 |
| In this issue: |
Operation
Overlord
During 4 consecutive years, thousands of soldiers of different
nationalities... |
|
| |
|
D-Day: June 6, 1944
Several factors had to coincide perfectly...
|
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Sign up for a newsletter that will intoduce you to a
new region of France every month!
|
|
The German Reaction
It was also good fortune that the German High Command utterly lacked any perception of what was to be...
|
The Daily Telegraph
Mr. Dawe, a physics teacher living a simple life in a small English town...
|
"V Mail"
"V Mail" appeared in England as early as June 15, 1942...
|
Happy Outcome
After these most painful and difficult days, victory, peace and liberty finally arrived...
|
|
|
|
onjour! This newsletter is dedicated to an unforgettable day: June 6th, 1944, when the
Allies landed in Normandy to liberate France from German occupation. We have chosen not
to describe the bloody battles which took place on the Normandy beaches where thousands
of American, Canadian and British soldiers were killed. We couldn’t improve on the work
of the many historians and filmmakers who have already brought this drama to life. Instead,
we would like to share with you some historical anecdotes that changed the course of this
great event in history.
But before continuing, please remember that you can
access and read all the newsletters already published at
www.FranceMonthly.com and receive our free monthly newsletter every month through email:
just subscribe at
www.FranceMonthly.com.
We commit to NEVER sell your email address to another company.
| Operation Overlord |
 |
Operation Overlord
For 4 consecutive years, thousands of soldiers of all nationalities underwent intensive
training in England. Although millions of tons of material were prepared, and hundreds of tanks,
cars and trains were later dispatched for D Day, its exact date remained a mystery until the very
last moment. Nothing could be left to chance. More than a year earlier, with the help of the
Resistance, every detail of every possible plan had been scrutinized to test the feasibility of
each mission on location. Three days before the launching of this huge wartime operation, more than
200,000 soldiers and marines embarked on about 5,000 ships. The best possible crossing conditions
were necessary to make this landing a success, but waiting for departure was hard to bear for these
men crammed into the vessels, most of them seasick and terribly anxious.
|
|
| Recipe
for May 2001 |
Sauce à la Normande |
|
|
|
Cooking SOS ! If you
run into trouble with one of our recipes, send
an SOS e-mail to 911@FranceMonthly.com |
|
|
|
|
| D-Day: June 6, 1944 |
Several factors had to coincide perfectly in order for this massive operation to be launched and succeed.
A late moonrise: the paratroopers who would lead the assault had to arrive above their
diving site during a perfectly dark night in order to preserve the effect of surprise.
A low tide: the first ships to arrive needed to be able to see the obstacles placed
on the beaches by the enemy. The reinforcement which would arrive later in the day would also take
advantage of the low tide. However, there were only 6 days in June when the tide would be low at the
right time, and of these 6 days, only 3 would have moonless nights.
A calm sea: more than 5,000 ships would navigate side by side, which would only be
possible with a perfectly calm sea that would avoid any risk of collision.
Good visibility: soldiers had to be able to identify the beaches where each military
division was to carry out their precise mission.
A low altitude wind: this would help disperse the smoke from the firing artillery and
exploding mines on the beaches and clearly expose the targets. Finally, relatively fair weather for
3 days prior to D-Day was also necessary to facilitate the rapid loading of both men and material.
These were all the conditions General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander of the Allied Forces, needed to
launch this modern-day crusade. With the constant input of meteorologists, June 5th appeared to be the
most favorable day for departure. If the weather proved to be uncooperative, it would still be possible
to leave the next day. As it turned out, this is exactly what happened. Had June 6th also needed to be
cancelled, the soldiers would have had to wait until July and everyone knew that such a late date would
have considerably diminished any chance of success. June was clearly the most viable option.
|
|
|
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Subscribe to this monthly newsletter. Every month brings you
to a new and wonderful area of France with unique stories and insights into its
history and best areas to visit. We commit to NEVER sell your email address
to another company. Click on the image below.
|
|
|
| The German Reaction |
It was also good fortune that the German High Command utterly lacked any perception of what was
to be, just a few days before the landing. Although the Germans knew that an Allied landing would
occur very soon, they were convinced it would take place on the Pas-de-Calais beaches much further
north of Normandy. The two reasons being that this was the closest point between England and France,
and also the shortest path to invade Germany. Besides, they assumed that predicted bad weather
conditions would certainly not allow any invasion in early June, 1944. After all, the Allied landings
in North Africa, Sicily and Italy had all occurred in perfect weather.
As a result, leave was granted to all the German DCA soldiers stationed in all the occupied coastal
areas of France. The various commanding officers relaxed their attention, confident that no landing
would take place this time of year. On June 4th, even Rommel returned to Germany to celebrate his
wife's birthday. Ironically, several German generals were supposed to participate in army maneuvers,
called "Kriegsspiel" (War Game), in Rennes on June 5th. The exercise was to enact the role of the
Allies in a theoretical landing that would begin with an attack by paratroopers, followed by a landing
from the sea. General Max Pemsel of the 7th army division worried about the commanding officers in
Normandy all leaving at the same time. He tried to reach them and prevent them from going home, but
it was too late, most of them were already gone. After D-Day, Hitler was so astonished by the
coincidental timing of all these simultaneous departures with the landings, that he considered
opening an investigation to assess if treason was behind it all. Indeed, this was also when the
German High Command decided to transfer the last Luftwaffe flight squadrons remaining in France.
