Combined Operations Prayer O LORD GOD, our Father, our Saviour, our Might, we pray Thee take into Thy keeping, us who are joined together in a trinity of arms on sea, on land, and in the air in this our special service for King and Country. We pledge ourselves to do, to dare, to die that others might live, believing in Him who said; "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Grant us faith, courage, and determination that we fail not in whatever duty may lie before us, and may we be enabled by Thy Divine Grace to bear our part in establishing peace on earth and goodwill amongst men. This we ask for Jesus Christ, His sake. Amen
You should be more grateful than most. Your extensive catalogue of Mindyfails would not have been tolerated in a Nazi-controlled Britain.
Bill Newell a young Canadian Commando recalls; It was an event beyond imagination. The magnitude of activity was such that one could not take it all in, but yet could easily understand its purpose. The difficulty was in comprehending that I was part of it all. After a year of extremely arduous navy commando training in the hills of Scotland, our small Canadian unit was expected to be conditioned and ready for most circumstances anticipated in such an operation. In relieving a British commando unit, we were not the first to hit the beach, but that did not dissipate the feeling of apprehension, nor did it affect the sense of confidence earned by our training. There were ships of all types and sizes, from battleships with 15 inch guns firing inland over the beach, destroyers and minesweepers sweeping in closer, smaller supply trawlers, and many different landing craft going in full and coming out empty. There were heavy-duty tugs manoeuvring huge sections of floating steel docks into position, as well as damaged and crippled ships into line to form a sunken breakwater, to reduce the wave action on the beach. Wreckage of landing craft and armoured vehicles were impediments to be avoided until conditions permitted their salvage. The water was cluttered with the debris of combat from enemy bombing, strafing and shelling. Precision night shelling of Juno by a 200mm railway gun at Le Havre continued for some time. LST’s (Landing Ship Tank) beached, unloaded in a hurry, and withdrew with the tides, if they hadn’t been hit with shell-fire or bombs. If they had to wait for the next tide, they were loaded with casualties on stretchers, including those of the enemy. The safest time for this was in the dark of night with no lights, but the risk of accidents with so much activity in the darkness was high. I spent much of my time guiding in tank and assault landing craft, unloading Sherman and Churchill tanks, retrieving bodies floating in on high tides, and generally doing what had to be done to help keep the operation moving. Mobile casualty stations were quickly improvised, along with emergency airfields, which soon became assembly lines, with DC3 and C147 aircraft landing, being loaded with twelve occupied stretchers, and taking off for England. Having the opportunity to see the entire operation of the five invasion beaches from my stretcher in one of these evacuation aircraft was not of my choosing, but the sight was truly breath taking. On approaching the airfield in the Midlands of England, one could see hundreds of ambulances with red crosses on their roofs on the roads leading to the airfield. On being offloaded, each casualty was examined as to the need for emergency surgery, nationality and hospital assignment. A large hanger, with its floor literally covered with stretchers was being used for washing and feeding the patients by young nursing aids. The next morning I awoke in a large ward at #11 Cdn. Military Hosp., and spent the next few days focusing on an unspeakable element of the true cost of this war. This was only one of several wards of this size, and medical teams were constantly working during the days and nights. The sounds in the ward were pathetic, with many of patients still in shock. The two patients in the beds next to mine were also eighteen, with one having his leg off above the knee, and the other with both hands missing. After being transferred to a convalescent hospital for a few days, I was posted back to my operational base on the Isle of Wight, and from there to Portsmouth and back across the channel on an MTB to Normandy. During the two days it took me to find my unit, I operated tanks for an armoured unit behind Gold Beach. Things were now much less hectic in the beach areas, and it was time for further changes. Sixty years is a long time, but still not long enough to diminish my memories of the greatest invasion in history.
My dad's uncle was there. It broke him. He spent his last days institutionalised in a mental Hospital.
Chenogne massacre The*Chenogne massacre*was a*war crimecommitted on New Year's Day, January 1, 1945, where*German*prisoners of war*were murdered by American forces near the village of*Chenogne*(also spelled "Chegnogne"),Belgium, thought to be in retaliation for theMalmedy massacre. Accounts On December 17, 1944, during the*Battle of the Bulge, German*Waffen-SS*troops gunned down 80 American prisoners in the Malmedy massacre. Word of this spread rapidly among American forces, and aroused great anger. One American unit issued orders that, "No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoners but will be shot on sight."[1]*In this atmosphere American forces executed German prisoners as retribution. Author*Martin Sorge*writes, It was in the wake of the Malmedy incident at Chegnogne that on New Year's Day 1945 some 60 German POWs were shot in cold blood by their American guards. The guilty went unpunished. It was felt that the basis for their action was orders that no prisoners were to be taken.[2][3] An eyewitness account by*John ***ue*of B Company, 21st Armored Infantry Battalion (of the*11th Armored Division), near*Chenognedescribes the killing of German prisoners by American soldiers. Some of the boys had some prisoners line up. I knew they were going to shoot them, and I hated this business.... They marched the prisoners back up the hill to murder them with the rest of the prisoners we had secured that morning.... As we were going up the hill out of town, I know some of our boys were lining up German prisoners in the fields on both sides of the road. There must have been 25 or 30 German boys in each group. Machine guns were being set up. These boys were to be machine gunned and murdered. We were committing the same crimes we were now accusing the Japs and Germans of doing. ...Going back down the road into town I looked into the fields where the German boys had been shot. Dark lifeless forms lay in the snow.*[4] Joseph Cummins also relates the account by ***ue regarding the killing of roughly 60 prisoners, but also notes that before the execution of the POWs took place, several Germans including medics waving red-cross flags, were machine-gunned when trying to surrender.[5]*Cummins further connects themassacre*with the entry made by*General Patton*in his diary for January 4, 1945: "The Eleventh Armored is very green and took unnecessary losses to no effect. There were also some unfortunate incidents in the shooting of prisoners. I hope we can conceal this."[5] On the other hand, an*official historypublished by the*United States governmentstates that while "it is probable that Germans who attempted to surrender in the days immediately after the 17th ran a greater risk" of being killed than earlier in the year, even so, "there is no evidence... that American troops took advantage of orders, implicit or explicit, to kill their SS prisoners."[6]*However, according to George Henry Bennett and referring to the above statement; "The caveat is a little disingenuous", and he proceeds to note that it is likely that the orders to shoot prisoners (given by the 328th Infantry regiment) were carried out, and that other US regiments were likely also given similar orders.[7]
