The Royal Canadian Legion is Canada’s largest Veteran support and community service organization. Our more than 300,000 members in over 1400 Branches across Canada make a difference in the lives of Veterans and their families, provide essential services within our communities, and Remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Country.

The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 30 - Port Hope is a service club for veterans, their families and friends. They sponsor community events, Air Cadets and donate to various worthwhile causes and organizations. The Legion holds Remembrance Day, Canada Day  and Decoration Day activities. The Legion also provides hall rentals for small weddings, celebrations of life, dinners, birthday parties, showers, dances, fundraisers, sports, community meetings and banquets. 

   You can book the Port Hope Legion Hall for  many types of receptions and private parties. 

 The cozy "feels like home" hall is air conditioned and is wheelchair accessible. 

Outdoor patio for summer months enjoyment.

Hall Capacity is 110.

Our friendly staff are there for you with smiles and great service.

Please contact us by telephone at 905-885-6585 ,by email @  br30rcl@hotmail.ca or stop in and see us and our staff will happily assist you with your questions or booking.

Enquiry sheets and Booking forms available at the bar.

Sunday June 9th, 2019

No July Meeting - Summer Break

No August Meeting - Summer Break

Sunday September 8th, 2019

Sunday October 13th, 2019

Sunday November 10th, 2019

Sunday December 8th, 2019

Sunday January 12th, 2020

Sunday February 9th, 2020

Sunday March 8th,2020

Sunday April 12th, 2020

Sunday May 10th, 2020

Sunday June 14th, 2020

 When you join the Legion, you support the many services we offer to Veterans, serving military, RCMP Members, and their families. You don’t have to be a Veteran to join!Veterans put their lives on the line for their country; becoming a member of the Legion is the ultimate way to show your appreciation for that service. Your membership also helps provide essential services within our communities, including seniors support services, housing and care for the elderly, drop-in centres, Cadets, youth and sport programs, and much more. There are many ways the Legion gives, and by joining you give too. 

 Legion members care deeply about supporting the men and women who serve this country and want to make a difference in the lives of Veterans, contribute to our communities, and Remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Country. When you join the Legion, you support the many services we offer to Veterans, serving military, RCMP, and their families.

 Join the Legion today!

 There are many ways the Legion gives, and by joining you give too. 

•  President/Membership/Leadership Development-Andre Labrosse
• Past President/Bursary-Wayne Byers
• 1st Vice/Sports/Cemetery & Last Post- Bill Hodges
• 2nd Vice/Special Events-Ford Underwood
• 3rd Vice/Veteran's Services/Band-Allan Wilson
• Secretary/Honours & Awards-Jean Kimball
• Treasurer-Heather Boerrichter
• Sergeant-at-Arms-Bob Cancilla
• Chaplain-Padre William Service
• Poppy Chair/Property-John DeBoer

Executive

Mel Hodges - Pat Underwood - Sarah Calnan - 

Wayne Stephens - John Deboer - Craig West

 When you join the Legion, you support the many services we offer to Veterans, serving military, RCMP Members, and their families. You don’t have to be a Veteran to join! 

Call us today for information on joining... 905-885-6585

 Staff

Michele Roemer 

Cindy Greer

The recipient of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch # 30 Legionnaire of the Year Award for 2018 is a very worthy recipient, a Comrade who personifies the Legion. 

He assisted the Poppy Chairman with computer work and actively participated in the Poppy Campaign.

He designed a model of the Cenotaph 

This Member is a great ambassador of the Legion and promoter of all that we do in the community.

Fellow Comrades, please show your appreciation to the Legionnaire of the Year for 2019 …

Comrade Wayne Stephens!!!!!  

Congratulations  Wayne ,, well deserved.    

The Ladies Auxiliary is an essential part of the Legion.  

The Auxiliary are made up of Ladies who volunteer their time to running functions for the Legion as well as fundraising to assist others.

President : Arlene Pettipas - 905-885-8421

1st Vice President : Kathy Joachim

2nd Vice President : Patricia Honey

Secretary: Tracy Brown

Treasurer: Susan MacDonald

Sgt-at-Arms : Jean Tarrington

Sports Officier : Janet Watts

Executive : Sandra Bolton

                  Cathy Moore

Our Meetings are the second Tuesday of the Month - 7pm at the Legion.  

