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This evening 65 years ago, the allied forces left harbors in ships and boats of every description, planes took off with men packed in them for the second day in a row... this time there would not be any turning back due to weather. Heading toward the Normandy coast-line in France. The men parachuting would land soon, the men on the boats at low tide in the morning, catching the Germans by surprise with the foul weather. Weather so bad Rommel was away visiting his wife for her birthday.

The Germans knew the 'coded' message for the French underground, and the Germans disbelieved that the allies would transmit the secret message (from a poem) in the open. Hitler thought Normandy was the site for the invasion attempt, then thought it was Calias.

A look for good men were going to die.....

Thank you to those veterans that participated in Operation Overlord for D-day and for those veterans that did not participate there...thank you for your service and D-day where every it may have been, regardless of role!!!

God Bless!!

Some trivia questions for D-day.

Besides Eisenhower, who else was a final candidate to command Normandy invasion by President Roosevelt?

Who was advising General Eisenhower on the weather prior to D-day?

What was Operation Sledgehammer?

Who coined the pharse Operation Overlord?

What was Operation Round-up?

How man airborne divisions went in by parachute?

What were the designated names of the beaches?

What nationalities landed on what beaches?

What was Operation PLUTO?

What was the name of the Naval operations for Operation Overlord?

Who was General Eisenhower's Naval Aid?

Who was General Eisenhower's chief of staff?

Who was Commander in Chief of allied forces in the Med after Eisenhower left the Med?

What is the code name of the Allied deception of the Germans about the site of the D-Day landings?

What was Operation Copperhead?

What was Operation Dragoon? What was this operation called prior to 'Dragoon'?

What was SHAEF?

Who was in command of SHAEF?

What was Operation Fortitude?

What was Operation Fortitude North?

What was Operation fortitude South?

What was Operation Fortitude South II?

What was Operation Ironside?

What is a Mulberry?

To answer a few of the questions that stand out in cursory glance:

I believe Gen G. Marshall was also in the running, but the President ultimately decided his position as Chief-of-Staf was more important.

Group Captain Stagg was the chief met officer on Ike's staff.

Wasn't Op PLUTO the underwater pipeline that was run under the Channel?

Ike's Chief of Staff was Bedall (Beetle) Smith


At least I think I am correct on those. My area of interest has always bee nthe Canadian area of operations.

Panzerleader, you are correct on all your answers. PLUTO was proposed my Lord Mountbatten in 1942.

General Marshall was assumed to be ready to take over and Gen. Eisenhower was to assume Marshall's duties Army Chief, but Pres Roosevelt said that he would sleep better knowing Marshall was in Washington. Marshall did want a more active role, but he was the Organizer of Victory, and he took office the same day the Germans and the Russians invaded Poland, Sept 1, 1939.

Major General Walter Bedell Smith, (the Brits spelled his last name at Bedell-Smith, sort of like Sir Alan-Brooke not Alan Brooke). After the war Beetle was Ambassador to Russia and was in charge of the CIA.

What was SHEAF?

This one threw me a bit. I take it you meant SHAEF? As in Supreme Headquaters Allied Expiditionary Force, commanded by Ike himself.

If it is another acronym, I'm not sure.

You are right again. Great.

No one else playing?

I'll take a crack at a couple of other ones then.

"How many airborne divisions went in by parachute? "

I think that was 3 (101st, 82nd, and British 1st Para.)

"What were the designated names of the beaches? "

Utah (US), Omaha(US), Gold (British), Juno (Canadians ), Sword (British.)

"What is a Mulberry?"
The 2 large artificial harbours that were brought in. Just learned today that Mulberry A (in the American Sector) was pretty much destroyed in a storm, and Mulberry B (British Sector was heavily damaged. We would have been in some fix if Mul. B was beyond repair.

Weren't the Operation Fortitude the deception plans for the Normandy invasion? (I am not sure the various sub plans however )

Pzrleader. Good job with your participation and answers.
How man airborne divisions went in by parachute? Three divisons, one Brit (6th) and two US (82 & 101st).

What nationalities landed on what beaches? Sword – UK, Juno – Canadian, Gold – British, Omaha – US, Utah – US.

What is a Mulberry? Name given to prefabricated harbors floated across the English Channel to create sheltered areas for ships supporting the D-Day invasion. They were conceived by Lord Mountbatten. The mulberries were beat up really bad with the storm, and the Brit Mulberry was in better shape and thus canabalized the US Mulberry for the Brit to provide a 'safe' harbor for supplies over the beach.

VonTed, here you go. Good call!!!
What was Operation Fortitude? Plan to deceive the Germans into believing that the Normandy landings were merely a feint so that the real assault would be at Pas de Calais.

What was Operation Fortitude North? Plan to make the Germans believe that the D-day invasion would be again Scandinavia.

What was Operation fortitude South? Plan to convince the Germans that Belgium and north coast of France.

What was Operation Fortitude South II? Plan to convince the Germans that Belgium and northern France were still the main targets of the invasion, even after the Normandy landings.

What was Operation Ironside? Plan to make the Germans believe that the port of Bordeaux would be invaded, it was part of Operation Fortitude.

Just a reminder that today is the anniversary of D-Day invasion in Normandy France. Does any one else have any trivia?

What nationalities took part to the operation? Air, sea and actual landing.

There were many other besides Canada, UK and USA.

I may be missing something but I thought D-Day was 67 years ago??????

IRISH

Ah so I was missing the date the thread was written Thank You MK-1
That makes total sense to me now. Salute to my Dad who built B-25s in Kansas City and to my Uncle Bob: Tail gunner on a B-17 over Europe ( 1943-45, 25 missions )

IRISH wrote:I may be missing something but I thought D-Day was 67 years ago??????

67 years ... and a couple days, at this point.

But only 65 years when this thread was started.

Operation Dragoon was the code name for the invasion of Southern France.
Polish and Free French ships took part in the Naval Bombardment of Normandy. If my memory is correct (doubtful in this case) there may have been Dutch ships in the Naval forces also.
Groundlber

Besides USA, UK and Canada:
Poland, Norway, Netherland, Greece, Free French at sea
Free french and Luxembourg on land. (They landed on Sword in the commando Kieffer of 177men inmcluding a small group from Lucxembourg)
In the air New Zealand, Aistralia.and Free French

In the days after the landing were involved Belgians and Czeck too