Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Where did they land on D Day?
After spending many years training in the United Kingdom, the 15th (Scottish) Division landed in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, soon after the initial D-Day landings, in mid June 1944 and almost immediately took part in Operation Epsom. Epsom was an attack by most of Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey's British Second Army that was intended to outflank and seize the city of Caen, which was to be taken on D-Day and had, over the last few weeks, bore witness to much bitter fighting in what is known as the Battle for Caen. Epsom did not achieve its overall objective but forced the Wehrmacht to abandon their offensive plans and tied most of their armoured units to a defensive role.
In July 1944 Wilson was based in Naples, commanding Coastal Base Section, which accompanied the Seventh Army on 15 August 1944 during Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France. For the first three weeks Coastal Base Section was largely occupied with the operation of the landing beaches.
The Germans used mustard gas for the first time, supported by a mass of heavy artillery, which captured part of the bridgehead over the Yser and annihilated two British battalions. After several postponements, Operation Hush was cancelled on 14 October 1917, as the advance during the Third Battle of Ypres did not meet the objectives required to begin the attack. In April 1918, the Dover Patrol raided Zeebrugge, to sink block ships in the canal entrance to trap U-Boats, which closed the canal for a short time. From September–October 1918, the Belgian coast was occupied by the Allies, in the Fifth Battle of Ypres.
The possibility of a landing on the Belgian coast was not abandoned, despite the number of rejected plans and early in 1917, Bacon assisted in the planning of Operation Hush, landings by the three brigades of the 1st Division around Middelkerke at the northern extremity of the Western Front. The operation was dependent on the advance of the British armies in the Third Battle of Ypres and had no influence on events at Zeebrugge and Ostend. If landings at the ports were successful, the forces involved would be doomed unless they were relieved by the advance of the armies in Flanders. Bacon devised a plan to destroy the lock gates at Zeebrugge by bombardment with the 15-inch guns of the monitors , and .
The Fifth Army needed to maintain a brisk tempo of attack, to deprive the Germans of time to recover and to create the conditions for Operation Hush on the coast. Hush had to begin during the high tide period at the end of August or be postponed for four weeks. The Fifth Army had captured ground on the Gheluvelt Plateau on 31 July but the unusually wet and murky weather, the tenacious German defence and determined counter-attacks, left the 4th Army in control of the higher ground around the most vital objectives around Inverness Copse and Glencorse Wood. In 1920, M. Kincaid-Smith, the divisional historian, called the attack by the 25th Division a great success, the advance being conducted on schedule, supported by "excellent" artillery-fire. Pack-transport was used promptly to deliver ammunition, supplies and engineer stores; carrying-parties from the support battalions kept the front line supplied. The signal arrangements using daylight lamps worked all day, except on the left flank; runners maintained contact with the rear despite the German artillery and small-arms fire. Medical services had been changed after the Battle of Messines in June and worked well. In 1922, G. H. F. Nichols, the historian of the 18th (Eastern) Division, wrote that it had experienced the new German defensive system for the first time in "appalling conditions" and that there had been a "blend of blunders".
The Germans attacked on 21 May and were able to consolidate their objectives, before the British could conduct counter-attacks powerful enough to recapture the ground. In the attack and its aftermath the Germans suffered against the A British plan to recapture the front positions and take the German side of the ridge was cancelled, because of the demand for men and equipment of the forthcoming Battle of the Somme, the attack on the Gommecourt Salient taking priority. British planning continued and became the basis for the much larger attack by the Canadian Corps at the Battle of Vimy Ridge (9–12 April 1917).
At the Battle of Papeete on 22 September, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the East Asia Squadron bombarded the colony. During the bombardment, the French gunboat was sunk by gunfire from the German ships. Fear of mines in the harbor prevented von Spee from seizing the coal that lay in the harbor. By 12 October, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the squadron had reached Easter Island. There they were joined by and "Leipzig", which had sailed from American waters. "Dresden" was stationed in the Caribbean, but had been in San Francisco when von Spee issued the order to consolidate German naval forces in the Pacific. After a week off Easter Island, the ships departed for the Chilean mainland.
2/4th Londons received their introduction to trench warfare in the 'Eski' reserve line between 20 and 27 October, and suffered their first battle casualties. Thereafter they did seven-day tours of duty in the reserve line alternating with 'rest' in flooded camps in the rear. In December the battalion took over frontline trenches. Between 31 December and 8 January 1916 the battalion was evacuated to Mudros by detachments as the Gallipoli operation was closed down. From Mudros the battalion was taken to Alexandria aboard HMT "Ionian", arriving on 21 January.
