I'm using a guide by Major and Mrs Holt to get me round the beaches - Definitive Battlefield Guide series and the one on D-Day, sixth edition. Good read with plenty of the background 'colour' to each stop.
First stop on the Utah tour is St Mere Eglise - taken by US paratroops on the night / day of June 5th and 6th after some pretty confused fighting due to the appalling weather for parachuting. Some of the troops ended up 20 miles away! Lots of great stories about individual actions that night and day but my favourite is Private John Steele who ended up landing on the church roof and had to play dead all night to prevent himself getting shot for real!
Poor John Steele...
No comments:
Post a Comment