We are always looking for new members so if you have a little spare time or we are also always open to volunteers to help out with our events.  If you would like to join or become a volunteer please contact President Arlene Pettipas @ 905-885-8421 or call the legion at 905-885-6585 and join a rewarding organization.

Meeting Schedule 

Tuesday January 8th/19 @ 7pm

Tuesday February 12/19 @ 7pm

Tuesday March 12/19 @ 7pm

Tuesday April 9th/19 @ 7pm

Tuesday May 14th/19 @ 7PM - ELECTIONS

Tuesday June 11th/19 @ 7pm - POT LUCK

No Meetings in July & August 2019

Tuesday September 10th/19 @ 7pm

Tuesday October 8th/19 @ 7pm

Tuesday November 12th/19 @ 7pm

Tuesday December 10/19 @ 7pm

 The Port Hope & District Pipe Band enjoy entertaining in parades, shows and at Highland Games throughout the area. 

Please take the time to enjoy learning about how they originated, their past accomplishments and learn about their future adventures and events. 

If you or someone you know is interested in joining or learning, qualified piping and drumming instruction are available free of charge on Thursday evenings. 

Come to the practice hall between 6:30 pm and 7 pm. or contact them at: porthopepipeband@gmail.com 

The band meet each Thursday evening at 7:30 pm for chanter and drumming practice at: 

Ruth Clarke Activity Centre 

81 Mill Street South, 

Port Hope, ON 

L1A 3Z9 

Band President- Heather A’Court 

Pipe Major-Jamie York 

Drum Sgt.- Al Wilson  

 Web site : http://porthopeanddistrictpipeband.ca 

 Please donate a little time and sign up for the Poppy Campaign.  Board is set up at the Port Hope Legion.  Contact Poppy Chairman Comrade John DeBoer for further information @ 905-885-6585 - leave message. 

Thank you so much for all you do.

Every year, the Legion conducts the Poppy Campaign to honour those who serve, and to raise funds in support of Veterans and their families. From the last Friday in October to Remembrance Day, all Canadians can be a part of the campaign. Wear a poppy, attend a ceremony, and show your recognition for those who gave their lives for our freedom.

Canadians are fiercely proud of our Veterans… and during the period leading up to Remembrance Day, millions of Canadians wear a Poppy as a symbol of national pride and respect, a visual pledge to never forget.During the Poppy Campaign, thousands of Legion members from coast to coast to coast volunteer their time to distribute poppies and raise millions that will support Veterans and their families in need. While Poppies are distributed freely, the Legion truly appreciates the generous donations to the Poppy Fund in support of serving and retired Veterans and their families. 

All help is greatly appreciated...Contact  Poppy Chairman John DeBoer to help in any way.... or leave a message @ 905-885-6585

 “We will remember them” is a call heard at many military memorial ceremonies and parades, but it was only in 1931 that Ottawa passed an act permanently fixing Canada’s national military memorial day to the anniversary of Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918, marking the end of the Great War. The day was named Remembrance Day. The same act moved Thanksgiving to October from its traditional November date, still adhered to by our American neighbours.
 

The 1931 Armistice Remembrance Day Act became an inauspicious memorial to those who died in what was called at the time “the war to end all wars.” As the poet W.H. Auden wrote, the 1930s were “a low dishonest decade” in which “clever hopes expired.” The decade ushered in the Second World War, which was infinitely more savage and apocalyptic than the first. It was appropriate to commemorate those killed in that futile First World War with symbolic artificial paper poppies under tombstone-cold grey skies of November.
 

But for 30 years before, Canadians had a different memorial called Decoration Day in which we commemorated our war dead with the laying of real flowers, not in the hopeless gloom of November but in the warm light and optimism of late spring or in summer, often on the weekend closest to June 2, the anniversary of Canada's forgotten first modern battle, the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866.

 On Decoration Day, Canadians gathered at war monuments, tended to soldiers’ graves after the ravages of winter and “decorated” them with flowers, wreaths and garlands, prayed that their sacrifices were not in vain and that we had come to be worthy of them. Veterans were showered in flowers as they passed, escorted by phalanxes of children. It was a popular communion of young and old with the souls of our fallen soldiers in a celebration of hope, life and rebirth. We remembered and we remembered well.
 

Sadly, politics trumped memory. Decoration Day began as a protest in 1890 by forgotten veterans who had fought in the Battle of Ridgeway but received no acknowledgement from the Canadian government. Nine soldiers were killed in the battle, including three University of Toronto student volunteer riflemen plucked from their final exams the day before and thrown into combat against Irish-American Fenian insurgents who had invaded Canada across the Niagara River near Fort Erie.
 

