June 6, 1944

[Supercharts]

On this day in 1944 the combined ETO forces under the command of Gen. D. Eisenhower stormed ashore to liberate France. D-Day forces consisted of Canadian, U.K. and U.K. Commonwealth, American and Free French and Free Polish forces.

[Jon_in_london]

June 6th 18?? the crimean war started.

[BillyTK]

1854

On this day in history
1813 US invasion of Canada halted at Stoney Creek
1967 6 day war between Israel & Arab neighbors begins
and
1977 Doobie Brothers sponsor a Golf Classic & Concert for United Way

[Jon_in_london]

1683 World’s First Public Museum Opens in England

1833 President Jackson Rides the Iron Horse

1882 - The first electric iron was patented by H.W. Seely.

1918 Battle of Belleau Wood Begins

1984 Indian Army Storms Sikh’s Golden Temple

1985 - The body of Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele was located and exhumed near Sao Paolo, Brazil. Mengele was known as the "Angel of Death".

1966: Black civil rights activist shot

1975: UK embraces Europe in referendum

1932 Actress Billie Whitelaw born in Coventry

etc.. etc.. blablabah

[BillyTK]

scopesys.com (http://www.scopesys.com/cgi/today2.cgi)?

[Jon_in_london]

A host of applicants!

[Baker]

lol so is this going to be an every day event history on the current date.

[Kodiak]

UTAH


OMAHA


GOLD


JUNO


SWORD

[Jon_in_london]

Would Overlord like another Mulberry?

[BillyTK]

Are we playing word association games now? :confused:

Coat stand
Parrot
Hat box
Cauliflower
Dark place...
Black! Black! The sky is black! Why do keep me in the sideboard and feed me pins, mother?!!

Oops...

[Brown]

From the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/), June 7, 1944:Allied forces continued landings on the northern French coast throughout yesterday and "satisfactory progress was made," headquarters announced today.
***
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Allied naval commander in chief, declared the Allied navies had "in effect" been 100 per cent successful in the task of landing the invasion troops in France. These troops have now become the most important of the fighting services involved in the invasion, for there are indications that the enemy to some extent is withholding reserve formations for a general counterattack once he is certain yesterday's landings constitute the main threat in northwestern Europe.

[Denise]

This is a great book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671890913/103-5842579-5015054?vi=glance

They made it into a movie too- yeah I'm sure everyone knows that- but had to put it in there.

[kookbreaker]

Originally posted by Denise
This is a great book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671890913/103-5842579-5015054?vi=glance

They made it into a movie too- yeah I'm sure everyone knows that- but had to put it in there.

That movie had technical achievments that I have yet to se surpassed. Can you imagine any modern director trying to refilm the Luftwaffe strafing scene, or the French attack on the villiage, without resorting to computer trickery?

OK, enough hijack for me now.

[LW]

June 9, 1944

The Operations Overlord and Bagration being the two largest military operations of June 1944, few books bother to mention the Soviet strategic offensive that started on June 9, 1944 in Karelian Isthmus even though the battle was bigger than El Alamein in terms of men (and possibly even in material).

The Soviet attack came as strategic surprise even though it shouldn't have since the air force and front line infantry knew well that it was starting. The blame can be mostly put on shoulders of General Taavetti Laatikainen, commander of IV Army Corps, who dismissed the recon reports.

The Soviet attack started with an extremely heavy artillery bombardment followed by a series of batallion strenght recon probes. Most of the probes were thrown back but two strongpoints were lost and couldn't be recaptured. Next day, the Soviet main attack broke through the defence line at Valkeasaari, one of the places where counter attacks had failed the day before.

After the breakthrough Soviets advanced through the Karelian Isthmus in two weeks, breaking through two more defence lines and recaptured Vyborg town in 20 June. Then, shortly after breaking through the final defence line at Tali Soviets were finally stopped by a counter attack by the Finnish Armored Division.

What followed was the great two-week long battle of Tali-Ihantala that was the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic countries. The battle culminated in a 40-minute long "Symphony of Steel and Fire" on July 5 when 246 Finnish artillery pieces fired concentrated time-on-target strikes on assembly points and HQ sites of a Soviet corps-level assault in what was probably the single most devastating artillery operation of the whole WWII. (The locations of the assembly points and attack time had been revealed by a poorly-encrypted radio message).

Soviets lost ~75000 KIA in the operation, Finns ~20000. When their initial plan to advance to Lappeenranta area failed, Soviets turned the failure into a propaganda victory by emphasing on the fact that they had "liberated the old Russian town of Vyborg" and implied that it had been the main objective of the offensive. (Vyborg was founded by Swedes on the site of a Karelian trading place and throughout its history a vast majority of its inhabitants had been Finns).

On June 9, 1944 my grandfather was positioned as an infantry platoon assistant leader at Rajajoki, 2-3 km from Valkeasaari (an area also under the Soviet bombardment). Four days into the attack (June 13) his unit was retreating at Kellomäki area when he and several of his squadmates got separated from their company and they spent three weeks behind Soviet lines. He never told anybody anything about his experiences during that time.