Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes

‘We were cruising on course at 30,000 feet, a brilliant moonlit night with 10/10ths cloud 5,000ft below, the vapour trails from each wing tip standing out for all to see. Inside the Fortress aircraft “N” with its crew of ten fully trained airmen all is silent; just the steady hum of the four engines can be heard. There was a click as the wireless operator Flight Lieutenant Bill Doy switched on his intercom and spoke. “Rear gunner, there is a U/I aircraft approaching very fast from the rear, I confirm that I have it in sight some 2,000 feet astern and approximately 800 feet below.” I brought it in by commentary – 1,200 feet, 1,000 feet – at 800 feet it started to disappear under the Fortress. I handed the commentary back to the W/O, who gave the skipper the order, “Corkscrew, starboard go!” On the word go, I fired one short burst blindly with both .5s fully depressed. The next second with the Fortress in a deep dive to starboard the attacking aircraft I now recognized as an Me 410. It was on my port quarter for a second. It appeared to just hang there with the glow of two cannons being fired. I fired two short bursts and also observed an accurate burst from the mid-upper turret. There was no doubt that the Me 410 was hit as I did see smoke. He then disappeared from my view and I did not see the aircraft again. The Me 410 was claimed destroyed.’

‘We practised during May using Lincoln cathedral as our target . . . 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. . .’

Author title page

Countdown

0415, 5 June 1944

With no basic changes to the weather pattern described the previous day, Eisenhower turns to General Montgomery and asks whether he could see any reason for not going on Tuesday, to which Montgomery replies, ‘I would say – Go!’ The other commanders agree. ‘OK’ says Eisenhower; ‘We’ll go.’ A coded wireless message sent out by the BBC instructs the French Resistance to cut railway lines throughout France. German intelligence, which had partially broken the code, warns Rommel’s HQ but in his absence it seems to have been ignored. Of 1,050 planned breaches of rail lines by the Resistance, 950 are carried out.

The Allied Commanders. Back Row L-R: Lt General Omar N. Bradley; Admiral Sir Bertram H. Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander; Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford L. Leigh-Mallory, C-in-C AEAF; Major General Walter Bedell Smith, Chief of Staff SHAEF. Seated L-R: Air Chief Sir Marshal A. W. Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander; General Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Commander, and General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. C-in-C Land Forces, CO 21st Army Group.

U.S Army

Five Fortresses of 214 Squadron operated in support of the D-Day operation in an ABC (Airborne Cigar) jamming role. A protective patrol lasting over five hours was flown at 27,000 feet starting just north and east of Dieppe and running almost perpendicular to the coastline carrying out jamming and Window dropping in conjunction with 24 Lancasters of 101 Squadron of 1 Group. One Lancaster was shot down. The patrol was outstandingly successful and earned a personal congratulation to all concerned by Arthur Harris to whom he pointed out that ‘the work carried out was of paramount importance in connection with the Invasion Forces’.

Flight Sergeant Roland ‘Ginger’ A. Hammersley DFM

Lancaster air gunner, 57 Squadron, which bombed heavy gun positions at La Pemelle.

‘It was at 01:40 hours in JB318/‘O’ with a bomb load of 11 1,000-lb AN-M and four 500-lb GP bombs that we took off with the other 15 crews for the attack. As we were crossing the English Channel it was apparent that there was either a huge flock of birds, thousands of aircraft or a vast fleet on the sea immediately below our Lancaster – my “fishpond” was swamped with blips. Banking the aircraft to port and starboard, we could see a huge fleet of vessels heading towards the French coast. The expected “D-Day” had arrived and I was there to the fore.’

Sergeant Johnny Cook, 19

(later Flying Officer DFM), Halifax III rear gunner, 578 Squadron at Burn.

‘June 5th – INVASION. Target Montfleury–Cherbourg – gun battery. Early morning take off. Almost a daylight operation. Heavy cloud and severe icing over Channel to target. We opened the “Second Front” – D-Day – at about five in the morning. Saw the massive convoy formations in the Channel.’

Franklin L. Betz

B-17 navigator, 379th BG, Kimbolton.

‘To be awakened about 04:00 for a mission was pretty much routine but to be hauled out of the sack at about 01:30 to report to briefing – well something unusual must be up, I thought as I groped sleepily for my clothes. The atmosphere at briefing was invariably sombre. Sitting quietly on benches dozing or languidly puffing on cigarettes that glowed eerily in the soft light of the starkly furnished rooms, there was very little talk while the fliers, officers and enlisted men waited for the CO, Colonel Preston, to arrive.

