Operation Neptune / D-Day 75th Anniversary

I visited London on June 6, 2019, the 75th anniversary of Operation Neptune, better known as D-Day.  Operation Neptune was the Allied code name for the assault phase of the larger Operation Overlord, the invasion of northwest Europe.  To give you an idea of the scope of this operation I have provided the following:



The Cenotaph

Almost 7,000 ships were involved in Operation Neptune with the vast majority of them being British.  Eighty-percent of the 6,939 naval vessels engaged in the operation were provided by the Brits. Though the US contributed over 1,100 ships, it made up less than seventeen-percent of all vessels.  Other nations contributed to the sea lift of men and material to the beach heads; France, Holland, Norway and Poland had seamen and ships involved.  At total of close to 200,000 naval personnel of all nationalities participated. 

When it came to feet hitting the beach heads the US lead the way; 73,000 American soldiers came ashore on the two landing site of Omaha and Utah Beach.  The men of the 4th Inf. Div. at Utah Beach, the extreme western beach-head, faired best in the landing with only 197 men of the 23,000 who waded ashore being killed or wounded, while Omaha took the worse of it suffering 2,400 casualties of the 34,000 men of the 1st & 29th Inf. Div. who landed (over seven-percent).

Further east on the Normandy coast the British 30th Corps landed on Gold Beach, pushing 25,000 men ashore, while a combined Canadian and British unit came ashore at Juno Beach (3rd Canadian Inf. Div. & British Royal Marines Commando 48).  On the eastern flank the Brits landed 29,000, the remainder of the 1st Corps, on Sword Beach.  Juno took the heaviest losses for the Commonwealth troops losing 1,200 soldiers of the 21,400 who landed (over five-percent).

Altogether, soldiers from twelve nations participated in the landings.  In addition to the US, British and Canadian forces the countries of Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, and Poland had fighting men engaged in the landings.  In addition to the French Resistance fighters behind the lines, a French commando unit of 177 men came ashore on D-Day.



Horse Guard

Aiding the assault from the sea were American and British airborne units.  The US 82nd & 101st Airborne executed a night drop of paratroopers and glider forces on Cotentin Peninsula behind Utah Beach while the British 6th Airborne jumped into the fray on the east bank of the Orne River.  Protecting the skies, Allied aircraft flew over 14,000 sorties.

Operation Neptune is listed in history books as the largest amphibious operation in history.

For the anniversary the BBC dedicated much of their broadcasts on June 5th and 6th to D-Day and those few men and women who participated in the operation in 1944.  All those who remain are in their 90's, and almost to the man they state that the heroes of D-Day reside in the 27 cemeteries in Normandy that are the resting place of more than 110,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen.



The red poppy, the symbol of memorial to the fallen from war, was prevalent throughout London the week of the 6th.  Attractions specific to D-Day or WWII were crowded throughout the week.  We visited The Imperial War Museum, The Churchill Bunker, the Horse Guards Museum, St. Clement-Danes Church (the official RAF church) with rolls of honor dedicated to the many squadrons of all nations that participated in the Battle of Britian and the European invasion, and St. Paul's Cathedral with its American Memorial Chapel directly behind the high alter.  Other sites we did not get a chance to see include the HMS Belfast, anchored on the Thames near the Tower Bridge, the RAF Museum at Hendon, and the Blizwalkers tour.  Outside of London on the coast of the English Channel you can find the Royal Navy Museum and Dock Yards in Portsmouth and the Royal Tank Museum in Bovington, home to tanks from the US, Britain, Russia and Germany. 



Roll of Honor for American Air Force at St. Clement-Danes

Spitfire in Imperial War Museum



St. Paul's Cathedral - American Memorial



The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery Royal Salute

While on a recent visit to London I was honored to attend Prince Philip, HRH Duke of Edinburgh's, 98th birthday royal salute in Hyde Park.  The salute was performed at noon on a rainy Monday by the precision Royal Horse Artillery. 

Pulling World War One vintage 13-pound field guns and caissons, six teams of six black horses charged across the Hyde Park green to the accompaniment of a military band.  At their line of fire, the gun crews rapidly dismount, unlimber the artillery and ready the guns to fire, as the horse handlers swiftly move the caissons and horses to the rear.

 As the clock struck noon the unit commander gave the command for gun-one to fire, repeating the fire command every ten-seconds down the gun line from gun one to six, looping the command until a 41-gun salute had been rendered to Prince Philip.

At the conclusion of the salute the horse handlers returned across the field where the gun crews rapidly limbered the guns, mounted the horses and stormed off the green to the cheers of the spectators.  At this point the military band formed up and march away playing a rousing tune.