The Ridgeway Nine are the modern Canadian military’s first nine combat casualties, but the boys killed that day were quickly forgotten by the bungling politicians in Ottawa who had sent them to their deaths, as were another 22 soldiers who later died from wounds and disease contracted on service during the Fenian Raids that summer in 1866 

 By 1890, frustrated with being forgotten for nearly 25 years, the surviving middle-aged veterans protested on the June 2 anniversary of Ridgeway by laying flowers and wreaths at the Canadian Volunteers Monument near Queen’s Park, Toronto’s oldest standing public monument. The event became Decoration Day, an annual tradition that endured until 1930 and is still commemorated today in some communities in the Niagara-Welland-Fort Erie region where the 1866 battle was fought.
 

Decoration Day eventually included Canadian soldiers killed in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, and the South African War (Boer War) of 1899-1902, and the even the Great War, whose casualties were commemorated in June before there was any armistice in November of 1918.
 

When Remembrance Day was established in 1931, with only a few surviving Fenian Raid veterans remaining to remind Ottawa of its historical bungling, the embarrassing memory of our first fallen soldiers was purged from our national heritage and from the Remembrance Day commemoration. Today, they’re not even listed in our National Books of Remembrance, and few in Canada have even heard of the Battle of Ridgeway.
 

Until recently, Canada’s Veterans Affairs website used to state that Remembrance Day only “commemorates Canadians who died in service to Canada from the South African War to current missions.” Now, some Veterans Affairs web pages have begun to purge the South African War casualties, proclaiming that, on Remembrance Day, “we honour those who fought for Canada in the First World War (1914-1918), the Second World War (1939-1945), and the Korean War (1950-1953), as well as those who have served since then.” This is a further erosion of our historical memory of sacrifices that should never be forgotten no matter how long ago they might have been made.
 

With the recent death of the last surviving veteran of the First World War, tomorrow may see the memory of those sacrifices thoughtlessly deleted from our national heritage. And the day after tomorrow, our Second World War and Korean War fallen may be as easily forgotten, and it will be left to us to explain to our children what Nov. 11 used to signify and why we fought those wars.
 

Remembrance must be forever. Veterans Affairs needs to permanently restore the memory of all our forgotten soldiers who fell in service for Canada, not just the more recent ones but beginning with our very first who we used to commemorate during Decoration Day, starting with the Ridgeway Nine.
 

Let’s all take one more day to remember, that warm sunny one in June. Let’s revive Decoration Day and place a living flower on a soldier’s grave, tend to it tenderly, embrace a veteran and thank them for those better summers of our liberty and prosperity that define this great nation we call Canada. One more day is surely not asking too much to acknowledge entire lives given. Let’s remain true to our promise, “We will remember them.”     
 

    The ancient ceremony of the Piling of the Drums had its origins where new banners or colors were presented. Colors have always been regarded with great reverence. Historians record that Colors have been associated with religion from the earliest times. Israelites carried the social standard of the Maccabees which bore the initial letter of the Hebrew text. These early associations linking religion with the battle flags and standards have their counterpart in the ceremonial attached to Colours today. Many Commonwealth countries adopted the British custom for the consecration of the Colors prior to the presentation to the Units. The drums are traditionally piled to provide an altar for the consecration. The drums are brought forward and piled in the center. The pile consists of five side drums in a circle with the emblazoning the right way up, facing outwards. The bass drum is laid on the side drums and a tenor drum on top, both with the center of the emblazoning facing the person blessing the Colors. The Colors are then draped on the pile for the consecration, the pikes resting on the hoop to retain the Colors pikes in position. There is no drill laid down for the piling drums, but the drummers concerned normally turn to their left and right and marches out in a single file, forming a circle around the designated spot, turn inwards and arrange their instruments in the center. After the Colors have been consecrated, the drums are recovered in the same way. The   Colors after being blessed by the various religious leaders, is handed over to the visiting dignitary , who will present the newly consecrated Colors to the CO / Commander of the Unit. The Colors are then trooped.   

 Many, many years ago when soldiers were in the field there were no altars on which to hold religious services, so the soldiers would pile their drums neatly to make an altar and drape the drums with their standards [flags]. A clergyman would then consecrate the 'altar' and celebrate inter-faith religious services for the soldiers. 

