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My wife and I have traveled the world but "tempus Fugit," we are getting old. I am now 84 and counting so I am limited to a once a year vacation. Although I am semi-retired, I do a little service work for my older clients. It seems as we get a little older we look backwards and see things a little clearer so we have taken to visiting old friends and relatives. Recently I attended my 65th high school reunion and found that out of a class of about thirty five we had about sixteen still remaining. However they seem to be going quicker as we have lost four since the last reunion. This year we look to rent a cabin in northern Maine near the canadien border and do some salmon fishing. My mother taught me to play golf when I was fourteen. I played off and on throughout my career but business always came first. When I went into the insurance business golf was a way of meeting people so I took it up serously. I joined an exclusive counrty club and became an avid golfer. I played to a 12-13 handicap. When I reached age eighty my game began to deriorate and I became very frustrated and summarily gave up the game. Actually I became so mad at myself I walked off the golf course and never returned.
In the year 2007 I was diagnosed with arrythmyea. I went to a doctor that was said to be the best heart doctor in the city. He nearly killed me. I was at his office weekly with him trying to control my heart rate with medicine. He finally decided that I needed a pacemaker. Well that didn't help. My blood pressure was sky high and my heart rate was always around 150. My golfing buddy is a retired pharmacist so I asked him to recommend a doctor. He got me an appointment with a cardiologist from New York. This doctor came into the room and I told him what the problem was and he left and came back with a goofy looking machine and attached it to my chest and in ten minutes he made a few adjustments and told me "there, I don't think you will have anymore problems" and my b/p and heart rate are normal and have been ever since. Can you imagine the difference in doctors.
Other Comments:
At seventeen I joined the Navy. I never told anyone about my preteen and teen years for having a penchant for getting hurt so no one knew of my broken bones and injuries. I was just a very healthy seventeen year old. I loved the Navy and being on board ship. The food was great and the sights were many to see. We were memebrs of a unit called the Armed Guard and we were a guncrew on mostly Liberty Ships. We were all teenagers or in our early twenties. The idea was we were less likely to get sick because there were no doctors or corpsmen on Liberty Ships. If you got wounded on a Liberty Ship you either died or got better. That's why we were called "Cannon Fodder".
One day as we were approaching the Irish Sea just off the coast of England. I had an accident. It was one of those days when the clouds were high in the sky and the sun was shining brightly through the clouds. There was a stiff breeze from the northeast and the sea was very choppy. The Commodore of the convoy ran up some flags to send a message and each ship had to answer. I was on the bridge and the signalman went over to the flag box which looked like an oversized coffin, to run up the flags and he forgot to lock the cover in place. I immediatey saw it and jumped forward to grab the cover so it would not come down on the signalman. I stumbled and flipped in the air and came down on my head. You guessed it. I came down on the same spot where I had the plate put in as a boy. I felt I wasn't hurt but I was to learn later that a scalp wound bleeds produsely and this sure did. They took me to my quarters and the ship's purser came and bandgaged my head. I looked like a Turk. I was given two aspirins and went to sleep. The next morning they could not wake me. They thought I was in a coma. They waited another day and were about to notify the Commodore when I woke up.They asked me how I felt and I told�? them I felt great and I stood my regular watch that night.
Normandy Campaign (1944)/Operation Overlord
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Description The Normandy landings (codenamed Operation Neptune) were the landing operations on 6 June 1944 (termed D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the invasion of German-occupied western Europe, led to the restoration of the French Republic, and contributed to an Allied victory in the war.
Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, but postponing would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days in each month were deemed suitable. Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion.
The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 British, US, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France starting at 06:30. The target 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach clearing teams difficult and dangerous. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialised tanks.
The Allies failed to achieve all of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five bridgeheads were not connected until 12 June. However, the operation gained a foothold that the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. German casualties on D-Day were around 1,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. Museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area host many visitors each year.
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day). A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than three million allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), and General Bernard Montgomery was named as commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all the land forces involved in the invasion. The Normandy coast was chosen as the site of the invasion, with the Americans assigned to land at Utah and Omaha Beaches, the British at Sword and Gold Beaches, and Canadians at Juno Beach. To meet the conditions expected on the Normandy beachhead, special technology was developed, including two artificial ports called Mulberry harbours and an array of specialised tanks nicknamed Hobart's Funnies. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, Operation Bodyguard, using both electronic and visual misinformation. This misled the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of developing fortifications all along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an invasion.
The Allies failed to reach their goals for the first day, but gained a tenuous foothold that they gradually expanded as they captured the port at Cherbourg on 26 June and the city of Caen on 21 July. A failed counterattack by German forces on 8 August led to 50,000 soldiers of the German 7th Army being trapped in the Falaise pocket. The Allies launched an invasion of southern France (Operation Dragoon) on 15 August, and the Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember Sailed on Liberty Ship Pearl Harbor and unloaded supplies on June 7, 1944 at Omaha Beachead.
Memories The night before we went to the beachead the The sky was so full of rockets and tracers it looked like daylite. The USS Texas was off to our starbord side and when we passed her we could see her laying down salvo after salvo on the hill beyond the beach.
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