Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Operation Overlord Remembered

On June 6, in 1944, the largest amphibious landing in the history of warfare was succesfully attempted. Codenamed 'Operation Overlord', several British, US and Canadian infantry, armoured and parachute units landed across a broad front (5 beaches) in France. Facing them in the immediate vicinity was the German Seventh Army, a motely crew of infantry and parachute units, and one Panzer division (21st Panzer, reconstituted after the original one surrendered in North Africa).

There are several 'standard' resources for information on the Normandy Landings (including the BBC, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia), so we will focus on some little known trivia.
  • Exhibit A: The Crossword Panic Of 1944 - when a 54 year old teacher who compiled crosswords unwittingly set clues over several weeks, the answers to which were all code names of various things involved in the invasion
  • Exhibit B: The area in the English Channel where the Allied armada would fall into formation, having arrived from various ports in England, was (appropriately enough) named Piccadilly Circus!
That's all. Got to go...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

History lessons please - at your convenience!
Some things in the world continue to surprise me...
-- Y!