Normandy Landings Research Articles

The Bonny Landing: The anatomy of Black Africa’s first amphibious operation, July to September 1967

The amphibious landing of troops at Bonny during the Nigerian Civil War is often described as a landmark feat accomplished by the military of a modern Black African state. It was the first of five landings which along with the instituting of a naval blockade formed the basis of the encirclement and eventual defeat of secessionist Biafra. This article captures the transformation of an erstwhile civilian marine department into a naval force which endured sabotage and defection prior to successfully transporting, landing, and affording covering fire for the federal Third Infantry Division. The article explains the military and political objectives, and also reveals the pivotal role played in its planning and execution by James Rawe, an expatriate British naval officer who was a veteran of the Normandy landings.

Considering Second World War Archaeological Heritage in France

The archaeology of the Second World War has existed since the 1980s in English-language research. However, the vestiges of this conflict were only officially included in French national heritage at the end of 2013. Only since 2014, the year of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, do preventive archaeology operations prescribe for World War II (WWII) sites. Public research programmes have also been set up to identify and characterise the heritage linked to the conflict, in particular the numerous remains of the Atlantic Wall on France's western seafront. During this decade, several archaeological operations have revealed the strong scientific potential attached to WWII sites throughout the country. At the same time, researchers from the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have drawn up a general research theme based on these remains which now form part of an international discussion framework. There are three main lines of research based on the typology of material traces from the conflict. The first of these is dedicated to battlefield remains, which are currently being used to compile an archaeology of military operations in Normandy. The second is the study of defensive structures (bunkers on the Atlantic Wall and passive defence constructions) that are also the subject of exciting discoveries in Normandy and other French regions. The third area of research addresses remains linked to internment and mass crimes. In particular, this concerns the search, currently underway, of the only Nazi concentration camp on French soil, the KL Natzweiler-Struthof. This houses the European Centre of Deported Resistance Members (CERD) and performs important research on other deportation or internment memorials (e.g. Drancy, Mont-Valérien) and on a series of prison camps across France. These sites, long threatened by soil and coastal erosion, development or the looting of militaria, are now crystallising as powerful heritage assets, even though the expression and sharing of this archaeological memory of World War II comes in response to high levels of national and international public expectation.

The Most Glorified Day: Memory and Narratives on the Normandy Landings in the Italian Daily Press

The article focuses on the memory of the Normandy landings in post-war Italy, as a case study for investigating the wider subject of the memory of World War II in the country. It is based on two main assumptions: that memories of World War II were by no means limited to the national level (i.e. to the aspects of the conflict that directly involved Italy) and necessarily included a representation of the global features of the war and that memories often have a transnational nature and undergo a continuous process of importation and exportation beyond national boundaries. In order to investigate the issue, a corpus of sources has been collected, made up of articles published on five Italian newspapers of different political allegiance, roughly in the first two decades after the war, from 1945 to 1968. The results of the analysis show how the memory of the landings was paid very different attention, depending on the cultural and political stance of the daily: while the right- and left-wing press seldom focused on it, the moderate and pro-governmental newspapers showed a greater interest. Two other key elements emerge from the analysis: the transnational character of the memories and their strongly celebratory nature. In fact, many articles on the D-Day drew upon foreign sources (of Anglo-American, but also of German origin) in different ways, and almost all of them depicted the landings as the turning point of the war, the moment when Europe was freed and the final triumph of the good against the evil. In conclusion, it is outlined how the memory of the landings played a key role in making the global war known, in importing to Italy the (western) idea of the ‘good war’ and in spreading in Italy the ‘western’ set of values, thus strengthening the bonds of the country with its Cold War allies.

Analysis Of The Normandy Landings Operation In The Second World War From The Perspective Of Comparative Military Resources Between The Allied And Germany

World War II was a global conflict involving multiple nations, with significant impacts on the world. One notable event in the history of this war was the Normandy Landings, which served as a turning point in the Allied effort to liberate Europe from German control. This paper aims to analyze the background and comparative perspective of the military resources between the Allied forces and Germany in the Normandy Landings operation, using a qualitative method that relies on literature studies as a source to gain an accurate understanding of the events. World War II occurred as a result of the ambitions of the defeated countries in World War I. The Normandy Landings operation was a defensive assault by the Allies to maintain their presence in the Western region and prevent it from falling under the Axis allianc. The Normandy landing operation carried out by the Allies with good preparation, strategy, and superiority in defense equipment resources became a factor in the victory for the Allies.

