“D-Day has come. Early this morning, under the command of General Eisenhower, allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing allied armies on the north-western face of Hitler’s European fortress”.
The Blitz Kids start noticing strange things happening around them but no one will say why!
It’s 6th June 1944 and everyone is talking about D-Day, the biggest invasion of the war. George listens to the radio as they announce that thousands of Allied soldiers have landed on the Normandy beaches in France, hoping to defeat the Nazis and end the war.
Embed from Getty ImagesBefore D-Day, George and his dad saw roads in west London closed by soldiers, but they had no idea what was going on. Later, they learned that Eisenhower and Montgomery had been planning the invasion in a local school… in secret.
In Devon, Maggie’s cousin Grace saw tens of thousands of American soldiers everywhere, training, driving tanks and even stacking real bombs along the roads! In the months before D-Day the West Country became home to over a million US soldiers, and the United States Navy took up residence in West Country ports. One day though… Grace woke up to silence. All the troops had vanished overnight. Was it time for the invasion?
In the South East, there was loads of fake radio messages and decoy equipment – including inflatable tanks and dummy landing craft. The military was trying to deceive the Germans as to where the invasion might be! Convoys of inflatable, dummy tanks were deliberately placed within sight of German reconnaissance aircraft.
Embed from Getty ImagesAt the time, no one knew how important this was, but looking back, George realises that D-Day changed history forever.
One of the interesting facts about the Americans preparing for the invasion in the UK, was that they brought with them their culture, music, habits and past-times. Children got a taste for chewing gum and Hershey Bars. On Plymouth Hoe, one could watch Americans playing baseball, whilst swing bands provided the music for local dances.
George writes in his journal…
“We didn’t know it then but D-Day was the largest ever water invasion. Can you believe that in the months before, the West Country became home to over a million US soldiers. About 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day itself and by the end of June, over 850,000 troops, 570,000 tons of supplies and 150,000 vehicles had landed on the Normandy beaches. Incredible to imagine! Many Americans stayed in the UK afterwards to help maintain the supply lines. It would end up being a turning point in the war although we had another year of it to go.“
Next time: The Blitz Kids celebrate the end of war in Europe, with parties and celebrations across the country. Some things are changing fast, but other things will take time to put right.
If you want to find out more about D-Day, visit the D-Day Story in Portsmouth.
Can you spot this?
D-Day training sites were created in Britain in order to practice for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Northern France by allied forces in 1944.
In 1943, the Canadians constructed a replica of a section of the German’s Atlantic Wall in part of Hankley Common near Tilford in Surrey. It was constructed from reinforced concrete and was used as a major training aid to develop and practise techniques to breach the defences of the French coast prior to the D-Day landings.
