Normandy
Invasion
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As we all know, the D-Day invasion consisted greatly of the Amphibious & Airborne Forces. Five beaches in Normandy were hit, along with many inland sites by our Airborne Troops. Above are two of the photos showing the massive amphibious assault vehicles. And, as those of you that were on LSTs/LCTs, you know the troops, tanks, vehicles, supplies and medical equipment would not be there without your tremendous service. Our personal thanks to each of you!!
Below are some real time videos and newsclips from the Britannica site on Normandy. I have linked them here since the site had such valuable photos, videos, maps, casualty information, etc... compiled after the invasion. According to my Dad, LST 996 was the third LST to hit the beach in Southern France.
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Documentary Seen from a light plane, the Omaha Beach area is lined with ships and landing craft at the end of D-Day. From D-Day Remembered, a film by Charles Guggenheim for The National D-Day Museum. |
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Documentary Former News of the Day correspondent Jack Lieb, c. 1970, narrates his own personal movie of U.S. forces disembarking from landing ships at Utah Beach after D-Day......National Archives, Washington, D.C. |
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Documentary Landing supplies at Utah Beach, from The True Glory (1945)...by the U.S. Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information. Original war newsreel footage, combined with dramatized voice-over. |
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Speech Major General Matthew A. Zimmerman, chief of chaplains, U.S. Army, offers the invocation at the American 50th anniversary commemoration of D-Day. |
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Speech Retired television news anchorman Walter Cronkite speaks at the American 50th anniversary commemoration of D-Day. |
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Casualties encountered in Normandy |
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Saving Private Ryan New movie about the D-Day invasion at Omaha beach. Directed by Steven Spielberg and released to theaters 7/98 |
What's a Czech Hedgehog ?
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Below is a question I received recently from someone visiting our
LST site. Since I didn't know myself, I thought I would post the questions, along with the
response that was so kindly provided to me by Bob Sullivan,
Ex-LST'er 1110. If you click on the Czech Hedgehog above it'll show you a schematic
of the beach obstacles used. We've wondered about it for some time but nobody
has been able to give us a definitive answer. In many old pictures and WWII movies |
| Bob's Response: Your
observing and describing of those obstacles on the landing beaches is quite accurate. For
the purpose of defending the coast of France against an Allied invasion onslaught, the
German planners employed the methods which had previously proven to be effective. However,
a new factor in the equation was the untested amphibious assault capability that was being
marshaled on the island fortress of Great Britain. To negate the success of the allied
armada that was sure to come, they literally made every potential invasion beachhead as
hostile as was possible for them to do. In so doing, a significant feature of their
planning was the use of a multi-purpose obstacle or impediment to a successful landing of
men and materiel on their defended shores. The obstacles were of various special-purpose
designs for different beach conditions and expected invasion craft, including the on-shore
presence of tank-tread entangling devices. Typically, the obstacles were placed offshore
at a distance calculated to impede or disable oncoming boats and ships so that 1) the
defending shore batteries would be able to finish them off, and 2) by clogging the
invasion path, to force a revised invasion plan to go into effect which accrued a tactical
advantage to the defenders. They were very effective in the final analysis. There was no
significant Pacific Theatre counterpart to these methods of countering amphibious landing
operations. As to the question, "How did they get there", there has been ongoing debate. The most likely answer is that at first local defense forces contrived a barrier of scrapmetal obstructions and floated them out into the waterway to block access to a particular beach. Then, when the effort was appraised by the higher echelon military brass and adjudged to be worthwhile, the project was approved for commitment of the critical resources to the full-scale deployment of those devices onto pote iron and steel structures constructed with projecting ends that could puncture hulls, broach a boat, entangle a propeller, slow down men wading ashore,and otherwise interfere with a planned schedule the maintaining of which was which was crucial to the success of the Allied invasion assault. |
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