D-Day on the 大象传媒
Facts
Planning D-Day
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By early 1944, victory against Nazi Germany seemed as
elusive as ever.
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In the East the Russians were defeating German troops
but, throughout Europe, it was known that another campaign would have
to sweep towards Berlin from the West if victory were to be won.
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Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan was put in charge
of planning the invasion to end all invasions. He and his officers began
to draft the blueprint for D-Day.
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If ports were well-defended, the best option was to
aim for poorly defended beaches 聳 but which ones?
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In 1942, the 大象传媒 issued an appeal for postcards and
photographs of the coast of Europe from Norway to the Pyrenees.
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Millions were sent to the War Office and, together with
the aid of the French Resistance and air reconnaissance, Morgan was
able to pick his target beach landing spots.
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All the research pointed to one region 聳 Normandy.
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In July 1943, Morgan submitted his plan for the attack,
Operation Overlord.
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It was accepted a month later by the US and British
chiefs of staff meeting in Quebec.
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Since US troops were to form 75 per cent of the total
force, Morgan knew that an American would eventually lead Overlord.
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That American was General Dwight D Eisenhower. He was
aided by Britain's hero of the battle of el Alamein, General Sir Bernard
Law Montgomery, who was given command of Overlord's American and British
ground troops. Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay was to command the vast naval
invasion.
Keeping D-Day Secret
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Maintaining security remained a problem from March 1943
right up until D-Day itself.
In September 1943, it was decided that all personnel granted access
to top secret documents should be given an ID card stamped with a single
word, BIGOT. It was assumed that no sane person was likely to brag about
such a classification.
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Secret documents were also stamped BIGOT and marked
with a red cross.
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From March 1944, British newspapers published countless
stories about the invasion.
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By the time Eisenhower had briefed senior officers about
Operation Overlord at St Paul's School on 15 May 1944, there were more
then 100 journalists from newspapers and news agencies from both sides
of the Atlantic accredited to SHAEAF, The Supreme Headquarters of the
Allied Expeditionary Force.
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The huge numbers of men and resources that would be
needed for the attack, however, could potentially be discovered by enemy
reconnaissance aircraft.
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Morgan, therefore, devised an elaborate deception strategy,
later codenamed Operation Fortitude, alongside the real assault plan.
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This would try to disguise where the attack was to take
place.
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A Spanish-born secret agent 聳 codenamed Garbo 聳
became the Allies' top double agent, providing the Germans with misinformation
on troop force and movement in the run-up to D-Day.
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It was later discovered that he had encouraged the
Germans to over-estimate the number of Allied divisions by 50 per cent.
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From start to finish, the story of Garbo is almost beyond
belief.
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The trust the Germans placed in him was wholly genuine
and wholly misplaced.
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This included the fictitious First US Army Group (FUSAG),
the 'existence' of which led the Germans to hold back seven of their
divisions in the Pas de Calais uselessly for two weeks after D-Day.
The FUSAG only ever existed on paper.
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The Invasion Begins
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On Friday 2 June 1944, all across Southern England,
vast military conveys made their way from the embarkation camps towards
Plymouth, Torquay and Exmouth, Southampton, Southsea and Eastbourne.
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In every port, special vehicle slipways 聳 or 'hards'
聳 had been built, piers converted into ammunition dumps and, in
the skies, hundreds of landing-craft silver barrage balloons where buffeted
by the wind.
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The stage was set for the biggest military operation
in history...
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On Monday 5 June, the day scheduled for D-Day, the weather
closed in on the vast flotilla of ships making their way across the
channel to Normandy.
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To allow for an improvement in the weather, Eisenhower
and the Allied command took the painstaking decision to delay the attack
until early on 6 June.
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For the men involved it was an agonising and terrifying
wait.
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At 5.30am, with a slight window in the atrocious conditions,
the orders were finally given for the invasion to begin.
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The Allied naval guns were immense weapons that lobbed
shells, weighing up to a ton, across more than 10 miles of open sea.
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This carefully planed attack targeted German bunkers,
picking off strong gun positions on all target beaches, Sword, Juno,
Utah, Omaha and Gold - before troops ever reached the shore.
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For American troops from Company A, mostly made up from
men from the small Virginian town of Bedford, the carefully orchestrated
shelling of German gun positions made little difference; the company
suffered 90 per cent casualties.
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The next wave of men fared little better, meeting strong
resistance from German forces; progress was slow and casualties were
numerous.
