Destroyers Forggotten Role at D-Day... Save the Day...

5fish

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On D-Day, there was a group of destroyers that gave support to troops landing on Omaha and Utah beaches. They were seen sailing into the swallows and giving fire support to the troops which many say saved the day on Omaha beach... They did so much more like one claims to have fired the first shot of D-Day even those another ship was given that credit... If you do not know what the navy was doing on D-Day, they are good reads...

The first DD is credited for saving the day at Omaha... eyewitness account... Omaha was going badly until the DD showed up...


I faced the channel during the first few hours. All of a sudden, at about 1000 or 1030, I guess, a destroyer loomed out of a sea swarming with dozens of various size and type landing craft and DUKW amphibious vehicles. She was headed straight toward me. Even though she wasn’t listing or smoking, my first thought was that she had either struck a mine or taken a torpedo and was damaged badly enough that she was being beached. While I was coming up with my reason for the destroyer to head in, she started to turn right and, before she completed the turn to be parallel to the beach, all her guns opened fire. At the same time I saw smoke leave the gun barrels, shells landed a few yards above my rock cover. As the destroyer proceeded toward the western end of the beach, 1 continued to watch her and wondered how she could be so close without taking any artillery or mortar hits. I watched her go farther and farther from me and expected to see her pull out to sea at any minute, when suddenly I realized she was backing up and her guns had yet to pause since commencing fire. She backed up almost to where she had started, went dead in the water for the second time—still, to my knowledge, without taking u hit—and again headed toward the other end of the beach, with all guns still blazing. When she reached the western section of the beach, she pulled out to sea.

Next, detail account of the landing with the destroyers to the rescue...


Most of the destroyers took up positions only 800 to 1,000 yards off the beach, so close that, as a newspaper correspondent reported, ”Germans were hitting them with rifle bullets.” Though the gradients varied across the beachfront, at that distance the water depth was only about 12 to 18 feet. Sanders later speculated that there were moments when the Frankford had only a few inches of water under her keel, and Kirk later asserted that “they had their bows against the bottom.” Even if that were not literally true, it suggested the willingness of the destroyer captains to put their ships at risk in an obvious emergency. These dozen or so destroyers constituted only a tiny fraction of the more than 5,000 ships that participated in the invasion of Normandy, but over the ensuing 90 minutes, they turned the tide of battle on Omaha Beach.

This account about all the destroyers were in the fight on D-Day...


The big-gun battleships softened the German defenses and made for dramatic newsreel footage 60 years ago. But the spunky destroyers in the Normandy Invasion—including the Emmons (left) and Doyle (background right) in Dwight Shepler’s dramatic combat art—came within less than 1,000 yards from the shore, providing direct gunfire support for troops on the beach.

D-Day is always the story of brave men struggling across beaches and then fighting their way inland. Another story, however, was unfolding at sea. At least 200 ships and landing craft sank off the beaches.1 Among them were three U.S. destroyers and three British destroyers, including one manned by Norwegian officers and crew. The losses began on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and continued into July.

The Emmons lost contact with her shore-fire control party. Not knowing whether the men had been killed, wounded, or captured, her gunners shot at whatever looked like a good target. A spotter saw some German naval troops marching down Port en Bessin’s main street. She sprayed them with her 40-mm battery, sending them scattering. The Carmick (DD-493) aided tanks that made it ashore on Omaha. As the tanks were trying to fight their way toward an exit called the Vierville draw, Carmick spotters watched for bursts along the edge of the bluff and used these bursts as targets, figuring that whatever U.S. tanks were aiming at was worth shooting at from a U.S. ship.15
 
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5fish

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Here more on the USS Frankford...


Normandy, Omaha Beach Escort Flagship - USS Frankford (DD 497). USS Frankford (DD-497), a Gleaves-class destroyer commissioned in 1943. She is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the privateer captain John Frankford who skippered the 14-gun ship Belvedere during the Quasi-War with France, 1798 to 1800.

