L is for the Longest Yarn - Invasion Beaches

D-Day was a staggering human achievement, by any measure, and I don't think you could mount such an operation today, even with three years preparation, the Falkland's campaign was won on luck, tenacity and a few dozen vessels, while the Ukrainian 'push' last year was quickly blunted by flooding, mines, drones and cannon-fodder from Russian gaols. To find something similar in history, you might look at Xerxes's crossing of the Hellespont or the Mongol invasion fleet wreaked by a typhoon off Japan in 1273.

 

But neither involved the complexity of the Allied liberation of Europe, although one could argue Xerxes's pontoons represented the height of technology in his age and could be equated, perhaps, with the Mulberry Harbours, but not PLUTO or the glider armada, or Hobart's Funnies and the many specialised landing craft, or the feint in Pas de Calias, or Patton's ghost army and inflatable tanks, the dead tramp with 'secret' plans on him, although, even with all the tricks, all the planning, and all the preparations, it came down to taking five beaches, under fire from well-prepared positions.

By the evening of the 6th all five beaches had established bridgeheads beyound the dunes, with the Americans on Utah getting 6-miles inland by nightfall, while the British on Gold had linked-up with Canadian forces on Juno by the end of the day. I'm not - as I'm sure you've gathered - a religious man, so we'll call it luck, but some might suggest it was a miracle, as very few of the main objective had been achieved by midnight, but equally miraculously, despite many being blown off target, and some being lost for days, the airborne forces of the previous night HAD achieved all theirs; allowing for the landings to succeed and laying the foundations for breakout.