D-Day.

This is coolbert:

June 6 1944.

The invasion of Normandy. The allied assault on Festung Europa. The return of allied forces to France and the beginning of the march across Europe that would result in the demise of Hitler and his regime.

Sixty three years ago today. Always a day of remembrance. I hope it always will be.

Let us put some figures in perspective regarding the landings at Normandy.

More than three thousand American military personnel have been killed during the four years of warfare that has raged in Iraq.

During that first day at Normandy, allied losses were over five thousand killed ON THE FIRST DAY ALONE!!

"About 2,500 GI's died on the beaches and 2,600 paratroopers died."

[this would include NOT only American, would be total allied dead!!]

EVEN BEFORE THE INVASION, IN PREPARATION, DURING REHEARSALS, CATASTROPHIC LOSSES WERE SUFFERED BY ALLIED MILITARY UNITS.

This was Exercise Tiger.

It was all supposed to go so smoothly.

"a full-scale rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy

"Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises that would take place in April and May 1944."

Troops, destined to be landed at Utah beach in Normandy on 6 June, embarked on a TRAINING EXERCISE in the English channel. Aboard a flotilla of Landing Ship Troops [LST]. Were to be landed on ENGLISH beaches that greatly resembled the actual landing sites in Normandy.

Were attacked by German "schnell boots" [fast boats]. Called E-boats by the allies.




A German naval attack that was successful:

"One transport caught fire and was abandoned, a second sunk shortly after being torpedoed, a third was set on fire but eventually made it back to shore."

"There is little information about how exactly individual soldiers and sailors died."

NO!! Some troops drowned. Some burned to death. Some died of smoke inhalation.

Losses were heavy. And recall, this WAS A TRAINING EXERCISE!! Varying figures exist for the number of casualties.

"led to the deaths of almost one thousand American troops"

"The attack caused over 600 casualties . . . 638 servicemen were killed - 441 US Army and 197 US Navy personnel."

"746 men were killed --"

"749 U.S. soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger."

Dig this now:

"compared to only about 200 in the Utah Beach invasion."

"more then four times the losses suffered at Utah on D-DAY."

CONSIDERABLY MORE TROOPS DIED DURING THE DRESS REHEARSAL THAN WERE ACTUALLY KILLED ON UTAH BEACH ITSELF!!

It gets even worse:

"Ten missing officers involved in the exercise had Bigot-level clearance for D-Day, meaning that they knew the invasion plans and could have compromised the invasion should they have been captured alive. As a result, the invasion was nearly called off until the bodies of all ten victims were found."

[Bigot clearance meant you were privy to the Normandy invasion plans!!]

"'BIGOT' was a D-Day codeword, defining ultra top-secret clearance required to know details of the landing plans. Those with this knowledge were called 'BIGOTed'."

And even worse yet:

"Many servicemen drowned in the cold sea waters whilst waiting to be rescued. Soldiers unused to being at sea panicked and put on their lifebelts wrongly. In some cases this meant that when they jumped into the water, the weight of their combat packs flipped them onto their backs, pushing their heads underwater and drowning them."

[I would have to assume here that those combat packs weighed as much as eighty pounds each. That was the load the first wave infantryman at Normandy had to go ashore with! Excessive and unneeded weight!!??]

For many years later, this "incident", Exercise Tiger, was not talked about. NO WONDER WHY!!

coolbert.