John Jones On the Run-Up to the Longest Day
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John Jones, Sunrise Rotary’s world traveler (and sometime accountant), gave us an immensely interesting overview of World War II and the run-up to the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy. John started with the battle for Sicily, took us through the campaign in Italy, and then to the preparation for and invasion at Normandy. John was supremely organized for his presentation: His talk included a map of Europe with the protagonists color-coded and the cast of the main players, including Hitler, Rommel, Stalin, the U.S. (230,000 killed in action), the Russians (10 mm killed in action), the Germans (5mm koa), Stalin, Churchill, FDR, Ike, Patton, Italy, and Admiral Hewitt (who took an aggressive stance bombing Axis land forces from his destroyer during the landings at Sicily and Normandy). John noted that the campaign in Sicily (which followed the destruction of German and Italian forces in North Africa) was relatively simple (it took only 30 days) and that the Italian mainland campaign was drawn-out, arduous, plagued by horrible weather, and nearly disastrous. He recounted the German aerial bombardment of Bari, Italy, in which the U.S. Navy faced its second worst naval defeat in history (remember Pearl Harbor?), losing 25 ships.
John also gave us some important but often ignored facts about the D-Day landings on Normandy. The weather was terrible and the naval and aerial bombardments were almost worthless; they badly missed their objectives and did not create the expected chaos or punctures in the German lines. This resulted in leaving the infantry to more-or-less fend for itself in horrible conditions (the first wave of soldiers on the beach suffered an 85% casualty rate). On the other hand, the terrible weather contributed to German inattention; they didn’t believe that such a massive invasion would be attempted without better weather. German Field Marshall Rommel even left his post in charge of the defense to be with his wife in Germany just before the landings! John also noted that when Hitler was informed of the Normandy invasion, he refused to believe it was anything more than a feint, expecting that the invasion would be centered in Calais. As a result, the Germans did not use their large reserve units at Normandy until after the Allies had established beachheads at all of their objectives. Too late!
Thank you, John, for putting the time and effort into this presentation. You gave us an important frame of reference for the upcoming Veteran’s Day holiday!
