Did you know????????

In 1974, a Japanese soldier named Hiroo Onoda came out of the jungle of the Pacific island of Lubang. He had been hiding out there for 29 years, unaware that his country had surrendered....

ref: DK Eyewitness Books (World War II)

Jem

 

In 2003, a message in a bottle washed up on a beach in Sweden. It had been sent 60 years earlier by an Estonian refugee hiding on Gotska Sandoen, 95 miles (150km) away. Around 2,000 refugees from the Baltic states had found safety on this island during the war....

ref: DK Eyewitness Books (World War II)

Jem

 

That is true Mark, but what isn't widely known is that the great bulk of the DD amphibious Shermans made it to shore and were greatly appreciated by the troops on the beach. It would appear that the "Hobart funnies" model called the DDs (duplex drive) were only poorly served by the US forces on one beach when they were launched too far from shore in too rough a sea at Omaha. But it wasn’t because the US didn’t value Hobart's contribution of his "funnies" (I think his first Duplex Drive unit was designed for either the Churchill or the Valentine?).

The entire Canadian Fort Gary Horse squadron of 18 Sherman DD tanks arrived on Juno beach safely (with no sea loss), partly due to the Royal Navy's insistence on getting as close as possible to the beach before releasing the tanks (unlike we Americans who lost nearly all of our DD Shermans assigned to Omaha). Those launched toward Sword also made it with little loss, and they were launched about the same distance out as those at Omaha, but the currents and winds were different at that beach. It is also sometimes forgotten, but true that when floating in the water, the longer hulled British Sherman V (powered by that bizarre Chrysler 30 cylinder engine) displaced more water and floated slightly higher than the other Sherman models. So it may have been the shorter distance from the shore at Juno, coupled with different currents in both the more northern and southern beaches, and using trained Royal Navy coxswains as pilots which were the deciding factors.

Freeboard for the British Sherman V was 3 to 4 feet, while the American Shermans only had 2 to 3 feet of freeboard above the waves. Any appreciable swell could spill over the collapsible screen of the American Shermans, especially during launching down the carrier vessel's ramp in rough seas when the DD tank would sink like a stone if the electric and mechanical bilge pumps could not keep up with the entering water.

This is what happened to the DD Sherman tanks of the US 741st Tank Battalion when they were launched in the too heavy seas too far away from the Omaha beach on D-day without trained "seamen" piloting them. If they had been piloted by men with more training in small craft (Coast Guardsmen come to mind) perhaps they would NOT have continued to steer toward the objective of the "church steeple", and actually gone "with the sea" as did the British units.

Of the 29 Sherman DD tanks in this unit, only 2 made it safely to shore, most of them became either lost assets, or coffins in the Channel. Most of the men in the tanks actually escaped when they sank, which is why only five men were lost in total. It is still felt that the radio transmission of the USNCDU’s (Navy Combat Demolition Unit) was either missed or ignored which advised that the DDs NOT be launched at the original distance planned on. It was these and other things that sent nearly all of that group to the bottom.

Here is a timeline from a CMH site I found concerning the DDs:

0535 hours. DD tanks of A & B Squadrons, 13th/18th Hussars, on order 'Floater' launch tanks approx 5,000 yards from shore. (about the same distance as Omaha launching)
0558 hours. Sunrise.
Due to tidal variations along the French coast H-Hour on the various beaches was as follows:-
Utah and Omaha.. 06.30
Gold and Sword 07.25.
Juno right wing 07.35)
>both later delayed by ten minutes.
Juno left wing 07.45).

