This date in history

[Mr Quatro]

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”
More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe.
The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Adolf Hitler’s crack troops.

[Jimbuna]

1939 The ship MS St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Europe, begins sailing back to the continent after it was refused entry into America. Approximately a quarter of those on board would perish in the Holocaust.

1944 Operation Overlord: D-Day begins as the 156,000-strong Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy, France, during World War II

1944 German submarines U-955, U-970, U-629 and U-373 sink in Bay of Biscay.

1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies from his wounds after he was shot the previous night.

1972 David Bowie releases his breakthrough album "The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars"

[Jimbuna]

1906 Cunard passenger liner Lusitania launches.

1912 US army tests first machine gun mounted on a plane.

1917 The British detonate mines beneath the German-held Messines Ridge, in the Ypres area.

1937 Time magazine publishes the second of the only two known photos taken of the United States Supreme Court in session.

1939 George VI and Elizabeth become the first king and queen of Britain to visit USA

1940 British/French troops evacuate Narvik.

1942 USS Yorktown sinks near Midway Island.

1968 Sirhan Sirhan indicted for the assassination of US Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

[Jimbuna]

793 Vikings in long ships from modern-day Norway plunder St Cuthbert's monastery on Lindisfarne Island, off the northeast coast of England.

1960 Argentine government demands release of Adolf Eichmann.

1967 Israel attacks USS Liberty in Mediterranean, killing 34 US crewmen.

1968 The body of assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

1982 Falklands War: Royal Fleet Auxiliary Sir Gahalad attacked in San Carlos Water ("Bomb Alley") by Argentine aircraft: 48 soldiers and crewman were killed.

1987 New Zealand's Labour government legislates against nuclear weapons and nuclear powered vessels in NZ. Only nation to legislate against nuclear power.

[Jimbuna]

68 Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, imploring his secretary Epaphroditos to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging.

1915 US President Woodrow Wilson sends 2nd Lusitania note to Germany protesting sinking of the Lusitania and refuting German claim British blockade illegal.

1940 General Charles de Gaulle's first meeting with Winston Churchill.

1942 Nazis kill all inhabitants of Lidice, which had been implicated in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi controller of Bohemia and Moravia, to “teach the Czechs a final lesson of subservience and humility”

1959 First ballistic missile submarine launched (George Washington-Groton, Ct)

[Jimbuna]

1845 Andrew Jackson's African Grey parrot "Poll" is removed from his funeral for swearing at The Hermitage, Tennessee. Funeral attendee William Menefee Norment recorded: "Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house”

1940 German "Dutch" Q-ship Atlantis sinks Norwegian tanker.

1940 Norway surrenders to Nazi Germany after 62 days of fighting.

1942 Nazis kill all inhabitants of Lidice, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Czech Republic) which had been implicated in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi controller of Bohemia and Moravia, to “teach the Czechs a final lesson of subservience and humility”; over 170 adult men were executed by firing squad on site, women and children were sent to concentration camp gas chambers, and the village was burned down and plowed under.

1943 Heinrich Himmler ordered the final liquidation of Lodz ghetto in occupied Poland.

1944 Nazi forces carry out a massacre of 642 civilians in the French village Oradour-sur-Glane.

1944 World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.

1945 US destroyer William D Porter ("Willie Dee") sunk by kamikaze.

1996 Intel releases 200 mhz pentium chip.

[Mr Quatro]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1996 Intel releases 200 mhz pentium chip.

Purchased my first Apple computer in January 1998

[Jimbuna]

1900 David Beatty and 150 men from HMS Barfleur land as part of a force of 2,400 defending Tientsin from 15,000 Chinese troops plus Boxers.

1940 First attack of the Italian Air force on the island of Malta.

1944 15 US aircraft carriers attack Japanese bases on Marianas.

