Normandy Beach facts

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The fighting was so intense that 4% of the sand on Normandy beach is made up of shrapnel from D-Day that has broken down

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The Normandy beach landing scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan alone cost $12 million. It involved up to 1,500 extras, partly consisting of Irish Reserve Defense Force members and was called the “best battle scenes of all time”

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"The Mad Piper" Bill Millin, the only bagpiper to land on the beach in Normandy. While men fell around him, he played his pipes throughout the battle. A group of captured German snipers was asked why they hadn't shot him. They replied that they thought he'd gone insane and felt bad for him.
Among the thousands of men on the Normandy beaches on D-Day there was one single woman. Martha Gellhorn, a rogue war correspondent who stowed away in the toilet of a hospital ship and also happened to be the third wife of Ernest Hemingway.
D-Day Fighting Was So Intense That 4% Of Normandy's Beach Is Still Shrapnel
During the Normandy Allied Invasion Bill Millin, a Scottish Piper, played his bagpipes as he walked the beach while the carnage erupted around him. He later asked captured German prisoners why they hadn't shot at him. They said they thought he was on a suicide mission and was clearly mad.
The pages of what became Catcher in the Rye were carried by author J.D. Salinger as he stormed the beach at Normandy on D-Day, through the streets of Paris, and into liberated concentration camps. The story was shaped by his experiences.
Bill Millin, a soldier in WWII, walked onto Normandy Beach on D-Day without a gun and began playing the bagpipes. When ordered to do so beforehand, he had pointed out that it was against British regulations, and his commander told him "You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply".
Author J.D. Salinger stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and carried a work in progress with him which would later become "Catcher in the Rye"
Teddy Roosevelt Jr (son of President Theodore Roosevelt) was the oldest man to invade the beaches of Normandy, the only man to invade Normandy with his son (Cpt. Quentin Roosevelt II on Omaha Beach), and he was the only general to lead his troops (on Omaha beach with only a cane and a pistol)

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Navy SEALs began as a Naval Combat Demolition Unit eliminating obstacles on enemy-held beaches at Normandy prior to invasion. The NCDUs at Omaha Beach blew 8 complete gaps and 2 partial gaps in the German defenses by clearing 700 yds of beach in 2 hours, another 900 yds by the afternoon.

4% of the sand on Normandy beaches is made up of shrapnel from D-Day landings, broken down over the decades into sand-sized chunks. - source

George Hjorth parachuted into France three nights before D-day with three film cameras. His mission was to hide in front of the German lines at Normandy and film whatever happened on the beach. He completed the mission successfully, but the film is lost in the archives. - source

During WWII, the large crosswelded metal beams that covered the beaches of Normandy on D-day are called Hemmbalken, and were supposed to wreck landing craft that were expected to attack during high tide. The Allies instead charged while exposed during low tide.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt, led the first wave of troops at Utah Beach during the Normandy landings in 1944. - source

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A LIFE Magazine Photographer Stormed the Beaches of Normandy but Later Almost All the Photographs Were Destroyed By a Darkroom Technician

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The initial invasion on D-Day included approximately 156,000 troops that stormed Normandy's beaches.

The invasion codenames given to the five beaches that the Allied forces took on D-Day are still used on maps and signs.

Martha Gellhorn, former wife of Ernest Hemingway and the only woman to land on the Normandy beaches. She hid aboard a hospital ship and then impersonated a male stretcher bearer to land on the beaches.

A U.S. Admiral once suggested that a large number of rabbits should be released on the beaches of Normandy to set off any mines before the troops arrived on D Day

As soon as they stepped ashore on Normandy during D-Day, some British soldiers began brewing tea on the beach, instead of pushing further inland

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That, thanks to a communication failure, a lot more US soldiers died during the preparation excersize for the "Utah Beach" Normandy invasion than the actual invasion itself.

On September 21st 2013, volunteers stenciled 9000 silhouettes on Normandy beaches to provide a stark visual representation of the soldiers and civilians who died on D-Day. It was called 'The fallen 9000'.

The D-Day invasion at Normandy's beaches resulted in fewer casualties than expected, with Allied deaths totaling 4,572. Germans lost 9,000.

The landing beaches in Normandy were named after fish (sword, gold, jelly). Juno beach was named because Churchill "disapproved of the name Jelly for a beach on which so many men might die"

About the bombing of French villages and cities before, during and after D-Day. On D-Day as much French civilians died in Allied bombings as troops did on the beach. By the end of the bombing campaign on Normandy over 50.000 French civilians were killed by the Allies.

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Following winning the 1943 NFL Championship, Bears Quarterback Sid Luckman participated in the Normandy Invasion on a Tanker ship transporting troops up to the beaches.

On June 6, 1944, the first men to land on the Normandy beach, code-name Sword were French, more precisely 177 Bérets verts, belonging to the Kieffer Commando ,named after their commander Philippe Kieffer. The unit suffered 21 killed and 93 wounded.

By the end of 11 June (D + 5), 326,547 Allied troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches of Normandy

James Doohan, aka Scotty of Star Trek, lost the middle middle finger on his right hand at the Invasion of Normandy on Juno Beach, June 6th 1944. He was a member of the 3rd Canadian Infantry who led the assault on that beach.

The song My Head is Filled With Music by The Real Mckenzies is about Bill Millin a bagpipe player on the beaches of Normandy during WW2. When the Germans were asked why they didn't shoot the Scotsman they said they thought he had gone mad.

A British artist hand-etched 9,000 silhouettes of fallen soldiers into the sand of a Normandy beach in honor of Peace Day and in memoriam of the D-Day landings.

James ("Scotty") Doohan stormed the beaches at Normandy, shot two snipers, and then took 6 friendly fire hits that same night, surviving due to a cigarette case in his chest pocket.

The Fallen 9000 project, where thousands of bodies were stenciled on Normandy beach to honor WWII dead

Each soldier who participated in the Normandy Invasion of D-Day had 635 lbs in supplies on the beach, that's 104,428 tons of supplies, for 326,547 troops!

Those metal pointy things always shown on the Beach of Normandy during D-Day videos are called Czech hedgehogs.

The Mad Piper” Bill Millin, the only bagpiper to land on the beach in Normandy. While men fell around him, he played his pipes throughout the battle. A group of captured German snipers was asked why they hadn’t shot him. They replied that they thought he’d gone insane and felt bad for him.

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