June...
Was an ‘interesting’ month in WWII... Two of the biggest battles of the entire war took place in June. One in the Pacific, and one in the Atlantic.
In 1942, June 4-7, it was the Battle of Midway, starting on the 4th with an attack on the islands at Midway ending on the 7th with the USS Yorktown finally sinking, but the Japanese losses were worse, Akagi, Kaga, and Sōryū. Hiryū did get damage done to the Yorktown before she was sunk.
In 1944, June 7th was the second day of the D-Day landings. The beachheads Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword had been finally established late on 6 June, and the 7th saw the bridgehead pushing out 15km from the beach.
The other thing started on 7 June was the mulberry that would allow the offloading of the prodigious amount of material the US troops would need.
The battle for France would obviously take more than four days, and end up costing 2,501 American soldiers, and 1,913 from other Allied forces, primarily the United Kingdom and Canada just on 6 June. Overall, including wounded, missing, and captured, the total was around 10,000. The Germans lost between 7,000 and 9,000 troops that day.
The Normandy cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer contains 9,389 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed 1,557 additional names.
They were truly the greatest generation. May they rest in peace.
But their leaders were often glory-hunting fools. Mark Clark captured Rome, but let most of the German forces in Italy slip past. Rome was captured 5th of June, and Clark's "success" was soon forgotten with Normandy.
Sadly, when the main focus shifted to France, the Good Idea Fairy ™️ visited the leaders in the Italian campaign a lot.
Churchill's demand that an amphibious landing take place to break out of the Gustav line led to major losses at Anzio, including my father-in-law's friends in the 1st and 2nd battalions of Darby's Rangers. It also tied up amphibious craft, risking the Normandy invasion.
Never trust flag officers nor politicians who want to play general. 🤬