D Day Remembered

Absolutely, may we NEVER forget what every fighting man and woman has done for us. Many didn't have what we think of as "D-Days" or landings, but who just as surely fought and died, many whose stories we will never know.

I do try to be inclusive in my posts - thank you, Victor, for that comment - because I am in awe of every person who has ever put on a military uniform and put their life on the line, or was willing to do so, on our behalf. You didn't have to land on a beach in Normanday or Peleliu to be a hero - although those who did, certainly are heroes. There are many heroes and many stories.

However, as today is June 6th, I was remembering the anniversary of the Normandy landings, and I was saluting my own personal hero, my dad!

(Thanks to all of you who saluted him, too. Don't know how I posted it twice, I guess I am always a bit overzealous when it comes to my dad.)

 

I had the honour to know this gentleman well, he signed up with the merchant navy when he was 17, did the Murmansk and North Atlantic, drove a boat onto Juno beach on D-Day and was wounded, and he wasn't evacuated until the following day. He has gone to Valhalla now, but he is and always will be a hero.

KTK

 

Always think ofmy dad on D-Day. Found this board and joined today when a Google search showeda thread on here on his outfit, the 980th FA Battalion. Picture below is me, his dad and my sister at Utah Beachin June 1994. He landed there on June 11[SUP]th[/SUP]. Also a picture of him back in the day.
View attachment 16690

 

To all the fallen and to those who survived I salute you.

 

Great pictures of your dad, ISUnorth. Thanks for sharing them.

 

I don't know about your area but up here in the northeast I was very disapointed in the mainstream media for barely giving these great men a few seconds of mere mention on the local news. I think they want us to forget. Not me, My hats off and over my heart for what all our soldiers then and now did for us! God bless!

Dave Caswell

 

I'm afraid that Hollywood, via pictures like Saving Private Ryan, and lurid TV "documentaries" have grossly exaggerated,
from self-serving motives, the casualties on D-Day, especially Omaha Beach. Omaha could only be called "bloody"
in comparison with the landings on the other 4 beaches, which were virtually unopposed. More soldiers died at Utah as
a result of boating accidents than from enemy action. During the 24 hours of the Omaha Beach landings, roughly 2,000
casualties were taken, many after the troops left the beaches and fought the Germans inland. We landed roughly 40,000
troops on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Fewer than 350 were killed on the beach itself. Those are not heavy casualties. In
comparison, the Pacific landings at Roi-Namur and Kwajalein,also , like Omaha, a two division amphibious landing,
suffered roughly the same number of casualties as were taken as at Omaha, yet those landings were praised because
of their "light casualties." American troops who got off the beach unscathed at Omaha were not "the lucky few."
Those who didn't were actually very unlucky.

 

Got a Google sign in page with that link, Biak. :eh:

 

Beginning with the lessons learned in the Battle for Sicily, this film covers the planning for Normandy and the preparation of troop carrier forces against what the Nazis believed to be an impregnable barrier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8JHiFVrlX0

 

If one of our mods wants to move this to a 101st or Band of Brothers page, as always, feel free. Thank you for all the wonderful work you ladies and gentlemen all do - on a regular basis.

Jim "Pee Wee" Martin (G/506) added 4 new photos.

16 hrs Jim 'Pee Wee' Martin about his 101st combat comrade George Koskimaki "Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just Fade Away" - Amen

I was saddened earlier today to learn of the death of George Koskimaki. George was an original Toccoa Man and participated in all of our European operations. He was in Signal Company and served as General Taylor’s radio man.
I have known George for more that the past fifty years. George was a science teacher and coach (he was known as “Coach K”) during his post war career. In the 1960’s George began deep and methodical research into the experiences of the guys in our outfit. From this research he produced three fine books on D-Day, Market Garden and Bastogne. To this day they are recommended reading for anyone wanting to learn about our WWII era 101st Airborne Division.
George befriended and assisted many young people across the years who were wanting to know more about our unit and our operations. My friend (the author and historian of our division) Mark Bando was mentored by George Koskimaki beginning in the late 1960’s.
I have many fond memories of George visiting me at my home in Ohio. One time he drove down and stayed with Donna and I prior to our traveling together for a division reunion at Fort Benning. George and I always had a good laugh across later years about what characters Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron were at that particular event.
The sand is nearly out of the hourglass for us now. Each week seems to bring news of another friend gone. When one lives deep into his nineties this is expected. Not a day passes when I do not think of several of the guys who have passed on from our unit….and I will always….until my time comes.