Repatriation of Soviet Сitizens and Soviet Partisans of the French Resistance from France to the USSR

The article is devoted to aspects of the repatriation of citizens and Soviet partisans of the French Resistance from France to the USSR. For the Soviet Union the first facts of the mass presence of its citizens on French territory began to appear even before the allied landings in Normandy, in 1944. After the liberation of most of French territory, in October 1944, the allies handed over to the USSR information about the presence in their zone of occupation of about 30.000 soviet citizens who became prisoners of war. The repatriation of Soviet citizens from France was one of the earliest repatriation activities for the USSR during the war years. The activity of the Soviet department for the repatriation of Soviet citizens began on 10 November, 1944 even before the signing of an agreement with the allies on the mutual return of their citizens. The publication examines the categories of Soviet citizens in France, the course of the organization of repatriation, as well as the problems that the Soviet mission has faced. The position of Soviet citizens at the time of their liberation on French territory, the attitude of Soviet citizens to their return to the USSR and their post-war fate are considered. It is noted that the factor of the presence among the repatriated “false partisans” and former soldiers of the ost-troops of the Wehrmacht for the worse affected the fate of some of the true heroes of the Resistance. The result of the study shows that most of the Soviet participants in the Resistance after the war were discriminated throughout their lives and were deprived of their rights, despite their contribution to the defeat of the enemy in a foreign land.

Project Eagle: Polscy wywiadowcy w raportach i dokumentach wojennych amerykańskiego Biura Służb Strategicznych [Project Eagle: Polish Agents in the Reports and Wartime Documents of the American Office of Strategic Services

<i>Project Eagle: Polscy wywiadowcy w raportach i dokumentach wojennych amerykańskiego Biura Służb Strategicznych</i> [Project Eagle: Polish Agents in the Reports and Wartime Documents of the American Office of Strategic Services

L’Ultra D-Day Trail : entre défi sportif, commémoration et valorisation patrimoniale des plages du Débarquement de Normandie

This article focuses on a sporting event, the Ultra D-Day Trail, an atypical and innovative race, designed and organized in June 2014 for the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Landings. In the stream of festivities and events organized for this occasion, the Ultra D-Day Trail transformed the Normandy coastline, from Utah Beach to Sword Beach, into both a sporting area and a memorial space. The valorization of the sites of the 1944 D-Day landings is a significant challenge. The organization of the race plays on symbols, the staging of the athletes/actors, and explicit messages of peace and exchange between nations. The analysis uses press articles, website and social media content, and accounts from actors, organizers, runners, and spectators. By means of effective communication and media coverage, the sports event contributes to an original process of patrimonialization of the spaces and major memorial sites linked to the D-Day landing beaches.

