D-Day Diary - June 5th 1944
MONDAY 5 JUNE 1944.
Weather report; wind easterly Force 5.
0415 Southwick House, Eisenhower decides "OK. We'll
go".
Field Marshal Rommel departs his headquarters in Normandy
for an interview with Hitler on Obersalzberg.
Fleet Minesweeping Flotilla commences sweeping from 'Piccadilly
Circus, in mid-Channel, towards the Normandy coast.
Signal from German C-in-C West; The centre of gravity between
the Scheldt and Normandy is still the most probable focal
point for the attack. The possibility of extension up to
the north of Brittany, including Brest, is not excluded.
WHERE within this entire sector the enemy will attempt a
landing is still obscure…As yet there is no immediate
prospect of the invasion…
Around noon Landing Craft carrying 4th/7th Dragoon Guards
sail out through the Needles Channel and swing south for
France.
1230 hours. Landing Craft from Newhaven, including tanks
of the Staffordshire Yeomanry, set sail for France.
1400 hours. Landing Craft of Force S, including 13th/18th
Hussars, set sail for France.
Aircraft from RAF Hurn and RAF Thorney Island attack German
coastal radar installations.
Lancaster bombers of 617 (Dam Busters) Squadron, Royal
Air Force begin radar deception (Window/Chaff) operations
towards eastern end of English Channel.
1630 hours Landing Craft carrying East Riding Yeomanry
leave the Solent, bound for France.
From about 22.00 hours Halifax-Horsa combinations start
to take off from RAF Tarrant Rushton with elements of 6th
Airborne Division.
2215 hours. C47 (Dakota) aircraft of IX U S Army Air Force
Troop Carrier Command, 925 in all, take off from West Country
airfields with men of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.
Shortly before midnight the first Armstrong Whitworth Albermarle
Pathfinder aircraft of 295 Squadron takes off from RAF Harwell
to mark sites for the airborne forces.
Around midnight Panzer Regiment 22, 21st Panzer Division,
located in the Caen - Falaise area, placed on stand-by.
Midnight. Sherwood Rangers sail for France.
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