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For British forces landing on Sword Beach, the result
was a little more encouraging; by 10.00am on 6 June, the beach was littered
with burnt-out tanks, trucks and bodies, but the forces where moving
slowly upwards.
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By midday on the 6 June, as Allied forces landed more
men, the tide was turning on all the beaches; even on the worst beach,
Omaha, ground was being captured.
By late afternoon on 6 June, the Allied forces had finally gained a
foothold in Hitler's Fortress Europe, and the war was about to turn
against the German occupying forces.
The 大象传媒 and D-Day
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The 大象传媒 went into the war broadcasting in seven languages.
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It emerged as the world's largest international station,
broadcasting in 45 languages.
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The 大象传媒 played a crucial in World War Two, not only
reporting events as they happened, but also encouraging hope in occupied
territories.
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In June 1944, the 大象传媒 occupied the tower of the chateau
at Creully near Bayeux as its base for broadcasting reports of the D-Day
landings back to the UK.
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Using the 大象传媒-designed 'Midget' portable recorder for
recording in the field, war correspondents such as Frank Gillard filed
reports using a low-powered transmitter which was delivered precariously
on 18 June.
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These reports came via one of the 大象传媒's receiving stations
in the south of England where they were passed by landline up to Broadcasting
House for editing and inclusion in War Report and news bulletins.
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The 大象传媒 used these premises until the end of July when
more powerful transmitters were brought over to France, which could
follow the Allies' advance.
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In 1946 ownership of the chateau was passed to the town
council of Creully which has since managed it as a function venue and
visitor attraction.
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In 1960, the 大象传媒's Director-General Hugh Carleton Greene
unveiled a plaque at the chateau.
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The original 大象传媒 room in the tower contains an historic
display about the 大象传媒 presence, visited by 2,000 people a year.
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大象传媒 Heritage is planning to host a dinner at the chateau
on 4 June 2004 as a thank you to the people of the town.
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The original owner of the chateau during the war was,
coincidentally, an avid collector of radios and this collection will
be opened to the public as a museum on 5 June 2004.
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大象传媒 Heritage will present an original 大象传媒 crystal radio
set to the museum for its collection.
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Fascinating Facts
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聲 D-Day planning was classed as 'Most Secret' and
took place at Norfolk House in London's St James's Square. The building
had a private bar installed so staff could talk freely without risking
loose talk in local pubs.
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聲 In the summer of 1943, a copy of a secret Operation
Overlord plan blew out of a window in Norfolk House. It was later handed
in by a man who said his eyes were so bad he had no idea what it was.
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聲 Just weeks before D-Day, 'Utah' appeared as an
answer to a crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph. Utah was the codename
for one of the invasion beaches. On 22 May, 'Omaha' popped up as a crossword
answer. 'Overlord' appeared on 27 May, and 'Neptune' (code word for
the naval aspect of the invasion) on 1 June. MI5 cleared the compiler
of wrong-doing but, to this day, there has been no satisfactory explanation.
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聲 Rommel was in charge of defending northern France
from Allied invasion. But he was nearly a thousand miles from Normandy
on D-Day, celebrating his wife's 50th birthday in their home in Herrlingen.
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聲 When the D-Day forces landed, Hitler was asleep.
None of his generals dared order re-enforcements without his permission,
and no-one dared wake him. Crucial hours were lost in the battle to
hold on to Normandy.
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聲 A Spaniard codenamed 'Garbo' was a British double
agent who played a crucial role in duping the Germans about where the
invasion would occur. Whilst living in Portugal, Garbo managed to produce
reports of life in England which the Germans accepted as true. At the
time, he spoke no English, and used a French-English dictionary, supported
by newspapers and the local library, to make up his reports. One of
his most glaring errors was to suggest that there were men in Glasgow
who would do anything for a litre of wine.
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聲 More than 700 American servicemen died in one
of the biggest full-scale rehearsals for D-Day, held off Slapton Sands
in Devon. It involved all the 23,000 US soldiers who were preparing
to land on the Normandy beach codenamed Utah. Due to an error in paperwork,
the landing ships and their escorts were on different radio frequencies
and couldn't talk to each other. So when one of the ships, the HMS Scimitar,
had to return to Plymouth after an accidental collision, the Americans
could not be informed that they were inadequately protected and vulnerable.
As bad luck would have it, nine German U-boats stumbled across the manoeuvres
and torpedoed the ships, sinking two ships and damaging a third. At
least 749 men died.
