D-Day - the Normandy landings

[matt]

Thank you, I'll give it a watch when I get a chance.

I'm pretty sure I heard it mentioned on the radio this morning that the programme will only be available on iPlayer for the next day or so, so you may want to watch it sooner rather than later.

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

If you guys will indulge me, these are some other photos and memorabilia of him and his regiment in the Canadian army.

 

[simmo]

The French appreciation of their liberation is of course tempered by the fact that Allied carpet bombing killed 10,000+ French civilians in Normandy in the days immediately prior to D-Day - a bombing campaign that ultimately failed to achieve its objectives and which the historian Antony Beevor suggested was 'practically a war crime'!!

I saw a TV programme about Dachau and there was an American historian at this site talking about what went on there and he basically said something along the lines of.......

.....you know people say it was a war crime to bomb Dresden and such like and that thousands of innocent German civilians died....and I say well this is tragic and every unnecessary death is regrettable, however, my overriding thought is that the Nazis were so evil that the very greatest crime that the Allies could have done would be not to fight at all.

 

[simmo]

Its amazing how the Allies caught the German's off guard and never clicked what was going on.

Read up about the spy Garbo and what his involvement on D-Day.

He was a Spaniard whom the Germans believed were spying for him in England, but he wasn't he was actually a double agent working for us. He told the Germans on D-Day itself don't engage all your troops in Normandy, because this is not the main invasion that is coming in the Pas-De-Calais (and the Germans believed him) and that the Aliied Normandy landing is just a diversion.

That alone must have saved thousands of allied lives and maybe even the success or otherwise of the invasion itself.

 

[Eeyore]

My uncle went over on +6, then on to Belsen. He never said much. Like many he was humble and considered it his duty. Heroes all.

 

[Giraffe]

I'm pretty sure I heard it mentioned on the radio this morning that the programme will only be available on iPlayer for the next day or so, so you may want to watch it sooner rather than later.

Many thanks, I'll get on it soon.

 

[Norman Potting]

Read up about the spy Garbo and what his involvement on D-Day.

He was a Spaniard whom the Germans believed were spying for him in England, but he wasn't he was actually a double agent working for us. He told the Germans on D-Day itself don't engage all your troops in Normandy, because this is not the main invasion that is coming in the Pas-De-Calais (and the Germans believed him) and that the Aliied Normandy landing is just a diversion.

That alone must have saved thousands of allied lives and maybe even the success or otherwise of the invasion itself.

Suggest you read "Operation Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies" - Ben Macintyre. "Churchills Heroes" by Nicholas Rankin gives the wider picture including WW1.

Both books reinforce the thinking that amongst their other qualities the British are very good at being sneaky, devious and generally not playing fair when it comes to the crunch. Garbo and his team effectively constructed a "soap opera" of non - existent spies each with convincing back stories which had the German intelligence fooled into generally believing what we wanted them to believe.

 

[simmo]

Both books reinforce the thinking that amongst their other qualities the British are very good at being sneaky, devious and generally not playing fair when it comes to the crunch. Garbo and his team effectively constructed a "soap opera" of non - existent spies each with convincing back stories which had the German intelligence fooled into generally believing what we wanted them to believe.

Definitely, it is believed that the British turned every German spy based in the UK during the war to work for them, which is utterly staggering and an incredible acheivement. It has been mooted that the Nazis were not very good at espionage because the psyche of their personality in that they tended to think in straight lines (as an eg they fell hook line and sinker for Patton's false army and inflatable tanks based on the SE coast primed to land at Calais).

You know in 1944 the Nazis knew the Allies were coming. You can't really hide half a million men and associated planes, ships, tanks etc, but they didn't know when and where and that is predominately down to brilliant intelligence by the British.

 

[Normal Rob]

but they didn't know when and where and that is predominately down to brilliant intelligence by the British.

actually, a Spaniard...

http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-double-agents-d-day-victory.htm

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Just spotted this on the BBC "Live" feed from Normandy....good on him I say!

14:50: Police say an 89-year-old British D-Day veteran who went missing after being told by care home staff that he could not attend the anniversary commemorations has been found - in Normandy. The man, who has not been named, was reported missing from a care home in Hove on Thursday. It is believed he went out wearing his war medals under a raincoat. Police say they have spoken to the man and are satisfied he is safe and able to return to Hove once the D-Day commemorations are complete.

 

[vegster]

Just spotted this on the BBC "Live" feed from Normandy....good on him I say!

14:50: Police say an 89-year-old British D-Day veteran who went missing after being told by care home staff that he could not attend the anniversary commemorations has been found - in Normandy. The man, who has not been named, was reported missing from a care home in Hove on Thursday. It is believed he went out wearing his war medals under a raincoat. Police say they have spoken to the man and are satisfied he is safe and able to return to Hove once the D-Day commemorations are complete.

This is why we still need Thumbs Up. Good for him.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Just spotted this on the BBC "Live" feed from Normandy....good on him I say!

14:50: Police say an 89-year-old British D-Day veteran who went missing after being told by care home staff that he could not attend the anniversary commemorations has been found - in Normandy. The man, who has not been named, was reported missing from a care home in Hove on Thursday. It is believed he went out wearing his war medals under a raincoat. Police say they have spoken to the man and are satisfied he is safe and able to return to Hove once the D-Day commemorations are complete.

 

[Buzzer]

"told he couldn't attend"?

My goodness.

 

[algie]

Just spotted this on the BBC "Live" feed from Normandy....good on him I say!

14:50: Police say an 89-year-old British D-Day veteran who went missing after being told by care home staff that he could not attend the anniversary commemorations has been found - in Normandy. The man, who has not been named, was reported missing from a care home in Hove on Thursday. It is believed he went out wearing his war medals under a raincoat. Police say they have spoken to the man and are satisfied he is safe and able to return to Hove once the D-Day commemorations are complete.

Wow that is amazing. Total respect for the guy. That probably meant the world to him being there.

 

[maltaseagull]

I saw it on sky news here

 

[crasher]

Just spotted this on the BBC "Live" feed from Normandy....good on him I say!

14:50: Police say an 89-year-old British D-Day veteran who went missing after being told by care home staff that he could not attend the anniversary commemorations has been found - in Normandy. The man, who has not been named, was reported missing from a care home in Hove on Thursday. It is believed he went out wearing his war medals under a raincoat. Police say they have spoken to the man and are satisfied he is safe and able to return to Hove once the D-Day commemorations are complete.

Just brilliant! Named in the media as Bernard Jordan. Go Bernard, go!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-27735086

 

[crasher]

Gets even better, Bernard is an Albion fan (see last line) http://blog.gracewell.co.uk/celebrating-residents-mayor-hove-bernard-jordan/

 

[WATFORD zero]

Just spotted this on the BBC "Live" feed from Normandy....good on him I say!

14:50: Police say an 89-year-old British D-Day veteran who went missing after being told by care home staff that he could not attend the anniversary commemorations has been found - in Normandy. The man, who has not been named, was reported missing from a care home in Hove on Thursday. It is believed he went out wearing his war medals under a raincoat. Police say they have spoken to the man and are satisfied he is safe and able to return to Hove once the D-Day commemorations are complete.

Excellent

 

[Bedsex]

A hero yet again!

 

[pastafarian]

Good grief....what a story
Bernard Jordan surely demands his own thread