The objective was to move them away from critical areas such as Normandy to protect them from
possible aerial bombings. When the startled German officers and soldiers with a front row view from
their beach bunkers saw thousands of ships emerging on the horizon, they immediately knew that this
was certainly not just a diversion maneuver. But none of their messages were taken seriously and
the "Fuhrer" was not even awakened. Actually, Hitler himself was no better informed than his generals,
and it never occurred to any of them that an offensive would be launched that very day.
|
|
|
Forward this Newsletter
Share the information on this region of France with a friend
by clicking on the image below.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Daily Telegraph
|
|
Mr. Dawe, a physics teacher living a simple life in a small English town, would also become
emotionally involved in the plans for this memorable event. For more than 20 years, he had
composed weekly crossword puzzles for the Daily Telegraph. However, he had no idea that the
Allied commanding officers were deeply concerned about these crossword puzzles of his. Ever
since May 2nd, Mr. Dawe had been under close surveillance by Scotland Yard’s counter-espionage
unit. Some of his definitions that gave the Allies cold sweats were: "Haut Seigneur Féodal"
(Feudal Lord), "Peau Rouge sur le Missouri" (Red Skin of Missouri), "Suscite des révolutions
de nursery" (Provokes revolutions in the nursery), and "Il partage son royaume avec Britannia",
(He shares his kingdom with Britannia). The solutions were respectively: "Overlord", code name
for the Allied invasion plan; "Omaha", name of one of the most famous beaches in Normandy;
"Mulberry", code name for two artificial harbors that would be set up off the landing beaches;
"Neptune", code name for all of the naval landing operations. Mr. Dawe, astonished but absolutely
sincere, could only guess that this was purely and simply the result of some extraordinary
coincidences. He was then let off the hook.
|
|
|
“V Mail”
|
|
“V Mail” appeared in England as early as June 15, 1942, but it wasn’t put into practice
in France until February, 1945. The purpose of this American postal system was to enable the millions
of American soldiers stationed in Europe to correspond with their families as quickly as possible.
Sorting letters in their normal format caused delays in delivery, as it was an enormous amount of
work to process these enormous volumes of mail. A very clever system was developed in response to
this problem. Soldiers were asked to write their letters on special forms purchased at the post
office for a few cents. These were sent to Villepinte (a Parisian suburb), where they were sorted
by final destination, then bundled in packs of 1,700 forms that were photographed and reduced onto
a 16mm film, almost 100 ft in length, that could fit in a cigarette pack. The reels were then flown
to the US, to one of the three "V Mail" sorting centers in New York, Chicago and San Francisco where
they were developed and printed on paper one quarter the original size, before being sent to their
final destinations. This system also worked in the other direction, from the US to Europe, and
guaranteed an expedient mail service.
|
|
|
Radio London
|
As early as 1940, the BBC (Radio London) transmitted a daily series of coded messages to allow
the Allies based in England to communicate with the Resistance in France, to ask them to plot
various sabotages and, most importantly, to prepare for the upcoming landing in Normandy. A few
days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard hundreds of messages, but only
a few of them were really significant. When said twice, the first line of the poem by Verlaine,
Chanson d'Automne, "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" meant that the "day" was imminent,
and when the second line "blesse mon coeur d'une langueur monotone" was also repeated, the Resistance
knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. Messages such as: "Il fait chaud
à Suez" (It's hot in Suez), "Les dés sont sur le tapis" (The dice are on the mat), "Le chapeau de
Napoléon est dans l'arène" (Napoleon's hat is in the arena), "John aime Marie" (John loves Marie),
"La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu" (The Trojan War will not take place) or "La Flèche ne passera
pas" (the Arrow will not get through), all told the members of the Resistance it was time to go
about their respective missions, which included destroying water towers or entire communication
networks, or dynamiting selected roadways.
Would you like to read more about France?
Click here.
|
|
|
Happy Outcome
|
After these most painful and difficult days, victory, peace and liberty finally arrived. For many,
there was also a love story in the end: more than 2,000 French women married American soldiers.
The American Red Cross opened a "school" for them, to keep them busy during the several months of
waiting it took to obtain proper documentation, without which they could not leave with their new
husbands or go meet them in the US. The Red Cross also helped demystify the image these young women
had of the United States. Indeed, it seemed absolutely necessary to educate these future Americans
about their new homeland in hopes of preventing any potential cultural shock. The school's main
objective was to teach them that life in the U.S. would probably be easier than in France, but that
they would most likely not become Hollywood stars.
|
|
| |
 |
|
|