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聲 Coded sentences were necessary to keep French
resistance workers in the know before D-Day. 'The dice is on the carpet'
was an order to destroy trains and railway lines, whilst 'It's hot in
Suez' instructed them to destroy cable and telephone lines.
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聲 The 大象传媒's French section was made up of painters,
writers and musicians who arrived in England mainly after Dunkirk. A
key role was to discourage people from collaborating with the Germans.
The Germans had set up a system of so-called labour exchange whereby
if a Frenchman agreed to work in Germany, a French prisoner would be
released. The 大象传媒's 'Ne vas pas en Allemagne' campaign helped reduce
this source of easy labour for the Nazi regime.
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聲 Having been given his top-secret mission to attack
the Merville battery on D-Day, Terence Otway had to be certain his men
wouldn't spill the beans ahead of 6 June 1944. He sent 30 of the prettiest
members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, in civilian clothes, into
village pubs near where his soldiers were training. They were asked
to do all they could to discover the men's mission. None of the men
gave anything away.
World War Two 聳 A Timeline
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1939
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Sep 1 - German Army invades Poland
Sep 3 - Britain and France declare war on Germany
Sep 27 - Warsaw falls to the Nazis
1940
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April 9 - German Army invades Denmark and Norway
May 10 - German Army invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Churchill appointed British Prime Minister
May 26 - "Miracle at Dunkirk"
June 10 - Norway seized by Nazis; Italy declares war on UK and France
July 10 - Battle of Britain begins
Sep 7 - German "blitz" on British cities begins in earnest
Nov 5 - Roosevelt re-elected
Dec 9-10 - British counter-attack begins against Italian Army in North
Africa
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1941
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Feb 12 - Erwin Rommel assumes command of German Afrika
Korps
May 10 - Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland on "peace mission"
May 27 - Royal Navy sinks Bismarck
June 22 - Hitler launches operation Barbarossa, invasion of Soviet Union
July 31 - Planning begins for "Final Solution," destruction
of the Jews
Sep 1 - Jews ordered to wear yellow Star of David
Dec 7 - Japanese attack naval base at Pearl Harbor
Dec 8 - The United States and Britain declare war on Japan
Dec 11 - Germany declares war on the United States
Dec 19 - Hitler assumes post of Commander in Chief of German Army
1942
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May 30 - RAF launches first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne,
Germany
Aug 7 - General Montgomery assumes command of British Eighth Army in
North Africa
Sep 13 - German attack on Stalingrad begins
Oct 23-Nov 3 - Afrika Korps decisively defeated by British at El Alamein
1943
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Feb 2 - German Sixth Army at Stalingrad surrenders
to the Russians
May 13 - Remaining Axis troops in North Africa surrender
to Allies
July 9-10 - Allied forces land on Sicily
July 25-26 - Mussolini and the Fascists overthrown
1944
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Jan 27 - Red Army breaks 900-day siege of Leningrad
June 6 - D-Day: the invasion of Europe begins with Allied landings at
Normandy
June 13 - Germans begin launching V-1 flying bombs (doodlebugs) against
London
June 22 - Red Army begins massive summer offensive
June 27 - American forces liberate Cherbourg
July 9 - Allied troops liberate Caen
July 20 - Hitler survives assassination attempt
July 25-30 - Allied forces break-out of Normandy encirclement
Aug 1 - Allies invade Southern France
Aug 5 - Paris liberated
Sep 3 - Brussels liberated
Sep 13 - American troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany
Oct 5 - British invade Greece
Oct 14 - British liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide
Dec 16 - German Army launches "Battle of the Bulge"
1945
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Jan 16 - Battle of the Bulge ends in German defeat
Jan 17 - Red Army liberates Warsaw
Jan 20 - Hungary signs armistice with Allies
Jan 26 - Soviets liberate Auschwitz
Feb 4-11 - Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta Conference
Feb 13-14 - Allied incendiary raid creates firestorm in Dresden
Mar 9 - Tokyo firebombed
Apr 12 - Allies liberate Belsen and Buchenwald concentration camps
Apr 16 - Red Army launches Berlin offensive
Apr 28 - Mussolini hanged by Italian partisans
Apr 30 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide
May 7 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces
May 8 - Victory in Europe (VE) Day
June 5 - Allies divide Germany into occupation zones
Aug 6 - First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Aug 14 - Unconditional surrender of Japanese forces
Aug 15 - Victory over Japan (VJ) Day
Nov 20 - Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal begins
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