CANADIAN LINKS WITH BRITISH MILITARY GEOLOGY 1814 TO 1945

ABSTRACT Military applications of geology became apparent within the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century, and were developed during the First World War and more extensively during the Second, incidentally by some officers with links to Canada. In the nineteenth century, three Royal Engineer major-generals with geological interests had served there briefly: Joseph Ellison Portlock (1794–1864) helped to stem invasion of Upper Canada by the United States Army in 1814, pioneer geological survey in Ireland from 1826, and promote knowledge of geology amongst British Army officers; Frederick Henry Baddeley (1794–1879) helped to pioneer geological studies in south-east Canada in the 1820s; Richard John Nelson (1803–1877) served in Canada after mapping the geology of Jersey in 1828 and making geological observations in Bermuda. During the First World War, Tannatt William Edgeworth David (1858–1934), a Welsh-born Australian and from 1916 to 1918 the senior of two geologists serving with the British Army on the Western Front, had a Canadian military family link through his mother; and Reginald Walter Brock (1874–1935), Dean of Applied Science at the University of British Columbia and a distinguished Canadian geologist, interrupted his career for infantry service in Europe but was used as a geologist from mid-1918, in Palestine. During the Second World War, the British military geologist Frederick William Shotton (1906–1990) provided geological advice to, amongst other units, Canadian forces who generated thematic maps for parts of northern France that predicted ‘going’ (conditions affecting cross-country vehicle mobility) to follow the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy. In 1943, Thomas Crawford Phemister (1902–1982), Professor and Head of the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland but from 1926 to 1932 an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, as an ‘emergency’ Royal Engineers captain founded the Geological Section of the Inter-Service Topographical Department, a unit whose reports and thematic maps provided terrain intelligence for Allied forces in both Europe and the Far East from a base in England, within the University of Oxford. John Leonard Farrington (1906–1982), an undergraduate student from 1923 to 1928 of Brock and/or Phemister at the University of British Columbia, co-founded the Section and soon succeeded Phemister as its head, from 1944 to 1945 in the rank of major. Soon after 1945, military geologists became established in continuity within the British Army.

EL PROBLEMA ENERGÉTICO DE LA ALEMANIA NAZI

The end of WWI ushered in a new era in which oil become the most important energy source in the World. Germany didn´t have significant oil reserves, but the technological and scientific advances of its chemical industry during the first two decades of the XX century paved the way for the development of a powerful synthetic oil industry based on the most important and plentiful mineral resource in the country: coal. During the decade of the 1930’s, boosted by the public investment program carried out by the new nazi regime, the chemical and coal corporations, merged into big industrial conglomerates, built new synthetic oil plants that reached a total production of 4.500.000 barrels per day. WWII started in 1939 and lasted almost six years. In spite of the efforts made by its national industry and despite controlling the Rumanian oil reserves, Germany was not ready for such a long conflict, which by 1945 has almost depleted its oil resources. On the other hand, the US - that entered the War in 1941 as an ally of France, the UK and the Soviet Union – had large oil reserves which allowed them to develop a big, mechanized and modern army. Its tanks, trunks (that were able to move troops and war material to the front faster than the Germans) were crucial in the European battlefields after the Normandy landings (June 1944), and its new bombers become the cornerstone of the strategic bombing campaign that sunk the synthetic oil production in Germany. Key Words: coal, synthetic oil, nuclear energy, nazi Germany, WWI, WWII.

Right for the Wrong Reason?: A New Look at the 6 June 1944 D-Day Forecast by a Neutral Swede

AbstractThere are at least three popular perceptions surrounding the weather forecast for the D-day landing in Normandy, 6 June 1994: 1) that the Allied weather forecasters predicted a crucial break or “window of opportunity” in the unsettled weather prevailing at the time; 2) that the German meteorologists, lacking observations from the North Atlantic, failed to see this break coming and thus the invasion took the Wehrmacht by surprise; and 3) that the American forecasters, guided by a skillful analog system, predicted the favorable conditions several days ahead but got no support from their pessimistic British colleagues. This article will present evidence taken mostly from hitherto rather neglected sources of information, transcripts of the telephone discussions between the Allied forecasters and archived German weather analyses. They show that 1) the synoptic development for the invasion was not particularly well predicted and, if there was a break in the weather, it occurred for reasons other than those predicted; 2) the German forecasters were fairly well informed about the large-scale synoptic situation over most of the North Atlantic, probably thanks to decoded American analyses; and 3) from the viewpoint of a “neutral Swede,” the impression is that the American analog method might not have performed as splendidly as its adherents have claimed, but also not as badly as its critics have alleged. Finally, the D-day forecast, the discussions among the forecasters, and their briefings with the Allied command are interesting not only from a historical perspective, but also as an early and well-documented example of decision-making under meteorological uncertainty.

