Reply To: 75 Years Ago This Hour …

[elessar2590 18207xp 2]

Great thread @oriskany

It’s currently about 2:30 Normandy time which mean the 82nd Airborne are getting into action right about now.

As the Normandy Landings were taking place three years of incredible British organisation were put into action. Hundreds of French Resistance Groups were mobilised to blow up train tracks, cut telephone wires, tear down road signs, demolish trees to block troop movements, launched suicidal attacks to distract German units and a whole number of other things to slow down the German response to the Landings.

Lindybeige has a very good video on the French Resistance and touches on their role on D-Day

@crazyredcoat you’re absolutely right about the minor Nations. The Australian’s were all in the RAF and RN (2500 and 500), Danes were very common in the Commando’s, Czech’s were mostly in the RAF since Karel Janoušek (Sabaton has a song about him called “Far from the Fame”) brought trained pilots to the UK after Czechoslovakia fell, Poles had entire Corps in the British Army and lots more.

It’s a bit after D-Day (about a month and a half) but there’s an old Series on Youtube about Operation Goodwood which actually has Colonel Hans von Luck who commanded part the German Defenders (his book “Panzer Commander” is very good) giving the German side of the Operation. The series is actually quite good since it has a lot of German and British Officers from all levels giving their own stories. In Pt. 3 at about 25 minutes a British Tank Commander (Major Bill Close) talks about leading his Tanks into Combat that is very interesting when we look at things like Flames of War or one of @oriskany‘s Company Level Hex and Counter Games.