FAKE NEWS FOOLED
HITLER ON D-DAY
G'day folks,
The biggest land, air and seaborne invasion the world has ever known was launched on June 6th 1944. Codenamed Operation Overlord, everybody now knows it as D-Day.
One hundred and fifty six thousand American, British and Canadian troops
sailed to France from England and stormed the beaches of Normandy. They
then began a relentless, dogged and bloody drive all the way to Berlin,
pushing back the fearsome German military machine and finally bringing
an end to the Second World War.
It was no picnic. The 50-mile stretch of coast where the landings took
place was heavily fortified by Hitler’s forces, and his soldiers, who
had never known defeat, put up staunch resistance.
An element of surprise worked in the Allies’ favour. Hitler believed
that an invasion would come along France’s northern coast, but he did
not know where. He had put Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
in charge of defence operations, including completion of the Atlantic
Wall, a 2,400-mile fortification of bunkers, landmines, beach and sea
obstacles.
In England, meanwhile, deception was the name of the game – on a massive
scale. It included an imaginary army of a million men, supposedly led
by America’s General George Patton and headquartered in the UK across
from Calais – the shortest distance between England and France.
With the use of double agents, bogus radio transmissions and other means
the Germans were made aware of this "army". They were also briefed over
other possible invasion sites including Greece, the Adriatic coast of
Yugoslavia, the south of France, the Biscay Bay coast of France, through
the Low Countries, or via Norway and Denmark. Hitler moved garrisons
into all these places.
It was, according to ‘America in WWII’ magazine, “the greatest deceptive
enterprise ever seen in a war. Tent cities were created all over
eastern England. There were fake mess halls, hospitals, ammo depots, and
even sewage treatment farms. Fuel depots were constructed and parks for
trucks, tanks, jeeps, and ambulances were laid out.”
Like the buildings, the tanks, trucks and other “vehicles” were made of
fabric and wood or were rubber inflatables. Soldiers used tools to make
tread and tyre marks for the benefit of spying German planes. It was
vital to let Luftwaffe reconnaissance planes through to see the mock
preparations on the ground, but not let their flights seem suspiciously
easy.
On top of all that, the deceptions extended to England’s ports and
waterways with the help of the British movie industry, which was called
in to make fleets of dummy landing craft. The resulting “vessels”, made
of wood or fabric and floating on oil drums, were “moored” in harbours
and rivers and looked convincing to German pilots at 33,000 feet.
The subterfuge even extended to “letters” in local newspapers from
clergymen complaining about the terrible behaviour of some of the
“foreign troops.”
All of this shifted much German attention away from Normandy and so, on
June 6, 1944 the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, America’s
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, gave the order for the invasion to begin.
Even as troops began wading ashore along the Normandy beaches, the
fooled Germans still believed that the major assault would come at
Calais and that Normandy was a feint. Hitler personally ordered the
tanks and infantry of the German 15th Army to stay at Calais. And other
reinforcements on the way to Normandy were diverted to the port.
Official figures record that 4,414 Allied troops lost their lives in the
D-Day invasion, with another 10,000 wounded or missing. But it enabled
the great Allied march across Europe to begin.
By late August all of Northern France, including Paris, had been
liberated from German control. Next came Germany itself, where the
Allies would meet Soviet troops moving in from the east. The following
spring, on May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany offered unconditional surrender.
Hitler had committed suicide a week earlier, on April 30.
What does the ‘D’ in D-Day stand for? In military parlance it simply
refers to the “day” on which an offensive would occur. The “D” is just a
placeholder for the date and allows the entire operation to be
scheduled in detail long before a definite day for the attack has been
set. So, if anything, 'D' stands for 'Day' or 'Date.' The phrase was
first used during the First World War.
Clancy's comment: What a massive event.
I'm ...
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