Cuchlaine Audrey Muriel King (26 June 1922–17 December 2019)

Cuchlaine Audrey Muriel King (26 June 1922–17 December 2019)

Tiempos de Guerra. El soldado que salvó Spielberg

Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, concretamente tras el Desembarco de Normandía, unos soldados norteamericanos capitaneados por Jonh Miller deben arriesgar sus vidas para salvar al soldado James Ryan, cuyos tres hermanos han muerto en la guerra. Lo único que se sabe del soldado Ryan es que se lanzó con su escuadrón de paracaidistas detrás de las líneas enemigas. El jefe del estado mayor ha ordenado devolverlo a su hogar, en Iowa, donde lo espera su desconsolada madre.Se trata de un filme bélico donde la muerte está siempre presente y en la cual, el soldado Ryan rememorará todas las vicisitudes por las que tuvieron que pasar los soldados para salvarlo.

MILITARY GEOLOGY: AN AMERICAN TERM WITH GERMAN AND FRENCH ANCESTRY

ABSTRACT The year 2019 marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War and the 75th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy: respectively the first major conflict in which geologists were deployed professionally in uniform by opposing sides from the start of hostilities, and the first successful major amphibious assault whose planning was significantly influenced by geologists. ‘Military geology’ had become established within major world powers as a discipline relevant to military operations, following its initial development in the First World War. The term in English had entered scientific literature via publications in the USA from 1917 onwards, initially by Joseph Ezekiel Pogue, Jr (1887–1971). This followed use of ‘Militärgeologie’ from 1913 by Walter Kranz (1873–1953) in Germany, a term subsequently used also in Austria-Hungary, although mostly replaced by ‘Kriegsgeologie’ in both nations from 1915 and by ‘Wehrgeologie’ from about 1935. However, ‘géologie militaire’ was in French use even earlier, notably in the sub-titles of books by an infantry officer, Joseph-Charles-Auguste Clerc (1840–1910), on the French Alps in 1882 and the Jura mountains in 1888. This term complemented use of ‘géographie militaire’, a name in use since 1836 for a subject whose study was given impetus in France by defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. In recent years ‘military geoscience’ has come into more popular use, reuniting military geology with geography and embracing associated disciplines.

Allies by Alan Gratz

Reviewed by: Allies by Alan Gratz Natalie Berglind Gratz, Alan Allies. Scholastic, 2019 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-338-24572-1 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-338-24574-5 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 It's June 6, 1944, and in shifting perspectives, this fictional narrative shows multiple facets of the landing in Normandy. Dee Carpenter is a sixteen-year-old private, fighting on the U.S. side despite his German birth; Samira Zidane is an eleven-year-old French Algerian whose mother spies for the resistance; Corporal Henry Allen is a Black medic who patches people up even as they discriminate against him; and thirteen-year-old Monique Marchand joins up with another medic, a woman disguised as a man, to help soldiers on the front. The perspectives allow readers to see sides of World War II that they may not have explored in depth in school, such as the treatment of Black soldiers, antisemitism present within the American military against its own people, anti-Algerian sentiment in France, Cree Indians fighting for a country (Canada) in which they could not vote, and roles for women on the front. Though the fast-paced action and quick perspective shifts give little time to care for deaths Gratz manages to provide distinct, complex personalities and a nail-biting plot. An author's note at the end includes information on the "disaster" landing of the real D-Day, French colonialism in Algeria, battle facts, the treatment of First Nations people in Canada, and inspirations for representations of some of the characters—often showing the resolution dates for many of these issues are more recent than some readers might think. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Book Review: D-Day: The Essential Reference Guide

The Normandy Landings, commonly referred to as D-Day, was a pivotal moment in the course of the Second World War. This successful invasion of the northwestern beaches of France marked the beginning of the Allied liberation of the western front, and would ultimately lead to the defeat of Nazi Germany. D-Day: The Essential Reference Guide successfully provides quality reference information on this major historical event.

