Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 133 i History of War

The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.” The conviction of General Eisenhower’s Order of the Day, delivered to the gathered expeditionary forces, still resonates today. Eight decades later, we are left with only a few living witnesses and participants in this great achievement – their memories are a direct connection with the events of 1944, and testimony that cannot be replaced by any number or records, film or photographs. Whether by visiting Normandy, attending commemorative events, or quietly reading and reflecting, we can all maintain our own connections with this immense moment in history. FOLLOW THE HISTORY OF WAR TEAM /HISTORY OF WAR MAG @ HISTORY OF WAR MAG SCAN TO GET OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER…

D-Day veterans gather in Normandy, having landed on Gold and Sword beaches 40 years previously. Pictured from the left are Abe Armstrong, Frank Duffin, Bob Wilson, Joe Bowden, John Cruikshanks and Joe Carr. On the far right is Ray Forster, who served as a radio operator in Normandy, helping pass on crucial information for anti-tank efforts. These veterans were all from Tyneside, an area that was vital during the war for its shipbuilding and armament production. It came under repeated Luftwaffe attack, particularly during the Newcastle Blitz between July 1940 and December 1941.…

LANDING CRAFT, VEHICLE, PERSONNEL LCVP Often referred to as a Higgins Boat after its designer, Higgins Industries of New Orleans, the LCVP was the standard American assault craft on D-Day. The three crew were a coxswain (steering), an engineer and a deck hand. Over 800 LCVPs were used at Normandy, about half of them in fact by British forces, not in the assault but for unloading follow-up troops. The British equivalent was the LCA (Landing Craft, Assault). Both types had pros and cons but each nation tended to prefer the home-designed craft. The largest US transport ships (designated APA: Auxiliary Personnel, Attack) could carry 25-30 LCVPs, though that was only enough to land a proportion of the 1,200 or more troops on board. US-crewed LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) each carried…

Amid a choppy sea on 6 June 1944, a 20-year-old leading aircraftman of the RAF Beach Squadrons sat on top of his truck and observed the vast armada he was part of: “It was unbelievable. You could not realise what was going on. There were thousands of ships and landing craft, battleships, destroyers, aircraft flying overhead… the noise was unbelievable. When the navy started bombarding a couple of hours before we went ashore, it was horrendous.” As the flotilla made its way south, David Teacher remembers wanting to start what he had trained for months to do: “I just wanted to get on with it. I was just keen to get ashore and get started. We’d been trained repeatedly and now it was a case of putting it all into…

The British Army led a revolution in airborne warfare, using gliders and parachutes on the Normandy battlefield. With technological advances made to aircraft capabilities during the Second World War, it was now possible for personnel and their equipment to be dropped into the battlefield by parachute and glider. Bill Gladden’s 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment was created as part of the 6th Airborne Division in January 1944, originally intended to support paratrooper operations with heavy equipment, vehicles, aid stations and armour. Airdropping paratroopers via glider had already proven to be incredibly risky in several Allied and Axis operations earlier in the war – now machines as well as men would rain down on the battlefield on a scale not yet witnessed. On the evening of D-Day, 226 Airspeed Horsa gliders…

INTERVIEW WITH David Smith David has a PhD in military history and has lectured on the University of Chester’s Military History MA programme. As well as regularly contributing to History Of War he has also written numerous books on a range of topics. His 2017 book, Whispers Across The Atlantick, was named Book of the Year by the American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia. Despite the daunting prospect of landing troops on the beaches of Normandy, Allied planning and logistics were so impressive that the operation never really looked like failing. Even amid the carnage of Omaha Beach, a foothold was established. Had certain events gone differently, however, things might have played out in a whole new direction. For all the planning and training, there were potential weak spots. It…

NICK HEWITT Nick is a naval historian and author of several books, including Firing on Fortress Europe and Coastal Convoys. His latest, Normandy: The Sailors’ Story, is out now. Over on page 52 he recounts the lesser-known German counter-attacks launched in the aftermath of D-Day. TAYLOR DOWNING Taylor is a broadcaster, historian and author with a number of best-selling books on the World Wars and the Cold War. On page 24 he discusses the Allies’ deception operation that fooled German defenders as to the location of the D-Day landings. ANDREW WHITMARSH Andrew is a writer, lecturer and curator of Portsmouth’s The D-Day Story museum. Over on page 16 he takes a look at some of the many different landing craft and ship designs that made up the 4,000-strong invasion flotilla…

Former US president and former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D Eisenhower reflects in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach, just east of St-Laurent-sur-Mer. Eisenhower was interviewed by CBS News’ Walter Cronkite for a special report marking the 20th anniversary of Operation Overlord. “These men came here… to storm these beaches for one purpose only,” he told Cronkite. “Not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfil any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom, systems of self-governance in the world. Many thousands [of] men have died for ideals such as these.”…

Historian Taylor Downing’s latest book, The Army That Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception, covers the audacious schemes of Operation Fortitude, the misdirection and misinformation mission to confuse German defences during preparations for D-Day, the landings themselves and the broader Normandy campaign. Here, Downing discusses how his book uncovers a previously hidden link between Operation Fortitude and the British film industry, as well as the eccentric individuals that played their role in the complex deception. Before Fortitude, what other deception operations had the Allies carried out? The pioneer of Allied deception in the Second World War was Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke. He was a remarkable figure by all accounts, with a mysterious ability to enter a room without anybody knowing that he had come in. Whether in a bar,…