This is an approximately 42" X 80" wool bunting, double applique starfield, sewn stripe US Ensign, size 9, Navy contract flag made by the Dettra Flag Co., of Oaks, PA. It is finished with a canvas header and four metal war time grommets. The flag is marked on the upper obverse hoist, "DETTRA FLAG CO. INC US ENS 9" and on the upper reverse hoist, "USNS FRANKFORD DD497."

After training and coastal escort duty, Frankford made three trans-Atlantic voyages to screen convoys in 1943. In early 1944 she resumed escort screening and anti-submarine patrols while training for Operation Neptune, the maritime component of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe. She departed for Europe in April and continued escort duty until June 5th.

On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the Frankford, the flagship of DESRON 18, the Escort Group (124.7) in Task Force "O," was assigned to Red and Fox beaches on the east side of Omaha Beach. After escorting the transports, Frankford provided naval gunfire support for the foundering assault forces of the first wave on Omaha Beach. The Frankford's aggressive action of putting her bow into the sand less than 900 yards from the shore in order to silence German gun emplacements by herself might have turned the tide of the Omaha landing - and, possibly, the whole Normandy invasion, as her action inspired other allied ships to close in on Omaha to provide more accurate support. In addition, the Frankford along with rescuing survivors of mined ships and downed pilots, drove off enemy E-boat attacks and, aside from two one-day voyages to Plymouth for stores and fuel, Frankford remained on duty of the French coast until mid-July.

After D-Day the Frankford sailed for the Mediterranean to support the invasion of southern France where she again engaged German torpedo boats, sinking three and capturing one, before returning to New York for an overhaul. She then patrolled the Eastern Seaboard until January 1945 when she was tasked with screening the cruiser Quincy, carrying FDR to the Yalta Conference. She was then sent to the Pacific Theatre, arriving at Pearl Harbor in August, just in time to participate in Japanese Occupation duties.

A D-Day collector should seize this opportunity to acquire an ensign from one of the most important and unheralded ships at Omaha Beach.

For her WWII Service the Frankford was awarded the American Defense Service Medal with the Fleet Clasp, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two campaign stars, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

Condition: The ensign is in good condition, with only minor deficits, wear and tear, and some splitting on the fly.
 

5fish

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Here is another look at the event...


General Bradley later wrote, “Twelve destroyers moved in close to the beach, heedless of shallow water, mines, enemy fire, and other obstacles, to give us close support. The main batteries of these gallant ships became our sole artillery. ... General Gerow's first message to me was emotional: 'Thank God for the U.S. Navy.’”

An LCI skipper circling offshore remembered, “Enemy fire on the beach was terrific - 105mm, 88mm, 40mm, mortars, machine guns, mines, everything. Destroyers were almost on the beach themselves, firing away at pillboxes and strong points.”

"A destroyer loomed out of the sea...headed straight for me...my first thought was that she had struck a mine...and was damaged badly enough that she was being beached. But suddenly she swerved to the right with all her guns blazing away.
"
 

5fish

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Here is an overview of what the German naval and air units were doing on D-day... Overmatched comes to mind,


The Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine on D-Day had little influence on the final outcome of the battle. However, it is interesting to consider what influence these forces of the German army could have had during the landings, had the relations with the Allies been different.
 

rittmeister

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Here is an overview of what the German naval and air units were doing on D-day... Overmatched comes to mind,


The Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine on D-Day had little influence on the final outcome of the battle. However, it is interesting to consider what influence these forces of the German army could have had during the landings, had the relations with the Allies been different.
just one question: if we had had good relations with the allies why the fuck would you have invaded?
 

5fish

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A few more detail on the German naval actions...

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Already greatly weakened by the previous war years, the German navy had only 163 minesweepers (Raumboote), 57 patrol vessels (Vorpostenboote), 42 artillery barges (Artillerie-Träger), 34 launchers (S-Boote) and 5 torpedo boats (Torpedoboote).
 
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