Aerial photographic intelligence during World War II: contributions by some distinguished British geologists

Abstract During the war of 1939–45, intelligence was gleaned from aerial photographs by a newly founded organization that developed into the Allied Central Interpretation Unit. This was based primarily at Danesfield House (known as Royal Air Force Medmenham) some 50 km west of London, in Buckinghamshire. At least six British geoscientists (and at least one American, L. J. Simon) were amongst its pioneering photographic interpreters, all recruited from civilian life: palaeobotanist H. Hamshaw Thomas; geologists L. R. Wager, N. L. Falcon, P. E. Kent and P. Allen; and a geologist who became distinguished as a geographer, D. L. Linton. Of these six, all except Linton were to become Fellows of the Royal Society (FRS): the highest British academic accolade for a scientist. Work at Medmenham, although important for the war effort, required interpreters familiar with aerial photographs rather than geology as such – but geology did assist the search for storage sites for ‘V’ weapons, terrain interpretation for the 1944 Allied landings in Normandy, and in guiding plans to bomb German industrial complexes hidden underground.

From Julius Caesar to Sustainable Composite Materials: A Passage through Port Caisson Technology

The breakwater construction technique using floating concrete caissons is well-known nowadays as a widespread system. Yet do we really know its origin? Since Julius Caesar used this technology in Brindisi (Italy) up to the Normandy landings in June 1944, not only has this technology been developed, but it has been a key item in several moments in history. Its development has almost always been driven by military requirements. The greatest changes have not been conceptual but point occurring, backed by the materials used. Parallelisms can be clearly seen in each new stage: timber, opus caementitium (Roman concrete), iron and concrete… However, nowadays, achieving a more sustainable world constitutes a major challenge, to which the construction of caissons breakwaters must contribute as a field of application of new eco-friendly materials. This research work provides a general overview from the origins of caissons until our time. It will make better known the changes that took place in the system and their adaptation to new materials, and will help in clarifying the future in developing technology towards composite sustainable materials and special concrete. If we understand the past, it will be easier to define the future.

D-Day Remembered: The Normandy Landings in American Collective Memory

D-Day Remembered: The Normandy Landings in American Collective Memory

In Memory’s Eye: The Improbability of War’s Remembrance

In Memory’s Eye: The Improbability of War’s Remembrance Kate C. Lemay (bio) Geoffrey M. White. Memorializing Pearl Harbor: Unfinished Histories and the Work of Remembrance. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2016. xi + 352 pp. Illustrations, appendices, notes, references, and index. $26.95 (paper); $94.95 (cloth). Michael R. Dolski. D-Day Remembered: The Normandy Landings in American Collective Memory. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2016. xix + 310 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $45.00. In 1962, while giving a speech to accept the Thayer Award from the U.S. Military Academy, an aging Douglas MacArthur remembered the former cadets who sacrificed their lives for their country. He declared, “The long, gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.” His speech, which today historians regard as one of the greatest in American history, demonstrate the degree to which affect and emotion are necessary vehicles for purposeful remembrance. Motivated by a sense of responsibility to soldier dead, as well as by a desire for war reconciliation, people build memorials and museums; they write novels and film movies. There is no lack of material for historians interested in war memory, especially those interested in World War II. An important question scholars must contend with, however, is whether or not any of it matters, or will matter, given a hundred years. The term “Lest we forget” is one example of faded memory. Many (if not most) Americans have little idea what November 11, Veteran’s Day, originally commemorated. It won’t be long until “the Day of Infamy” means nothing to Americans outside of Pearl Harbor, or until reference to “D-Day” is understood only to mean an important deadline, rather than to the greatest amphibious invasion in history. Regardless of pessimistic forecasts of the future of public memory of war, we can definitively say that in the recent twentieth century, Americans remembered, in great detail, December 7 and June 6. Two recent books by Geoffrey M. White and Michael R. Dolski, Memorializing Pearl Harbor: Unfinished Histories [End Page 323] and the Work of Remembrance, and D-Day Remembered: The Normandy Landings in American Collective Memory, respectively, define and clarify the ways in which, historically, the public recalls the two most iconic U.S. battles of World War II. Both authors ask questions about the goals of war memory, including the influences and forces behind it, and the resulting kinds of history it produces. The book by Dolski is immensely teachable, and the one by White offers a variety of minority viewpoints never before considered. Memorializing Pearl Harbor is a tour-de-force account of the long history of the complex of memorials located in Pearl Harbor. Broken into six chapters and a conclusion, the book ostensibly focuses on the planning and creation of the USS Arizona memorial, but it weaves together so much information that it is clear from the outset that only someone with outstanding field research and years of study could write such a book. Notably, the book’s insight often stems from the author’s own roles on various advisory groups and organizational entities that were part of the planning of the most current memorial complex. The book’s thirty illustrations, many of which are photos by the author, accompany the text, helping to clarify the complex web of research presented. The book also includes four important appendices that organize the political chronologies pertaining to Pearl Harbor, indigenous Hawaiians, Japanese Americans, and films mentioned throughout. Densely packed with case studies, interviews, excerpts, and other forms of ethnographic study, Memorializing Pearl Harbor examines viewpoints of U.S. and Japanese veterans, as well as Japanese American citizens and indigenous Hawaiians. White explains how these groups were (and, particularly in the last case, remain) at odds with traditional remembrance of U.S. military sacrifice. White’s book traces how commemoration of the war in the Pacific has evolved since 1980, when the USS Arizona first opened as a sacred commemorative space. The book demonstrates the responsibility museums have today to...

