Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 32

5 June 21:30 First aircraft take off from British airfields. (More than 10,000 aircraft are involved in the invasion.)

By midnight 1,333 heavy RAF bombers drop 5,316 tons of bombs on radar stations and the ten most important German gun batteries in the assault area. In the 24 hours between the night of 5 and 6 June. The RAF drops 15,000 and 20,000 tons of bombs.

5/6 June Operations Taxable and Glimmer, both devised by Wing Commader E. I. Dickie, create ‘Phantom Fleets’ on enemy radar screens. Taxable involves 16 Lancasters of 617 Squadron and is a joint RN/RAF operation aimed at making the Germans believe that an invasion force was attacking the French coast between Dieppe and Cap d’Antifer. Attacks on enemy radar installations had all but destroyed their effectiveness, but care had been taken to leave enough operational to allow the Germans to deceive themselves that their radars were showing an invasion fleet. The RN uses 18 small vessels as tugs to tow balloons, which would show up as large ships on the German radar screens. This ‘convoy’ occupies an area of sea that measures 14 miles by 15 miles and appears to move at seven knots towards the coast. It is known subsequently that the German High Command has plotted three invasion forces arriving on the French coast.

Six aircraft of 218 Squadron, and a few boats, mount Operation Glimmer, whose ‘convoy’ is aimed at the beaches of Boulogne. German searchlights are turned on and guns open fire on the convoy. Luftwaffe night fighters are directed towards the jammers and spend hours in the area, as do E-boats searching for a fleet that never sailed.

15 aircraft of 138, 149 and 161 Squadrons, giving the impression of a much larger force, drop dummy parachutists called ‘Ruperts’ between Rouen and Le Havre. At 04:00 the 915th Regiment, General Marcks’ LXXXIV Corps reserve, abandons Omaha and sets off to intercept them. It takes hours before the German reserve can be re-grouped and brought back to the beachhead.

16 aircraft of 90, 138 and 149 Squadrons, flying tracks 15 miles south of that taken by the invasion forces, simulate landings at Maligny and Villers Bocage. The Maligny decoy serves to relieve some pressure on US airborne forces around Ste-Mere-Eglise.

24 Lancasters of 101 Squadron and five B-17 Flying Fortresses of 214 Squadron, carrying 82 radio jammers between them, obliterate the German night-fighter frequencies for more than five hours.

16 Stirlings of 199 Squadron and four Fortresses of 803 Squadron USAAF establish a Mandrel screen from Littlehampton to Portland Bill jamming all but 5 per cent of the Freya radars between Cherbourg and Le Havre.

The Allies fly 14,674 sorties on D-Day. Losses, chiefly due to flak, are 113 (0.77 per cent). The Luftwaffe flies 319 sorties.

D-Day map, Southwick House.

Royal Navy