‘“Tenshun!” someone up front bawled when the CO strode in. Everyone arose standing erect, eyes straight ahead. “At ease,” the Colonel said. The men sat down quietly, tensely awaiting roll call and the removal of the cover from the huge map of Europe on which the course to and from the target had been traced. If it showed a deep penetration of Germany that meant dangerous fighter attacks and flak encounters throughout the flight; a groan arose from the dry throats of the airmen that trailed off into excited whispers as briefing continued. But at 02:30, when the briefing officer announced, “This is it – this is D-Day!” it was different; a lusty cheer shattered the quiet of a moment before. Whoops, whispers and yells echoed from the grey walls. It was an unprecedented and ecstatic vocal demonstration by the fliers who had doggedly been carrying the war to Germany for many months with considerable losses of men and planes. It was the day they had awaited to share with the ground forces and together they would assault the Nazi war machine, hopefully gaining a foothold on the mainland with the ultimate goal of driving the Wehrmacht back to the Fatherland and crushing it.’

Feldmarschall Ervin Rommel inspecting his defence forces in Normandy early in 1944. The vehicle is a 7.5 cm gun on a captured French Hotchkiss tank chassis.

Imperial War Museum 11 (H.39)

RAAF and RNZAF Participation

The part played by the Allied air forces in the build up to the Invasion was crucial. By day the RAF’s 2nd TAF, which had been formed in Norfolk on 1 June 1943 under Air Vice Marshall Basil Embry, and the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, blasted enemy targets in Northern France and Belgium. At night the ‘heavies’ of RAF Bomber Command added the weight of its bombs to marshalling yards and enemy positions. 2nd TAF and RAF Bomber Command consisted of all manner of foreign and Commonwealth personnel as well as British airmen. The part played by the far-flung dominions is often overlooked but their participation was significant. In May and early June Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) fighter and bomber squadrons were heavily involved in operations in support of Overlord. Tempests of 486 Squadron and Mosquito Intruders of 487 Squadron attacked the railway system of northern France. On D-Day 489 Squadron RNZAF Beaufighters patrolled along the invasion coast and in the week after the landings made 34 separate attacks on E-boats and R-boats.

On D-Day the Mosquitoes of 464 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked transport further east across the Seine. One Mosquito was brought down. Flight Lieutenant D. M. Shanks, navigator, survived and remained hidden until August. Australian piloted Typhoons of 121 and 247 Squadrons made ground attacks south of Caen amid heavy anti-aircraft fire. Three Australian Typhoons were shot down although one pilot, who had severe burns and a broken leg, evaded capture and reached the beachhead. After dusk on D-Day Mosquitoes of 488 Squadron RNZAF took over patrol duty and intercepted several Luftwaffe raids against the beachhead and claims for 20 bombers shot down in the first week were recorded. Lancasters of 75 Squadron RNZAF were among those who bombed Ouistreham on 5/6 June and who participated in other raids in the Normandy area on four of the six succeeding nights. In the attack on coastal batteries on 5/6 June RAAF Lancasters flew 67 sorties, the majority of them against German gun emplacements at Pointe-du-Hoc.

As late as June 1944, 11,000 RAAF officers and men were serving with the RAF or the ten RAAF squadrons. Australia also provided 168 of the 1,136 aircraft committed by Bomber Command, almost 15 per cent of the total. RAAF pilots flew six Lancasters of 617 Dambusters Squadron in a deception operation on 5/6 June and five more flew Stirlings of 199 Squadron in their deception operation. Just after midnight RAAF officers piloted 41 transports of the ten squadrons of 38 Group for the drop of the British 6th Airborne Division, the RAAF providing about one in seven of the pilots. In the week following D-Day 460 Squadron RAAF flew on five of the seven nights and flew 107 sorties. Each of the three other RAAF bomber squadrons operated on four nights.

Shipping off Lee-on-Solent looking towards the Isle of Wight on 5 June. In the foreground is the tug anchorage, the large vessel to the right is their depot ship Aorangi, a converted Canadian Australasian liner. Just discernible in the middle distance are tank landing ships and the minelayer turned LSE (Emergency Repair) ship HMS Adventure, and the cruiser HMS Despatch, a HQ base and AA defence ship (in the centre) with (top left) LSI(S) Prinses Astrid and LSI(H) Maid of Orleans. In the background are some of the roadway sections waiting to be towed to the Mulberry harbours.

Imperial War Museum 11 (A23720A)

Flying Officer Kazik Budzik KW VM

Spitfire IX pilot, 317 ‘City of Wilno’ (Polish) Squadron, which flew four separate patrols over the invasion beaches.

‘We must have been amongst the first fighter aircraft over the beachhead as dawn was just breaking upon our arrival. The invasion armada was enormous. Most of the landing craft were still heading towards the beaches. It really was quite a spectacle. There was flak everywhere though, mostly from the fleet, and that was quite frightening. Watching the start of Europe’s liberation was a fantastic experience, particularly the naval bombardment. You could see the guns fire and the shells landing on the coastline, getting further inland the more our troops advanced. It was amazing.’