What a great experience.  I just happened to be in London at the right time and was lucky enough to have a local Londoner alert me of the when and where of the royal salute.

Over the Independence Day weekend we visited the little town of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, in the heart of Cajun country.  My main reason for taking the trip was to see Avery Island, the home of Tabasco Sauce and get an introduction to the region’s creole music -- Zydeco.

Zydeco is fast tempo music dominated by the squeeze box (accordion), scrub-board and guitar.  Throw in a room full of dancers and you have a Cajun party.

Driving over the 18-mile bridge that spans the Atchafalaya Swamp, we knew we were getting close to our destination.  Breaux Bridge is in south-central Louisiana near Lafayette, the home of the Ragin Cajuns of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  Crossing the namesake Breaux Bridge steel truss draw-bridge, we entered the little town of 8,000 residents.

We woke to a typical Louisiana day – hot and humid, and it was off to Avery Island.  Traveling the 35-miles down LA-31 to the island took us through more sleepy little towns and plenty of sugarcane fields. On the approach to the island we crossed a small causeway with a toll gate.  The admittance charge to Avery Island was a whopping one-dollar per vehicle!  The gate keeper was a cheerful guy and a worthy ambassador for the island.

Following the signs we proceeded to McIlhenny Companies Tabasco factory, a large building with a brick rick-rack façade. A short film followed by a quick plant walk-through was the extent of the tour, then it was over to the general store to sample their assorted flavors and purchase our souvenirs. 

Next we paid a visit to Jungle Gardens, a refuge for alligators, snowy egrets, turtles, giant bamboo stands, and mossy live oak trees.

Leaving the island we drove due north to see the sights of Lafayette.  The two highlights were the drive-thru Daiquiri bars and a visit to St. John’s Cathedral to see the 500 year old Live Oak tree. The impressive tree stands over 125-ft high and spreads more than 138-ft wide and is considered one of the largest in the US.  The cathedral and maze of above ground tombs in the cemetery were also interesting.

The 4^th of July was all Zydeco.  We started the day at Café Des

Amis in downtown Breaux Bridge, where Terry and the Zydeco Bad Boys had the joint a jumping for the breakfast crowd.  The afternoon took us to a brewery on LA-31 for more Zydeco music, and the evening was capped off at a bar called Route 92 to dance to the Zydeco beat of Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie Band.  By the end of the evening my little brain was worn out trying to remember the simple slow-fast-fast-slow-fast-fast dance pattern, the foundation steps to Zydeco dancing and the bed was a-calling.

All-in-all it was an enjoyable trip to Cajun Country where the sugar cane and bayou backwaters monopolize the landscape and Zydeco music is king.

New Orlean's Nat'l WWII Museum Brings the Past to Life

B-17 Liberator

The World War II Museum was the brain child of author and historian Stephan Ambrose.  He had written about D-day and collected countless oral histories from D-Day veterans, Ambrose proposed the idea of a museum in the 1990s to New Orleans community leaders and the project came to fruition in 2000 when it opened as the D-Day Museum.  In 2003 Congress pushed it a step further by naming it the National WWII Museum.  The museum continues to grow, adding structures and exhibits.

Located at the corner of Magazine and Andrew Higgins boulevard in the Central Business District of New Orleans, just a block from the trolley stop at Lee Park, it is within walking distance from the French Quarter and the Art District.

On our recent trip to New Orleans in late March, it was already starting to get muggy in

30-cal water cooled machine gun

“The Big Easy,” so we were pleased to spend two days in this air conditioned museum.  The museum complex is spread out over several buildings.  We spent day-one primarily at the four-story Louisiana Memorial Pavilion which housed the main ticket area, along with displays of a suspended Douglas C-47, a Higgins boat landing craft, and a German anti-aircraft gun in the central atrium.  The upper decks held exhibits of the efforts on the home front, the arsenal of democracy (war footing manufacturing), amphibious invasions, the Pacific, a kiosk where you could hear from Medal of Honor recipients, a gift shop and much, much more. 

With Gen. Teddy Roosevelt Jr.

We concluded the first day by experiencing “Beyond All Boundaries,” a 4-D event located in a Solomon Victory Theater.  The movie is narrated by Tom Hanks.  This was one of the more impressive things we witnessed in our visit, well worth the extra dollars.

Day-two started at the Campaigns of Courage building, a pavilion that is exceedingly well done, dramatizing the personal stories, strategies and struggles of WWII.  “Road to Berlin” is currently open with Road to Tokyo opening in late 2015.

