D-Day: Ten things you didn’t know about the Normandy landings

Despite difficult weather conditions, on June 6, 1944, approximately 156,000 Allied troops began landing on the beaches of Normandy, thus beginning to write the epilogue of the Third Reich.

Although much is being written in these days, the 80th anniversary of the landing, there are 10 things you might not know about the longest landing in history, which the BBC documented.

Ghost army

The Allies went to great lengths trying to convince the Germans that the invasion was to take place near Calais, not Normandy.

They invented armies of ghost training camps based in Kent as part of the D-Day deception plan, called Operation Fortitude.

They built dummy equipment – ​​including inflatable tanks – parachuted in dummies, used double agents to make the Germans believe the Allies were going to invade via Pas-de-Calais and Norway.

The Germans took the bait to such an extent that even at the time of the Normandy landings they were holding forces in the Calais area awaiting a second invasion.

Send photos

As early as 1942, the BBC launched a bogus appeal for photographs and postcards from the coasts of Europe, from Norway to the Pyrenees.

In fact, it was a way of gathering information about suitable landing beaches.

Millions of photographs were sent to the War Department and with the help of the French Resistance and aerial reconnaissance, the staffs were able to select the best spots for the operation

Two million soldiers

By 1944 more than two million troops from over 12 countries were in Britain preparing for the invasion.

On D-Day, the Allied forces consisted mainly of American, British and Canadian troops, but also included Australian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, New Zealand, Norwegian, Rhodesian [σημερινή Ζιμπάμπουε] and Polish naval, air and ground support.

Weather monitoring

The officers who organized the operation were very particular about the timing of the landing.

They wanted a full moon on a spring tide so they could land at dawn when the tide was about half. But that meant there were only a few days left on offer.

They chose to invade on June 5, but ended up being delayed 24 hours due to bad weather.

It was Captain James Martin Stagg who made this crucial prediction by persuading General Ike Eisenhower to change the date.

The German marshal is missing

The weather report was so bad that the German commander in Normandy, Erwin Rommel, ruling out an invasion due to bad weather, went home to give his wife a pair of shoes for her 50th birthday.

He was in Germany when the news of the invasion came.

The Führer is asleep

When the Allied forces were ashore the German leader was asleep.

None of his generals dared to order reinforcements without his permission, and none dared to wake him.

Crucial hours were lost in the battle to hold Normandy.

When Hitler finally woke up, around 10 am, he was excited by the news of the invasion, as he thought Germany would be easily defeated.

Commonwealth forces were the majority

While the US made up the largest part of this impressive force, the combined strength of the Commonwealth troops – mainly British and Canadian – was greater.

Of the 156,000 men who landed in France on June 6, 73,000 were American and 83,000 British or Canadian. The Commonwealth naval contingent was twice that of the Americans.

The bloodiest shore

There were five beaches selected for the operation, codenamed, from east to west, Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah.

Casualties varied greatly, but in the Group, which was called Bloody Omaha, about 4,000 men were killed or wounded, while an American unit that landed with the first wave had 90% of its men.

On the Gold Coast, by contrast, casualty rates were about 80% lower.

The fighting during the Battle of Normandy, which followed D-Day, was as bloody as in the trenches of World War I.

Casualty rates were slightly higher than during a typical day during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Broken toilets

The vibration of the cruiser HMS Belfast’s guns during the landing was so strong that it broke the crew toilets.

Pub test

Having been given a top secret mission to attack Merville’s artillery, Terence Otway had to be sure his men did not betray the operation before 6 June 1944.

He sent 30 of the prettiest members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, dressed in civilian clothes, to a village pub near where his soldiers were training.

They were asked to do whatever they could to find out the men’s mission. Neither man gave anything away.