In modern times the Legion honours those military personnel who died in all the wars by carrying on the tradition of the Drum Head Service of Remembrance.  

 Brief History of D-Day

What 

D-Day was the start of the Battle of Normandy.

And the beginning of the end.

Allied soldiers — British, American, Canadian — came together in an extraordinary naval, air and land campaign to reclaim Europe from the Nazis, an effort that put thousands of troops on the beaches of Northern France on D-Day: June 6, 1944.

The major invasion (code name: Operation Overlord) that began June 6 continued with the German army flailing at Falaise in mid-August and ended August 25 with the liberation of Paris.

Eleven months after D-Day, on May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered.

D-Day itself was the largest ever invasion by sea (code name for that part: Operation Neptune) in the history of warfare. It gave Allied forces a foothold on the coast of France. Within a few weeks a million soldiers were on those beaches, pushing inland into France to begin liberating Europe.

Where

Normandy is one of the 18 different regions of France. The area is in the northwest of the country, and known for its beautiful beaches — which sit across the Channel from England.

For the D-Day invasion, five beach areas in Normandy were code-named Juno, Sword, Gold, Utah and Omaha. Juno Beach is where Canadian troops landed; the Americans were on Omaha and Utah; the British on Gold and Sword.

The toughest landings were on Omaha and Juno. Ocean reefs briefly held up the landing on Juno and Canadian soldiers initially came onto the beach with no tank support. The men were sitting ducks. Canadian troops nonetheless distinguished themselves that day by advancing seven miles inland — farthest of all the Allies.

Who

D-Day required an unparalleled cooperative effort: besides the American, Canadian and British troops storming the beaches, soldiers offering land, sea and air support came from France, Belgium, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Rhodesia.

Some 150,000 Allied soldiers were part of D-Day, and 14,000 of them were the Canadians who landed on Juno Beach. The men were from the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade.

(About 450 men from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion had dropped into France before dawn, part of the advance arm of D-Day.)

On D-Day, 359 Canadians died; about 5,000 in total died during the fighting in Normandy.

According to an Ancestry.ca analysis, their average age was 23.

When

The original date of D-Day was June 5, but the weather turned.

The mission required a full moon to help light the way for advance aircraft, among other things, and a low-ish tide, so landing craft could see the mines and detritus planted near the shore by the German army.

Only a few days each month fit the moon/tide bill.

On June 5, high winds and low clouds cancelled any potential action by sea or air. A crisis was averted when chief meteorologist James Stagg and Norwegian meteorologist Sverre Petterssen were able to predict a reasonable weather window June 6.

General Eisenhower ordered the D-Day invasion to go ahead.

The weather forecast was crucial — not just because the Allies got it right, but because the Germans got it wrong. They knew an Allied invasion was likely, but they didn’t know when. German meteorologists believed stormy weather around June 5 and 6 made an invasion impossible, so they slacked off; troops were unprepared, senior officers were elsewhere and the ‘Desert Fox’ — Field Marshall Erwin Rommel — went home to Germany for his wife’s birthday.

The rest is, um, history.

Why

D-Day and the Battle of Normandy were about regaining control of Europe, ending the war and safeguarding the freedoms we all currently enjoy.

Sprechen sie Deutsch? You might have.

Ask a Historian

Terry Copp is one of Canada’s foremost military historians.

For over 50 years he was a university professor, and he is co-founder and Director Emeritus of the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies — a national leading research centre studying the impact of war on society.

Copp is the author or co-author of some 20 books, including the ‘bible’ of the Canadian D-Day effort, Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy.

His meticulous research established the importance of the contribution made by this country’s forces in Normandy.

We asked Professor Copp about the most important thing Canadians should know about D-Day. He said:

“The selection of 3rd Canadian division and 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade as the core of Force ‘J’ to land on D-Day at Juno, was a consequence of the key role Canada played in the Second World War.”

“D-Day began the campaign that ended the war in the west, completing the struggle to liberate western Europe, and Canadians on land, sea and air were an important part of the story.”

Facts & Figures

As Allied troops massed along the south coast of England in preparation for D-Day, it took 4,000 cooks to keep them fed.

Every day, 20,000 tons of food, fuel, ammunition and equipment were required to keep 36 divisions running smoothly.

Besides 7,000 boats, D-Day involved 9900 aircraft and some 20,000 airborne troopers. 

