flying was a piece of cake. But that was to change quickly . . . It was apparent to all of us that the long-awaited invasion of Festung Europa was imminent. We knew that we would be involved, but expected all-out opposition from the Germans. The night of 5 June we saw the RAF aircraft and gliders coming over, wave after wave. We knew we would be going in the morning and thought there would be hell to pay. We didn’t sleep much that night. At briefing we heard Eisenhower’s inspirational message to the departing troops. At least it was supposed to inspire. Churchill could have done it with a lot more class.’

Countdown

1 June 1944

Admiral Ramsey takes command of the immense armada of ships for Operation Neptune, the naval part of Overlord. First regular morning and evening meetings are begun between senior commanders at Southwick House, principally to discuss deteriorating weather conditions in the Channel. Eisenhower begins a daily shuttle between his forward HQ at Southwick, Bushey Park his main HQ, and Stanmore, where SHAEF Air Forces HQ is located. Weather forecast is poor.

4 June 1944

At Southwick House Stagg meets commanders at 04:15 hours. The forecast is rising wind and thicker cloud. Montgomery is prepared to go despite the weather but ACM Leigh-Mallory is not in favour. With so much depending upon air superiority Eisenhower has no choice but to postpone the landings, scheduled for 4/5 June, for 24 hours. All convoys at sea have to reverse their courses but two British midget submarines continue and just before midnight take up their positions off the beaches to act as markers for the invasion army when it arrives. By 09:30 Stagg predicts 36 hours of relatively clear weather with moderate winds.

General Feldmarschall Rommel, convinced an invasion is not imminent, decides to leave the Normandy coast for Germany.

Wilbur Richardson

B-17 gunner, 94th Bomb Group.

‘Invasion fever was abound. In May all flight crewmen were ordered to carry their .45s at all times. Ground crews were issued carbines to have at the ready, in case enemy paratroops would attempt to foul up any suspected plans. With double summer time in effect, darkness came very late and the nights were much shorter than I was used to, growing up in Long Beach, California. So in order to get some sleep, before the usual crack-of-dawn (or earlier) briefing for a bombing mission, it was necessary to close the blackout curtains to darken the room by shutting out the later evening light. But on the evening of 4 June we were called out to get ready just before darkness was fully upon us. Unusual. The rumours circulated once more. After some night formation flying and speculating, we headed for our target along the French coast sometime after dawn. It was a long day, and again it didn’t happen. Just a rumour. Little did we know. Must wait again. It was an even longer day for those in the intelligence unit. About six or seven of them were placed under guard, food sent in, etc., until the dawn of the big day. Next evening, 5 June, we started early again, same as the night before. So, we felt this must be it for sure.

‘At briefing, this was it. What a contrast when it was usually groans when we learned of the target. What animated talk and yippie! The weather was better for the Channel crossing. It was a go! The pilots gave a few more details as we repeated last night’s run and then to the shoreline targets at dawn before the landings were to begin in about an hour.’

Wilbur Richardson.

Harry Barker

RAF bomb aimer, 218 Squadron.

‘In April 1944 we attacked three targets in France and then began training to use a new type of G called GH. This would enable the navigator to direct the pilot to fly to within a few yards of a position on the ground to allow bombs to be dropped blind. We practised during May using Lincoln cathedral as our target and taking photographs to record the results. This work continued in the first week of June and then on 5 June we took part in Operation Glimmer to simulate a naval attack on the Pas-de-Calais area in order to deceive the Germans into believing that the D-Day landings were there and not Normandy. This was achieved by flying a progressive square search pattern between Newhaven and Boulogne, dropping Window continuously. The plan was successful and we shared the task with 617 Dam Busters Squadron with additional crew members to ensure that a continual dropping of the packets of Window was maintained. I understood that no aircraft were lost during this risky operation. We returned to Woolfox Lodge after five hours 15 minutes of demanding flying. After the usual breakfast we slept for a few hours and awoke to find out on the 1 p.m. news that today, 6 June, was D-Day and the landings in Normandy had begun. In my diary I noted that it was cold and miserable at home.’

Flight Lieutenant Eric ‘Phil’ Phillips DFC MiD

214 Squadron Gunnery Leader, 100 Group, 22:50 5 June.