It’s a beautiful summer’s day in August 1944 and six ships of the Royal Navy are sweeping the area near Le Havre for mines. Despite the dangerous task the warm weather is a welcome relief for the recent veterans of the notoriously cold Arctic Convoys. Some are so relaxed that they sunbathe on deck, but a formation of aircraft appears out of the Sun and suddenly dives towards the flotilla. This would be a bad enough situation if it were the enemy, but the sailors are even more alarmed to see that these are Hawker Typhoons of the Royal Air Force, and without warning the fighter-bombers attack their own ships. Explosions erupt everywhere and vessels begin to sink. Many men have to abandon ship, and to make matters worse German…

REAL TIMELINE Gambling on the weather Eisenhower makes one of the boldest decisions of the war, postponing the invasion by a day in the hope that the weather will improve on 6 June. He trusts his meteorologists, but he knows the risks if they have got it wrong. 5 June 1944 The Normandy landings begin As predicted, the weather on 6 June is acceptable and the landings proceed. Everything now hangs on whether or not the landings go smoothly. If any one of the multiple potential problems arises, the invasion may still have succeeded. If more than one thing goes wrong, it might have been impossible to grab the necessary beachheads on ‘the longest day’. Most importantly, if the meteorologists had got their forecast wrong, and the weather did not…

IN THE PRIZE BUNDLE WORTH OVER £150! UNDAUNTED NORMANDY & UNDAUNTED REINFORCEMENTS: REVISED EDITION Undaunted is the award-winning Second World War deckbuilding game where two players deploy their forces, seize the initiative and manoeuvre forces on the battlefield to gain victory. There’s no small amount of risk and reward involved, as each turn of the cards can make the difference between success and failure, and to win you have to out-think as well as outgun your opponent. Undaunted: Reinforcements (2023) brings even greater depth and variety to the critically acclaimed base game, with new units such as US and German tanks, as well as the range of other Undaunted expansion boxes. D-DAY 1944 THE DEADLY FAILURE OF ALLIED HEAVY BOMBING ON JUNE 6 Though the amphibious assault on Normandy was…

Singer Vera Lynn is pictured on Utah Beach before a backdrop of vehicles used during the D-Day landings. After this gathering on the beach, she performed at a concert marking the 40th anniversary of D-Day, singing her wartime classics such as The White Cliffs of Dover and We’ll Meet Again. These tracks were hugely popular during the war, the latter including the famous chorus: “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.” Lynn sang throughout the conflict to audiences from the front lines to the home front, in concerts and via her radio show Sincerely Yours.…

Spring 1942 EARLY INVASION PLANS Soon after joining the war effort, the US sends representatives to the UK to lobby for two landing plans. Operation Roundup proposes a landing between Boulogne and Le Havre, while Operation Sledgehammer plans to capture Brest or Cherbourg. Winston Churchill resists, preferring to target the Wehrmacht’s “soft underbelly” in the Mediterranean. April 1942 OPERATION BOLERO US Army troops first arrive in the UK in January 1942, and their numbers increase substantially with Operation Bolero. The US presence in England swells to 1.5 million in the month before D-Day. They are predominantly housed in camps in the southwest, while British and Canadian troops are further east. 19 August 1942 DIEPPE RAID 01 The Allies launch Operation Jubilee, an unsuccessful amphibious assault in Dieppe intended to temporarily capture…

REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE… * NEW! Digital access to 80+ issues when you subscribe to print! ** * Never miss an issue * Delivered direct to your door or device * Brilliant value – save on the cover price NEW DIGITAL ACCESS! PRINT & DIGITAL EDITION 13 ISSUES A YEAR OF THE PRINT & DIGITAL EDITION No-hassle home delivery Pay less than you would in the shops DIGITAL EDITION 13 ISSUES A YEAR OF THE DIGITAL EDITION Instant access via your Android or iOS device Same content as print editions Terms and Conditions: Offer closes 30 June 2024. Offer open to new UK subscribers only. *Savings are based on the print newsstand cost. We will notify you in advance of any price changes. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your…

William ‘Bill’ Gladden was just 20 when he dropped into France on the evening of 6 June 1944. Packed into an enormous Hamilcar glider, he had shared the journey across the Channel with a Tetrarch tank and his beloved Matchless motorbike. Men and machines were being deployed to support the invasion of Normandy as part of the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment. However, Gladden’s war ended after just 12 days when he was hit and severely injured by machine gun fire. Following his return to England, he spent years in hospital, receiving multiple surgeries to save his leg. Now aged 100 and living in Haverhill, Suffolk, Gladden paints watercolours inspired by Hamilcar gliders and his landing site near Ranville, Normandy. Speaking to History of War, he reveals his D-Day experience…

Marie Scott was just 13 at the outbreak of the Second World War, and four years later she decided it was time to play her part on the home front. However, dreading the prospect of toiling in the fields with the Women’s Land Army, she utilised her switchboard operating skills, which made her an excellent candidate for the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens). After a short time training at Mill Hill, Scott was transferred to Fort Southwick, Portsmouth. There, she was placed on the communications frontline. Little could the teenager have known, she would be taking part in one of the most important operations in world history. Working deep in the tunnels on the switchboard before becoming a VHF (Very High Frequency) radio operator, she was about to play a…

On the night of 7/8 July 1944, a clumsy human torpedo containing a 19-year-old German sailor named Karl-Heinz Potthast was pushed into the water at Villers-sur-Mer near Le Havre. Nicknamed Neger, each unit consisted of a standard G7e naval torpedo slung beneath another G7e, with its warhead replaced by a tiny cockpit and basic controls. It could not be submerged, instead the operator peered through a plexiglass dome protruding above the water and aimed using a rudimentary sight. After slipping through Allied patrols, Potthast spotted a line of warships crossing his course. What seemed to be the largest ship, at the end of the line, slowed and anchored and Potthast fired his torpedo. As a huge explosion lit up the night sky, he turned for home. Potthast had found the…