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Radio
06-05-2013, 05:12 PM
Most will forget that June 6 is the anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Thank you, sirs. Can I get a second?

W5DOK
06-05-2013, 05:36 PM
Sadly, most of todays generation have never heard of, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, the 5 beachheads. The Normandy invasion was executed after the Germans were deceived into believing that the invasion would be in Norway or further North up the coast. Something like 200,000 allied troops were involved in the invasion and the casualties were staggering.
RIP brothers.
Doc

Andy N1ORK
06-05-2013, 08:11 PM
To the Brave men and women who help beat Hitler and the axis and gave their lives to keep us free.
73!

NN5I
06-05-2013, 09:52 PM
The Normandy invasion was executed after the Germans were deceived into believing that the invasion would be in Norway or further North
Doc

Actually they were deceived into thinking it would be at Calais, about 150 miles east of the Normandy beaches.

Multiple decrypts of German and Japanese radio messages in late 1943 and early 1944 had confirmed that the Germans were convinced that the Pas de Calais was the Allied target. One decrypted message was from Japan's Berlin ambassador (Oshima) to his superiors in Tokyo in November 1943, detailing in staggering detail his tour of Hitler's Western Wall. For weeks after D-Day, Oshima's reports to Tokyo continued to confirm that the Germans still thought the Normandy invasion was a feint and were still on guard in Calais and St Malo. This kept many German divisions out of the fight.

The deception was very elaborate, involving the creation of a totally imaginary First United States Army Group (FUSAG), supposedly commanded by George S. Patton Jr. FUSAG was made visible to German aerial reconnaissance by the creation of many hundreds of wooden "tanks" and other equipment, and entire fake bases.

See FUSAG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_United_States_Army_Group) for more on this fascinating (to me anyhow) piece of history. Also, radio hams ought to read Battle of Wits, Stephen Budiansky's exhaustive history of Allied codebreaking in World War II. I'm on my third copy -- I wore the first two out.

wa8yxm
06-06-2013, 06:33 AM
You mentioned the fact the German's were deceived into thinking the invasion would be elsewhere.... That was due to a single company of the US army.. consisting of Hollywood type FX Specialists. They staged an invasion (Well the invasion staging area) Hollywood style.. Just a handful of people involved but lots of lights and props.

W5DOK
06-06-2013, 06:57 AM
I had an uncle that was in the Normandy invasion. After I returned from Viet Nam, he would tell me stories about the battles. Before Nam, his response was always that you had to be there to understand. I was always more than willing to provide the libation to hear his stories. He was in one of the Ranger units that scaled the sheer cliffs to knock out the big guns. The 155's that the Germans had already moved further up the coast. Our commanders did not tell the troops that the guns had been moved to further motivate them to get to the top of the cliffs. He was wounded in the invasion and again later in another battle. Some of his accounts of the battle were considerably different than those of the historians. Those men were true heroes.
Doc

TXiceman
06-07-2013, 04:42 PM
Yep, the past veterans are fading away as well as their memory.

My Dad was stationed at Pearl harbor on December 7, 1941 on a destroyer Escort, DD391.

These people from this generation were true heroes.

Ken

NN5I
06-07-2013, 09:44 PM
My Dad was stationed at Pearl harbor on December 7, 1941 on a destroyer Escort, DD391.

A destroyer, USS Henley, DD391, or a destroyer escort, USS Chambers, DE391? Destroyer escorts were smaller than destroyers.

Couldn't have been Chambers (DE391), because she was first commissioned on 11/22/1943; therefore must have been Henley (DD391), commissioned 08/14/1937. Henley was a destroyer, not a destroyer escort.

From Wikipedia: When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941, Henley was moored in East Loch with battle stations manned, a green sailor having sounded General Quarters instead of Quarters for Muster. This fortunate mistake gave Henley under the command of Lieutenant Francis Edward Fleck, Jr., the opportunity to fire the first destroyer shots as the initial wave of enemy planes swooped in. A bomb exploded 150 yards off her port bow as she slipped her chain from the buoy, and, as she cleared, she received a signal that a submarine was in the harbor. Henley maneuvered through the smoke, fire, and confusion and sped out of the channel. Her gunners shot down one dive bomber with her .50 cal. guns and shared credit for another. Conned by Fleck—both her commanding officer and executive officer were ashore when the attack began—Henley dropped depth charges on a sonar contact, possibly a midget submarine, outside the harbor, and continued to blaze away at the enemy with her guns. In the following weeks Henley operated with the task forces to reinforce Wake Island and conducted patrol for the protection of Midway and convoy lanes.

Henley carried out convoy and antisubmarine duty, primarily in Australian waters. On 11 May 1942 she rescued the survivors of the USS Neosho and USS Sims, sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea. She departed for Wellington 22 July 1942 to escort transports to Guadalcanal. As American forces stormed ashore in the Solomons 7 August, Henley patrolled on an ASW station, coming under fire from enemy planes but suffering no casualties and assisting in shooting down two in the process. As the fierce struggle for Guadalcanal raged, the destroyer remained in the area to screen ships bringing up supplies and reinforcements until 29 August. Henley then set course south, and remained in Australian and New Guinea waters until September 1943 on plane guard, convoy duty, and antisubmarine patrol.

That's proud service. Your father and his crewmates were true heroes. Remember them.

TXiceman
06-08-2013, 09:25 PM
After the Henley was torpedoed, my Dad was fished from the water and woke up on a hospital on its was to Pearl Harbor. He spent several month in rehab at Pearl and finished his duty on a sea going tug on the east coast. When the Henley went down he was a Chief and was a Motor Machinist. He was in the engine room when they were torpedoed.

The ships logs are on line and describe the torpedo attack. A group had put together a Power Point presentation on the history of DD391 and the attack at Pearl harbor which included interviews of some of the shipmates that were still around. It was amazing reading. The veterans are true heroes.

My Dad passed away in 1969 from lung cancer. 48 years old is way too short of a life.

Ken