“Road to Berlin” recreates realistic battle scenes starting with Operation Torch (the battle

Sherman Tank

for North Africa), through the Sicilian campaign, up the boot of Italy, and on to the Normandy invasion and beyond.  It covers both the ground and air campaigns.  I was very impressed with the vignette devoted to the Battle of the Bulge; you might want to have a coat on hand when you walk through the Battle of Bulge exhibit as the museum developers realistically simulate the cold winter.

Next we toured static displays on the grass courtyard (loved the Sherman tank); there were men dressed in WWII vintage combat uniforms demonstrating different pieces of equipment.

Finally we ventured into the US Freedom Pavilion, sponsored by Boeing.  A British Spitfire, German Messerschmitt 109, and American Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber, Corsair and P51 Mustang loom suspended from the multistory rafters.  The centerpiece of the exhibit is a B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber and Douglas B-25 Bomber.  These warbirds can be examined from every angle in this multilevel building.

We did not tour it but the USS TANG Experience “Final Mission,” is also located in the Freedom Pavilion.

Other static displays included, bombers, fighters, transports, gliders, jeeps,

Enigma Machine

motorcycles,  trucks, ambulances,  tanks, anti-aircraft guns, artillery, landing craft, crew served weapons (motors and machineguns), anti-tank weapons, rifles and assorted other small arms, uniforms of allies and axis troops from different theaters, communications gear (handi-talkies, PRCs, etc), Norton bomb sights, German Enigma encryption/decryption machines, and various personal effects. The personal histories of the men and women that gave so much to secure our freedom are a must and brings the exhibit to life.  It's well worth your time to listen to their first-hand accounts of barrack’s life to battle fields, armory parades to aerial combat, beach landings to backroom brawls, some humorous, some poignant, some courageous, --- all entertaining.

Hidden Treasure, Observation Hill, Sydney, Australia

Situated just east of the Sydney Harbor Bridge in the Rocks section of town is an often overlooked Sydney treasure -- Observation Hill, the location of the Sydney Observatory.  Opened in 1858, the Observatory was originally established to calculate the correct time from the movement of the stars.  Ships in Sydney Harbor needed a way to adjust and calibrate their chronometers.  An Astronomer observed the sun by day and stars at night to calculate the celestial time and convey it to the mariners in port in order to aid them in determining longitude while at sea.  This service is still provided to this day by the traditional dropping of the Time Ball at exactly 1 p.m. everyday.  Up to 1942 the dropping of the Time Ball was accompanied by the firing of a cannon, for an audible signal to complement the visual signal of the ball drop.  Three minutes before 1 p.m. the ball starts to rise up its supporting shaft and is dropped promptly at one o’clock. 

The Time Ball is one of several fascinating features to Observation Hill.  The hill, the highest natural point

overlooking Sydney Harbor, was also the location of the harbor’s signal station.  From the hill messages were sent to ships in the harbor and to the town’s port authority via flags flown from a signal flagstaff.  Signal flags announced the arrival of ships into the harbor as well as informing port authorities of the names, origin and cargo of new arrivals. Ships in the harbor received weather, directives and other information via the signal flags.

Hand-in-hand with the timekeeping function, the Observatory also recorded astronomical data.  It has two domes which house telescopes; the south dome contains Australia’s oldest telescope installed in 1874 to observe the Transit of Venus and the north dome, added in 1878, has a state-of-the-arts reflecting telescope.  Beginning in 1887 the Observatory took part in an international project to photograph and map the entire sky.  It took almost 80 years for the Observatory to document the zone of the southern sky it had been allocated.

Additionally, in the early years of Sydney’s growth Observation Hill was also used as a meteorology center where the weather was recorded and forecast, as well as the point from which all official surveying of the town was conducted.

Today, Observation Hill provides a perfect location to gaze upon both Sydney and Darling Harbor, the views of Sydney Harbor Bridge are outstanding.  The grounds are perfect for a picnic and many people go there to exercise.  The hill is also home to a statue of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen and a war memorial to those who served in the Boer War in what is today South Africa.  Above all, the Observatory is home to a museum that displays many artifacts from an earlier era of Sydney's time of tall ships and and says when long frock coats were fashionable. 

ANZAC Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia

On February 15th, the 72nd anniversary of the 1942 surrender of Singapore to the Japanese, I had the honor of visiting the ANZAC (Australian-New Zealand Army Corps) Memorial.  Situated on the southern end of Hyde Park in downtown Sydney, the Memorial is positioned aside a rectangular reflecting pool and is constructed of pink granite.  