The value of planning and the values in planning

In July 2015, I took part in a well-attended roundtable debate organised by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) in the AESOP Annual Congress which was spearheaded by a provocative Discussion Paper by the RTPI Deputy Head of Policy and Research (Harris, 2015). This viewpoint is based on my response to two issues raised in the paper: the interface between research and practice and the value of planning. As regards the first one, the Discussion Paper criticises the planning academics' research for not focusing on 'those issues that are of direct relevance to potential research users in ways which provide practical, actionable evidence' (Harris, 2015, 1). This statement reminds me of a story, which, although has been told elsewhere (see Davoudi, 2015a), is worth retelling here. The story is about a scene in Hugh Whitemore's play, Breaking the code (1986), which should be recounted every time academics are asked to demonstrate the practical worth of their research. The scene is a job interview when a civil servant asks a young academic about his research and receives this enthusiastic, yet confused answer:'Hilbert thought there should be a single clearly defined method for deciding whether or not mathematical assertions were provable ... I wanted to show that there can be no one method that will work for all questions ... Eventually I conceived the idea of a machine ...' (Whitemore, 1986, 33-34)The baffled civil servant then asks: 'You actually built a machine?' (Whitemore, 1986, 34), to which the young academic replies: 'No, no. It was a machine of the imagination' (Whitemore, 1986, 34). The civil servant's next question is emblematic of the dominant, albeit stereotypical, perception of academics as people who live in their ivory towers and use taxpayers' money to do 'blue sky' research of no use to anyone. He asks:'What is the point of devising a machine that cannot be built, in order to prove that there are certain mathematical statements that cannot be proved?' 'Is there any practical value in all this?' (Whitemore, 1986, 34)By now you have probably guessed that the play is based on a true story; that the young academic was Alan Turing, who was interviewed for the post of the leading cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park; that he went on to break the German's Enigma code which influenced the date of the Normandy landings, shortened the Second World War and saved countless lives. And, if that was not enough for the practical relevance of his research, he also built, almost by accident, the first electronic computer (Davoudi, 20:5a).The story is worth repeating because it brilliantly shows the non-linear, unpredictable and contingent nature of both the process and the outcome of research. It shows that 'researchers' flights of fancy can pay off (Reisz, 2008, 37) even if they may not have an immediate, practical utility or a quantified economic value. History is full of examples of scientific breakthroughs that have happened as a result of intellectual curiosity and speculative research. They have often come from a desire for knowledge rather than for filling a gap in the market or responding to immediate, practical questions. These examples tell us that academic research should not be judged through the limited lens of instrumentalism; that researchers should not always be expected to be 'on tap' to provide the right answer to what is often the wrong question and that there are other ways of framing the entwined relationship between research and policy (see Davoudi, 2006) or knowledge and action (see Davoudi, 2015b). For example, a conceptual model defines such a relationship as iterative and long-term whereby the findings from research creep into policy deliberations and illuminate the landscape within which decisions are made. I am not suggesting that planning academics should stop being concerned about the impact of their research and its relevance to the society. I do, however, suggest that they should resist the instrumental model of policy-research interface and its obsession with quantification; that they should resist the erosion of respect for learning. …