0629 hours. 28 DD tanks of 743rd Tank Battalion plus 14 conventional Sherman tanks land dry on the western part of Omaha beach. Of those DD tanks from 741st destined for the eastern end of Omaha 29 were launched at 5,000 yards from shore, of which 27 foundered in rough seas.
0630 hours. First Landing Craft reach Utah and Omaha beaches.
0640 hours. First DD tanks of 70th Tank Battalion come ashore on Utah (10 or so minutes after the shore was "secured").
0650 hours. Sexton SP guns of 86 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) commence firing from Landing Craft.
0655 hours. Swimming DD tanks of A Squadron 13th/18th Hussars are overrun (passed) by LCTs containing AVRE tanks.
0708 hours. 2nd Ranger Battalion, U S Army, lands at the foot of cliffs below Pointe du Hoc.
0720 hrs. Landing Craft bring C and D (DD tanks) Squadrons of 4th/7th Dragoon Guards close enough to drive ashore with screens raised due to rough conditions. B and C Squadrons, Sherwood Rangers launch DD tanks at 500 yards for a (very) short swim to the beach.
0725 hours. Flail tanks of 22nd Dragoons start to come ashore.
0730 hours. DD tanks of 13th/18th Hussars come ashore on Queen sector of Sword Beach.
0739 hours. Self propelled artillery of 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade start to fire from Landing Craft on the run in to Juno.
07.58 hours. DD tanks of 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Canadian Hussars) land on Mike Sector, Juno Beach.
0800 hours. No movement possible on Omaha beach.
0810 hours. DD tanks of 10th Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse) land on Nan Sector after a "very wet wade". C Squadron and RHQ 13th/18th Hussars land on Sword Beach.
0900 hours. Panzer Regiment 22 leaves Caen, heading north-east for the coast. Subsequently recalled to defend Caen.
0930 hours. DD and other tanks of A Squadron, 13th/18th Hussars and 1st Battalion South Lancashire Regiment capture Hermanville-sur-Mer.
1030 hours. Tanks of Staffordshire Yeomanry land on Sword Beach. 86th Field Regiment RA start to land Sexton SP guns on Sword Beach.

So, whether they "played a major role" or not, the DD tanks did mostly "make it", and those tanks (not just the DDs) of the 13th/18th Hussars became among the first Allied tanks to lay a track on French soil. Some of the British DDs had swum for almost two miles from their launching craft. Both of those British regiments subsequently fought all the way through France, Belgium and Germany until the final Nazi surrender in May 1945.

 

Well done Clint, appreciate the detailed info! So a good portion of the Shermans DID make it.... the timeline helps a lot. Here's another one

Where radio transmitters or telephones were unavailable, the military often relied on carrier pigeons for sending emeregency reports. Armies had special pigeon divisions with mobile pigeon lofts....

ref: DK Eyewitness Books (World War II)

Jem

 

Your are welcome. The pigeon messengers were considered invaluable, it is estimated that nearly 90% of the messages sent by pigeon were delivered.

During WW2 the British had the largest pigeon forces, about a ¼ of a million of them I think. The US also used them, but not nearly as extensively. I think America had less than 60,000 pigeons in service. One of our (American) pigeons was also awarded the highest medal for a non-human combatant, the Dickin Medal. It is sometimes referred to as the Animal’s Victoria Cross.

Most of the pigeons who won the award were British, I think only one American pigeon and one from the Irish contingent won the medal in WW2. But I could be wrong, just typing from memory.

 

Very interesting.... Hey Clint, I have dibs on all your ref material! absolutely amazing.

Check this out: What part did magic play in the war?

"Magic" was the code name given to the American cryptographers who were trying to track Japan's cipher machine-the so-called Purple Machine that had been invented by Jinsaburo Ito in 1939. The breakthrough came in September 1940, when William Friedman deciphered the code. The American success at the Battle of the Midway in the Pacific was in part due to the work done by the Magic team....

Jem

 

The "wonder drug" penicillin saved millions of soldiers' lives. It went into full-scale production in 1942...

ref: DK Eyewitness Books (World War II)

 

On this day 68 years ago, over 2,400 American soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country

May they rest in peace

 

On July 1, 1916 during the opening of the Battle of the Somme the British suffered 100,000 casualties in the first hour alone. That's 500 men killed,wounded, or captured every SECOND.

Got that from the WWI book I'm reading. That's mindboggling.

Also, RIP for those who were at Pearl Harbor.

 

Also, on September 16, 1916 the tank made its first appearance on the battlefield, although it did not make as big of an impact as hoped.

 

After the USS West Virginia was raised, and before it was put into drydock, the grisly task to remove the bodies of dead sailors had to be completed. In one air-tight compartment, it was determined by markings on the bulkheads that several men survived until at least December 23rd before joining their comrades that went before them on December 7th. That had to be tough.

 

Cracker Jacks are molasses-coated popcorn created by F. W. Rueckheim in 1873, and are sold all over the world... during World War II the prizes in each Cracker Jacks box were all military oriented to support the war effort.

Jem