There were about 5,000 landing craft, 289 escort vessels and 277 minesweepers

On the Allied side there were 23 infantry divisions, 12 armoured divisions and four airborne divisions involved.

Some 15,000 French citizens died during the fighting in Normandy.

The total of Allied and German deaths by August 30 was over 425,000.

THE ATLANTIC WALL

To protect the coast against invasion, the Germans fortified Europe’s northern shore from Spain up to the North Sea — essentially building a 2,000 mile long ‘fence’ consisting of fortresses, gun emplacements, tank traps, bunkers and obstacles.

It took 2 years to build and involved millions of tons of steel and concrete, a forest of guns, barbed wire and booby-traps and five million mines. It cost a fortune in manpower and money.

And it was breached in a day: June 6, 1944.

5 Very Different Experiences: The D-Day Beaches 

The experiences of Allied troops landing on D-Day were very different. The paratroopers scattered by poor weather across hundreds of miles of countryside faced different challenges from those streaming off the boats onto the landing beaches. Even on those beaches, no two experiences were the same, differences in circumstances made each soldier’s experience a different battle.

5. Utah Beach

The American landings at Utah Beach were among the easiest, as the Germans had not prepared heavy defenses. Because of flooded land in the area, the Germans had not expected the Allies to land there, and so it was lightly defended. With three quarters of the trains and strategic bridges in northern France taken out by air raids and the French Resistance, there was little way for the Germans to respond to the landings

A massive bombardment by battleships, cruisers and destroyers shattered what defenses the Germans had. 32 amphibious tanks sailed two miles to the beach under cover of the bombardment, with only four of them lost on the way. With armor in place, the infantry followed, and found only light resistance.

Despite the 4th Infantry Division landing on the wrong beach, Utah was quickly taken. Safe routes through the minefields and obstacles were established within three hours, and the tanks moved on to take the causeways that would let them progress safely across the flooded areas.

4. Omaha Beach

By contrast, the other American landings, at Omaha Beach, were the toughest of the day. 300 yards of sand led to steep shingle and then a 150-foot plateau, with 100-foot cliffs blocking the ends of the beach. The veteran German 352ndInfantry Division were in strong defenses on the top of the plateau, and there were only four ways up it, all through narrow ravines. The only reason this difficult beach featured in the landings was to connect the rest into a single beachhead.

Poor visibility and choppy waters made the initial bombardment ineffective and sank all but four of the amphibious tanks that were the first wave. When the infantry hit shore, they disembarked into a deadly hail of fire. The obstacles the engineers were meant to clear instead became shelter for desperate men, as the sea and the beach ran red with blood.

To the east of the beach, troops made it ashore, some in the wrong place by accident, others finding cover in the smoke from fires lit by the artillery bombardment. Reaching the plateau, they prevented a German counter-attack on the beach, but the Germans were still well dug in.

Desperate measures were needed. Destroyers sailed so close that the Germans could shoot them with rifles. The ships bombarded the German positions, risking hitting the American troops in the process. At last the Germans surrendered, but the minefields and obstacles remained to be cleared. By the end of the day, the Americans had advanced only 1,200 yards at Omaha Beach, and the Germans were gathering beyond it for a counter-attack.

3. Gold Beach

The preparatory bombardment at Gold Beach, one of the British landing sites, made a huge difference. Three out of four heavy German guns at the Longues-sur-mer battery were taken out by direct hits from cruisers an hour before the troops hit the beach at 0725. The fourth gun managed to return to action in the afternoon, and another defensive position provided enfilading fire against the Allies for most of the day, but most of the defenses had been taken out.

The Germans held out in heavily fortified houses along the shore, which British infantry stormed before advancing inland. No. 47 Commando seized Port-en-Bessin the following day, providing access to a small port, and the Hampshire Regiment captured Arromanches, which would become the site of the vital Mulberry Harbour.

The only Victoria Cross awarded for action on D-Day went to Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis for action on Gold Beach. He single-handedly seized two pillboxes, capturing dozens of German troops, and rescued two of his men following an unsuccessful attack on an enemy position.

2. Juno Beach

Juno proved a tough landing. A reef off the coast held up the landing craft for half an hour, while they floated in sight of the German defenders. Amphibious and obstacle-clearing tanks, which should have gone in first to clear the way for the infantry, had to be held back because of the difficult conditions. As the infantry flowed ashore, they found themselves without armored support.