Statue of Light Horseman

Approaching the Memorial, I was immediately captivated by the sculptures on the exterior of the building.  Like sentries, the sculptures sit in silence looking down on visitors as they come near the Memorial.  Four figures sit atop pillars on each side of the building.  There is an additional figure standing atop each corner of the Memorial, for a total of twenty statues.  The ANZAC Memorial was originally constructed in 1932 to honor the men and women who served in WWI, so the sculptures depict soldiers from that era.  The statues represent soldiers from every branch of the armed forces to include the medical corps and nurses.  Over each entrance is a impressive 10-meter (33-foot) bronze relief panel depicting scenes from the Eastern (Gallipoli) and Western (France) Fronts.

West Entrance to Memorial

Northwest corner of Memorial

The focal point of the Memorial is a bronze statue titled "Sacrifice" depicting a fallen warrior laying on his shield and sword reminiscent of the Spartan saying, "Come home with your shield or on it."  In Spartan culture, martial honor was the highest virtue, and weakness the ultimate sin, but I do not believe this statue is meant to glorify war for the architect, Bruce Dellit, said of this sculpture, "There is no pomp, no vain glory, no glamour in this group, rather there is stark tragedy, grim reality and bitter truth.  But it is the truth which tells not only of the brutality of war and of the suffering it engenders, but of that noblest of all human qualities - self-sacrifice for duty."  The shield and nude soldier are supported by three women, his mother, his sister and his wife holding their infant child (Courage, Endurance and Sacrifice), symbolizing womanhood who in the war years, with quiet courage and noble resignation, bore her burdens, the loss of sons, husbands and lovers.  The child represents the future generations for which this ultimate sacrifice was made.

Situated above the statue "Sacrifice" is an atrium with a domed ceiling known as the Dome of Stars.  Each of the 120,000 gold stars embedded in the ceiling represents a man or woman from Australia's state of New South Wales that participated in WWI. Following a curved staircase up from the Hall of Silence, which houses "Sacrifice", you arrive at the Hall of Memory which has a balustrade open to view the "Sacrifice" below.  On this level are niches listing all the major battles the soldiers participated in.  There are niches for France and Belgium, Egypt and Palestine, Gallipili, and the fourth, for New Guinea and War at Sea.

The Memorial was rededicated in the 1980's to honor all ANZAC servicemen of all wars and houses a nice museum on the ground floor displaying artifacts from WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam, and the current conflicts in Afghanistan. 

If ever in Sydney, Australia take a moment to visit the Memorial and pay tribute to our allies -- the men and women of Australia and New Zealand.

 

Pearl Harbor Day

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it “a day which will live in infamy,” December 7, 1941.  In 2012, Seventy-one years later, few of this generation know why December 7^th is a special day of remembrance.

It was our parents and grandparents equivalent to the horrors and anger we experienced on September 11, 2001 at the destruction of the World Trade Center twin-towers.  In an early morning raid, thousands of American military servicemen lost their lives in a Japanese aerial attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base and other military installations on Oahu, Hawaii, which served as the catalyst for the United States entry into WWII.

I have a special connection to this event for my father was already a seasoned sailor in the last year of his first Navy enlistment in December 1941.  He was serving aboard the fast destroyer, USS Gridley (DD-380), steaming with Task Force -8, under the command of Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, escorting the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise which had been tasked with ferrying Marine Corps aircraft to Wake Island.  They had departed their home-base on November 28, off loaded the planes at Wake Island on December 4, and were returning to Pearl Harbor when the Japanese struck on December 7, 1941.

Located approximately 200-miles west of the island of Oahu, the thirteen war ships of TF-8 stoked their boilers to flank speed and went to General Quarters upon notification the attack was in progress, steaming full throttle to Pearl Harbor.  They arrived at Pearl the following day, December 8^th, and were greeted by the sights of destruction and carnage which a day earlier had been the US Pacific Fleet.  While the Gridley refueled and took on provisions, my father and other crew members were assigned to a working party task with recovering dead bodies of their fellow sailors floating in the oily waters of the harbor.

These are his most vivid memories of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  They would pull the burned and mangled bodies from the water and wrap them in a mattress cover.  Dole Pineapple had built a narrow track railroad from their warehouse to the docks, and the corpses would be placed on the flat cars and pushed back to the warehouse which had been converted into a makeshift morgue.  The working party labored at this into the night.  The following day they steamed back out of Pearl Harbor to begin patrolling that would keep them at sea for many months to come.

Pearl Harbor Day commemorates these men who gave their all in the service of our country.  Stop a moment and give thanks for the sacrifices made to keep us free in past generations, and take time to educate the coming generation as to the events which make this a special day of remembrance.