observer Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 D-Day - the biggest armada of shipping ever seen in history, crossed the channel to rescue Europe from Nazi domination. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fugtifino Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 salutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted June 7, 2010 Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 nothing but admiration. as a side note was also the in-laws wedding anniversary. he was an electrician in the RAF during the war and is fitter than me, just had his cataracts removed and is 92. goes dancing twice a week and thinks nothing of jumping on the train for a trip to liverpool for the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted June 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 In the build up for D-Day, the Yanks did a full scale practise for the Utah landing in the previous April, using a beach (Scranton(?)) south of Torquay. Unfortunately, two German E-Boats came across this exercise and sunk two landing craft, killing 0ver 750 US personel; 3 times as many as they lossed in the actual landing on D-Day. The largest casualties of D-Day were suffered by the Yanks on Omaha beach; and some have argued, were due to the refusal of the Yanks to include AVEs (the "funnies") in their initial assault: they did have some amphibious tanks, but they were released too early in deep water and drifted off course and sank. However, taken all round, the landing of over 130,000 men with minimum casualties was a triumph of planning and preparation, pity we don't seem able to tackle our peace time challenges with such professionalism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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