Once the tanks landed, a similar problem occurred again. Clearing the beach exits would take specialized armor that they didn’t have. Men and vehicles became backed up, sitting exposed on the beach.

The key breakthrough came at the east end of the beach. Heavy casualties were taken on the 100-yard dash to the sea wall there, until a ship came up to bombard the German defences. Almost grounding their vessel in the attempt, the ship’s crew blew a hole in the German lines, and the Canadians streamed through.

Despite this difficult start, the Canadians achieved the furthest advances on the first day, reaching seven miles inland after their breakout.

1. Sword

Sword Beach, near the mouth of the River Orne, was stormed by the 3rd Division of the British 1st Corps. Compared with the others, they had a relatively easy landing. Within an hour they had taken control of the beach and begun heading inland.

It was then that the troops from Sword found themselves challenged. The British role in the first days of the invasion was to halt and destroy the German Panzer troops around the city of Caen. To do this, the troops landing at Juno and Sword needed to link up with the 6th Airborne, who had landed around the Orne.

Two miles from Sword Beach, they were stopped in their tracks. The 21st Panzers, equipped with 88mm self-propelled guns and supported by German infantry, started putting up stiff resistance. The British 3rd Division had been trained extensively for fighting on the beaches, but now found itself fighting inland. It took them eight hours to adjust, push through the Germans, and reach the 6th Airborne. 

Sources: Nigel Cawthorne (2004), Turning the Tide: Decisive Battles of the Second World War.

Operation Overlord Statistics (As stated from Warfare History Network from the link-The total of Allied and German deaths by August 30 was over 425,000.)

The Normandy invasion consisted of the following:

· 5,333 Allied ships and landing craft embarking nearly 175,000 men.

· The British and Canadians put 75,215 British and Canadian troops ashore

· Americans: 57,500

· Total:132,715

· 3,400 were killed or missing.

The foregoing figures exclude approximately 20,000 Allied airborne troopers.

D-Day Casualties:

· The First U.S. Army, accounting for the first twenty-four hours in Normandy, tabulated 1,465 killed, 1,928 missing, and 6,603 wounded. The after-action report of U.S. VII Corps (ending 1 July) showed 22,119 casualties including 2,811 killed, 5,665 missing, 79 prisoners, and 13,564 wounded, including paratroopers.

· Canadian forces at Juno Beach sustained 946 casualties, of whom 335 were listed as killed.

· Surprisingly, no British figures were published, but Cornelius Ryan cites estimates of 2,500 to 3,000 killed, wounded, and missing, including 650 from the Sixth Airborne Division.

· German sources vary between four thousand and nine thousand D-Day casualties on 6 June—a range of 125 percent. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s report for all of June cited killed, wounded, and missing of some 250,000 men, including twenty-eight generals.

American Personnel in Britain:

· 1,931,885 land

· 659,554 air

· 285,000 naval

· Total:2,876,439 officers and men housed in 1,108 bases and camps

Divisions of the Allied forces for Operation Overlord (the assault forces on 6 June involved two U.S., two British, and one Canadian division.)

· 23 infantry divisions (thirteen U.S., eight British, two Canadian)

· 12 armored divisions (five U.S., four British, one each Canadian, French, and Polish)

· 4 airborne (two each U.S. and British)

· Total:23 American divisions, 14 British, 3 Canadian, 1 French and 1 Polish.

Air assets:

· 3,958 heavy bombers (3,455 operational)

· 1,234 medium and light bombers (989 operational)

· 4,709 fighters (3,824 operational)

· Total: 9,901 (8,268 operational).

German troops:

· 850,000 German troops awaiting the invasion, many were Eastern European conscripts; there were even some Koreans.

· In Normandy itself the Germans had deployed 80,000 troops, but only one panzer division.

· 60 infantry divisions in France and ten panzer divisions, possessing 1,552 tanks,In Normandy itself the Germans had deployed eighty thousand troops, but only one panzer division.

Approximately fifteen thousand French civilians died in the Normandy campaign, partly from Allied bombing and partly from combat actions of Allied and German ground forces.

The total number of casualties that occurred during Operation Overlord, from June 6 (the date of D-Day) to August 30 (when German forces retreated across the Seine) was over 425,000 Allied and German troops. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties:

· Nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces

· 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces.

· Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces)

· 125,847 from the US ground forces.

But the numbers alone don’t tell the full story of the battle that raged in Normandy on June 6th, 1944 ☹

The information is copied from the Sun and Warfare History Network.