1987 Margaret Thatcher is first British Prime Minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term.

[Jimbuna]

1917 US Secret Service extends protection of the President to include his family.

1942 Anne Frank gets her diary as a birthday present in Amsterdam.

1944 First V-1 rocket assault on London.

1982 Battle of Mount Longdon Falkland Islands.

2018 singapore summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump - first time a North Korean leader and an incumbent US President have ever met.

[Jimbuna]

1917 World War I: the deadliest German air raid on London during World War I is carried out by Gotha G bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children with 432 injuries.

1933 German Secret State Police (Gestapo - Geheime Staats Polizei) established by Hermann Goering.

1942 1st V-2 rocket launch, Peenemunde, Germany; reached 1.3 km

1942 Germany lands 4 saboteurs on Long Island.

1944 Germany begins V-1 (Fieseler Fi-103) flying bomb (doodle-bugs) attacks.

1956 The last British troops leave the Suez Canal Zone in Egypt.

1981 Teenager fires 6 blank rounds at Queen Elizabeth II

2000 South Korean President Kim Dae Jung meets leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.

[Jimbuna]

1900 The Reichstag approves a second law that allows the expansion of the German navy.

1908 Fourth German Navy Bill is passed authorising the financing of the building of another four major warships.

1940 Auschwitz concentration camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs (approx. 3 million would die within its walls)

1940 German U-47 sinks airship Balmoral.

1942 Anne Frank begins her diary.

1982 Argentina surrenders to Great Britain, ending the 74-day Falklands Islands conflict.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1900 The Reichstag approves a second law that allows the expansion of the German navy....

One of history's more useless and futile investments of national treasury assets; as will be definitively proven in 16 years...by Jellico at Jutland...

[Jimbuna]

1917 In order to calm troubled relations with Ireland, the British grant amnesty to the Prisoners taken during the Easter Rising of 1916

1940 France surrenders to the Germans after German troops occupy Paris.

1955 The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual "Operation Alert" (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA's preparations for a nuclear attack.

1982 Riots in Argentina after Falklands/Malvinas defeat.

[Jimbuna]

1944 George Stinney, a 14-year-old African-American boy, is wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America.

1944 King George VI visits General Montgomery's HQ in Normandy.

2000 Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel withdraws from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms.

[Aktungbby]

1944 King George VI visits General Montgomery's HQ in Normandy.

"I say Monty ol' Chap, could U kindly get yer arse in gear and break out of the Caen salient. We've simply got to give the bloody Damn-Yanks a good show!"

The Germans did a good job of defending Caen.
This situation map drawn by German senior Prisoners for US Army historians shows the German reinforcements heading for Caen 7-9 June 1944
War is a kind of democracy: The enemy gets a say. The biggest single reason why the British and Canadians advance was so slow was because the Germans committed the necessary resources to stop them. German doctrine required the commander to determine a point of main effort. In summer 1944 in Normandy the Germans decided that they would put their main effort against Caen. On D Day itself the German local Commander General Marcks organised the armoured counter attack from Caen. In the following days two more Panzer Divisions were brought up between Caen and Bayeux. The Germans would continue to reinforce the Caen sector through out June, bringing a whole SS Panzer Corps and about 100 heavy Tiger tanks to face the British and Canadians.
Montgomery Vindicated? This German situation map 23 July 1944 :shows that 48 hours before the successful US breakthrough at St Lo the German effort and attention is focused on the Anglo Canadian force at Caen
To be fair to the Allied commanders and their staff, they had studied German doctrine and predicted that the Germans would strike at the British and Canadian forces. This knowledge drove the allied strategy for the British and Canadians to act as a shield was the basis for the role outlines as the British and the Germans who needed to throw the allies into the sea.

http://www.baldwinbattlefieldtours.c...-to-take-caen/ All factors thrown In: Poor allied intelligence; political infighting amongst Allied commanders; and the German 21 SS Panzer fanatics: Monty gets a solid 'B' for his arduous performance imho.