Manfred Rommel, 15

about to celebrate his mother’s 50th birthday on 6 June.

‘Father had arrived from France on 4 June and we were planning a simple family lunch for my mother’s birthday. Speidel [Generalmajor Hans Speidel, Chief of Staff of the 7th Army in Normandy] kept saying he was not sure the landings had taken place and father should continue with his intention of speaking to Hitler about the strategy of repelling the invasion. My father disagreed with the other generals over this. He favoured a confrontation on the landing beaches while General Feldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt wanted the panzer divisions to be kept back to the north of Paris. Father was very calm and cautious, as always. He agreed Speidel should call back in an hour but he began packing immediately. When the call came, Speidel told him the landing had happened. The Navy had told my father before he left France that no landing would be possible because the seas were too stormy. It had not been an easy decision for my father to return to Germany but he had believed the Navy. Now he was getting reports of Allied landings from all parts of the coast. He was calm but he was not happy that he had been at home when it all happened. He left immediately for the 500-mile journey back to Normandy to lead the men who had long expected the invasion, yet had been caught by surprize just the same. Mother took it completely in her stride. I talked to my father a lot about how the invasion happened. For a long time, everyone thought the Allies would land in the Pas-de-Calais because it was the nearest point to the English coast, only 25 miles away. On the other hand, the German fortifications were strongest there, so Normandy began to be considered the likeliest.

‘One thing everyone believed was that the Allies would first have to capture and hold a harbour. But, of course, they brought over their own mobile Mulberry harbour – a masterstroke by Churchill, which no one could ever have imagined.

‘My father was tremendously impressed with the organization and the imagination involved. It was a glorious battle for the Allies and, as a soldier, he admired them greatly. Father knew from North Africa that the British were good soldiers. But, as he said, Normandy showed him they were even better than he had presumed. He knew by then that Germany could not win the war. He had often discussed it with me. He said anyone with common sense could see that the only solution on the Western Front was to achieve a position in which to make peace. He would say: “Even if you have to give in, as long as you are strong, you can achieve peace.”’

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had travelled back from the Normandy front to be with them and to give his wife a pair of grey shoes. At 7 am Generalmajor Hans Speidel, Chief of Staff of the 7th Army in Normandy, told them the long-feared invasion had started.

‘So it’s started then!’

Adolf Hitler’s unconcerned response after lunch on D-Day when the Fuhrer finally appeared and was told of the ‘invasion’.

Hitler held his first meeting about the landings at 14:00. It was not until nearly 17:00 that he finally gave permission to move just two armoured divisions and the counter-attack could not be mounted until the morning of 7 June, by which time the bridgehead was 30 hours old and it was too late. Hitler, and many of his generals, believed that Normandy was simply a diversion for a larger attack on Calais, a view he clung to until August 1944.

D – Day Fact File

More than 130,000 men are landed from the sea and over 20,000 men from the air in the first 24 hours. Americans suffer over 6,000 casualties. Casualties in British 2nd Armoured amount to 4,000 from a force of 82,000.

The end of D-Day establishes almost 155,000 Allied troops across nearly 80 square miles of France: 55,000 Americans are ashore, plus 15,500 who have parachuted or glided across the Channel. Anglo–American co-operation had secured a bridgehead in Normandy.

One out of every 11 Americans who has taken part in the cross-Channel invasion is dead, missing or wounded. There are 6,000 American casualties (of whom 700 are airborne troops): more than half the total Allied casualties on the day. By the end of July the Americans are the majority Allied force in France with 980,000 troops compared with 660,000 British. By VE-Day three million US troops are fighting on the continent.

As night falls on D-Day all five beachheads are established and 150,000 Allied troops are on French soil along a 50-mile front. 55,000 American and 75,215 British and Canadian troops come ashore during D-Day. In the first six days over 300,000 men, 54,000 vehicles, and 104,000 tons of stores are unloaded.

Para of the 101st Airborne Division at the doorway of a C-47 carrying a rifle and M1A1 bazooka.

Edward J. Toth

2 Screaming Eagles and the All Americans (#ulink_255884b4-12dd-534c-9cc1-83ae30fbb550)

Bernard M. Job, RAFVR

Flying Officer, Mosquito navigator, 418 Squadron, RAF Holmsley South near Bournemouth.

‘Six aircrews were detailed to act as “Flak bait” to cover the paratroop and glider drops in the Cherbourg Peninsula, by drawing searchlights and flak away from these more vulnerable aircraft. So successful was this that two of the six were hit, one so badly that it crash-landed near base and burnt up. The crew ran!’