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/engforum/index.php?showtopic=7328

In my opinion I'd start with George Koskimaki's three books on the 101st in WW2. Koskimaki is a veteran of the unit from Normandy to the end and interviewed hundreds of his fellow veterans for the three books. They're titled D-Day with the Screaming Eagles, Hell's Highway, and The Battered Bastards of Bastonge. There is a similar pair of books on the 82nd but they are pretty expensive. If you can find it read PARATROOPER! by Gerard Devlin which focuses on all airborne operations in WW2.
For more specific studies start with Tonight We Die as Men and then Deliver Us from Darkness which are two of the three part story of 3rd Battalion of the 506th. The first deals with Normandy and the second with Market Garden and the Island. I assume Ian is working on a third volume but I haven't spoken with him in a long while. I'd also put Ed Ruggero's books Combat Jump (about Sicily) and The First Men In (the 505th in Normandy) on this level.
Below this you get to the personal accounts Don Burgett's four part chronicle of his time in A/506 and the Easy Company accounts are the most well known. From my collection I would add Behind Hitler's Lines (Also called The Simple Sounds of Freedom) by Thomas Taylor about Joseph Beyrle and Ed Albers. The first is the only man to fight with the Americans and Russians and the later went to the same high school and unknowingly joined the same unit.No Surrender by James Sheeran is great as is The Filthy Thirteen. I'd read the latter three with the 3rd Battalion books.
Excerpt from a post by airchallenged at reddit.com - askhistorians comments.

 

Please remove this post. Link added to the above important, in my mind, post. Sorry, thx.

 

Sorry for being late to the party with this, but since it is my area of expertise...

Saying that "only" OMAHA could be called "bloody" in comparison to the other beaches, is both doing a disservice to those assaulting the others beaches as well as those on OMAHA. In effect, it perpetuates another myth. Here are a few clips from my study on D-Day casualties that may be of interest..

[SIZE=12pt]"...it seems clear that the total casualties incurred on SWORD for D-Day were – at a minimum – 1,304 and may have been greater."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]"Overall, it appears that the total loss on JUNO for the entire day were 961 Canadians and about 286 others for a total of about 1,247."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]"...the total minimum casualties in GOLD sector were about 1,023 on D-Day."[/SIZE]

So 3,574 casualties on the Commonwealth beaches.

UTAH is also badly misunderstood. Yes, the 4th ID reported only 12 KIA, fewer than the "boating accidents", but that figure applies only to the units assigned to the 4th ID. It ignores all attachments to the division and all attached and assigned corps and army troops. It is also the estimated loss report, not the final loss report. In fact, total losses on UTAH were [SIZE=12pt]about "...608 casualties; including 140 KIA, 391 WIA, 7 MIA, and 70 undefined".[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Finally, OMAHA.Actual casualties there total "...3,686, significantly higher than the losses on any of the Commonwealth beaches and in fact slightly greater than the assumed total of Commonwealth casualties on all three of those beaches as found above...". One important thing to realize is that roughly three-quarters of those reported MIA actually died. So, for the 1st ID, of 358 MIA reported on 6 June, only a maximum of 70 (all the MIA reported RTD during June), plus the few captured (only 60 men of the 1st ID were actually captured 6 June-24 July). So to the 186 KIA usually reported for the 1st ID should be added about the same number MIA who were in fact killed. For the 29th Division, postwar accounting assumed as many as 390 KIA. Attached and assigned corps and army units may have easily accounted for another 150-200 dead, indicating total dead on OMAHA on 6 June may have been close to 1,000.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]BTW, only 34,250 troops are recorded as landing on OMAHA on "D-Day". [/SIZE]