大象传媒

I am a 45 year-old market researcher with a PhD in Chemical Engineering, having worked in the food and drink industry for about twenty-years.

I became interested in WWII and in Omaha Beach on D-Day in particular when I started to talk with my father-in-law, Jimmy Green, about the subject five years ago. This came about by a chance conversation, when I was explaining to a freind how The Internet worked. I simply typed "Rangers" into a search engine, found 'The Rangers Battalions of World War II Association' web site and started to contact American veterans and historians from there.

I exchange emails with American D-Day veterans and researchers on a daily basis. One American veteran sent me a photograph of my father-in-law's landing craft heading into Omaha Beach at about 06:20 on D-Day, for example.

I have learnt a great deal about Omaha Beach, particluarly the western-most sectors, where 4 Battalions of American troops were landed by the Royal Navy on the morning of D-Day.

I have helped American authors with their research, including Alex Kershaw's excellent book, "The Bedford Boys", for example. The Bedford Boys were on my father-in-law's landing craft.

I have also helped the 大象传媒, Channel 5 and others with documentaries about Omaha Beach.

Most recently, I have helped an excellent American historian and author by the name of Joe Balkoski. Joe's next book on Omaha Beach will be published in February 2004, having researched the content for over thirty years!

With a lot of help from others and with contacts made over The Internet, I have also been writing myself in detail about the western-most sectors of Omaha Beach. I have a huge amount of insight and detail, almost too much to handle!

A great deal of what has been published about Omaha Beach is blatently wrong and can be proven to be so, beyond doubt. US Military historians did a great deal to record what happened on Omaha Beach and much of this detail has been dormant in archives.

Some authors created false accounts of what happened from around 1960 onwards and much of this has become the received wisdom of what happened.

Many veterans from Omaha Beach, American and British, have been disturbed or incensed by what has been written and produced about Omaha Beach on D-Day and even by Saving Private Ryan - although the film did a great deal to remind people of D-Day. The follwing web site explains more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/the_oscars_1999/299784.stm

When I, along with American and British veterans and historians have challenged others about the accuracy of what has been written, we have along the way been invited to research and write about D-Day ourselves, so we are, to put the record straight.

My feelings about D-Day are very mixed. I feel extremely privileged to know and have met so many British and American veterans who had such a different life to our generation. Helping veterans to find their former colleagues has been a great pleasure. Putting American and British veterans from Omaha Beach back in touch for the first time since D-Day and seeing their joy at meeting has been a pleasure. At the same time, seeing their displeasure about what has been published to-date about Omaha Beach leaves a bad taste. Veterans have gone to their graves feeling dishonoured by some authors, which hurts those who remain.

Sites like the 大象传媒 / Imperial War Museums 'People's War' help veterans of War and those who support them to tell their accounts as they see them and not as someone else wishes to portray them. Good luck to them!

Jimmy Green is a great father-in-law, who happened to be present at two of the pivotal events of WWII. He was on HMS Bulldog in the North Atlantic when the U-Boat U-110 was captured, complete with Enigma machine and code books. He was also the British Royal Navy Volunteer Sub-Lieutenant in command at the precise point and time depicted in Saving Private Ryan: D-Day, Dog Green, Omaha Beach, 06:30 - where all of the infantry landing craft at that time were Royal Navy, including C Company of 2nd Ranger Infantry Battalion (the unit depicted in the film)

He signed up at the outbreak of War and saw action in The North Atlantic, on The Dieppe Raid and on D-Day. He has always been keen on sports, particularly rugby, cricket and football. He states that his assault flotilla, 551 Assault Flotilla, had more football kit than anything else and would play football against anyone they could challenge. He played rugby for Bristol and Gloucestershire during and after the war and is amongst their 100 greatest players.

After the War, he read history at Bristol University and moved to Cornwall in 1950, where he played rugby for Redruth and captained the reserve side to an unbeaten season.

Being discontented with civilian life, he joined the Army Education Corps in 1954, where he played at fly-half for the British Army of The Rhine. He retired from the Army in 1976 as Lieutenant Colonel, having been stationed in many locations around the world.

Jimmy Green lives in Axminster. In recent years, he has made contact with other veterans from his flotilla and has endeavoured to help put the record straight about what happened on Omaha Beach.