On 11 July Rawlinson ordered that lost ground be recovered by outflanking the new German line along the canal in the Dunes sector. The XV Corps commander, Lieutenant-General Du Cane noted that instant counter-attacks made by local initiative usually succeeded, while those ordered later by higher authority were too late to exploit disorganisation among the attackers and that adequate preparation and a methodical attack was necessary. The remainder of the bridgehead was constricted, the German artillery reinforcements were still present and after a successful counter-attack, British troops would be vulnerable to another German operation. Du Cane wanted to wait until the rest of the British artillery arrived and the main offensive at Ypres had begun. Rawlinson accepted Du Cane's views and counter-attacks planned for 12 July by the 32nd Division were cancelled. The 33rd Division was moved to the coast in August and took over from Nieuport to Lombartsyde, spending three weeks in the line, under night bombing and gas shelling. Two of the 33rd Division battalions were kilted Scottish and suffered severely from mustard gas burns, until equipped with undergarments.
On the night of 23/24 March, after the XII Corps′ assault of the Rhine, Bradley had announced his success. The 12th Army Group commander said that American troops could cross the Rhine anywhere, without aerial bombardment or airborne troops, a direct jab at Montgomery whose troops were at that very moment preparing to launch their own Rhine assault following an intense and elaborate aerial and artillery preparation and with the assistance of two airborne divisions, the American 17th, and the British 6th.
A Company, 7 RAR had already been patrolling in the Hat Dich since 3 August when the orders for the operation were issued. Utilising an insertion technique perfected by the Special Air Service Regiment they were subsequently re-supplied early on the evening of 5 August, with the supplies successfully unloaded and the helicopters departing within three minutes. The covert infiltration of the infantry companies went undetected, and on the morning of 6 August A Company began to patrol towards the intended site of their initial patrol base. Under the command of Major Ewart O'Donnell, by-mid morning the Australians were approximately east of Phu My. At 10:40, moving north-west with 2 Platoon leading, the Australians crossed a creek, the Suoi Chau Pha, and shortly afterwards located a fresh track which had only recently been used. O'Donnell ordered the lead platoon into ambush positions astride the track, while he moved forward to conduct a reconnaissance. Minutes later two Viet Cong sentries walked into the ambush with their weapons slung, and they were killed instantly by a short burst from an M60 machine-gun, likely surprised by the silent insertion of the Australians.
The Battle of Hill 60 was the last major assault of the Gallipoli Campaign. It was launched on 21 August 1915 to coincide with the attack on Scimitar Hill made from the Suvla front by Major-General H. de B. De Lisle's British IX Corps, Frederick Stopford having been replaced in the few days previous. Hill 60 was a low knoll at the northern end of the Sari Bair range which dominated the Suvla landing. Capturing this hill along with Scimitar Hill would have allowed the Anzac and Suvla landings to be securely linked.
Approaching the east coast of Florida, Dora's motion became erratic, making a few cyclonic loops. Around 04:00 UTC on September 10, the hurricane made landfall near St. Augustine, Florida, with winds of . Two hours later, Dora weakened to a Category 2 hurricane. However, deterioration then slowed, with the hurricane falling to tropical storm intensity on September 11. Dora then briefly drifted over southwestern Georgia, until turned east-northeastward late the next day. Early on September 14, the storm re-emerged into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and became extratropical several hours later. The remnants of Dora moved rapidly northeastward and dissipated offshore Newfoundland early on September 16.
NASA's "Mars Pathfinder" spacecraft, launched one month after Global Surveyor, landed on July 4, 1997. Its landing site was an ancient flood plain in Mars' northern hemisphere called Ares Vallis, which is among the rockiest parts of Mars. It carried a tiny remote-controlled rover called Sojourner, which was the first acting Mars rover that traveled a few meters around the landing site, exploring the conditions and sampling rocks around it. Newspapers around the world carried images of the lander dispatching the rover to explore the surface of Mars in a way never achieved before.
The Brigade distinguished itself in various battles. One of the most notable was the attack on Hill 60 near Ypres in 1915. Hill 60 was the highest point on what was known as the "Caterpillar Ridge" and as such was an excellent post for observation of the ground area around Zillebeke and Ypres. The 5th Division, composed of 13th, 14th and 15th brigades, had the task of securing Hill 60 and the ridge line. The Hill was taken between 17 and 19 April 1915, with heavy losses, and the subsequent German counterattack in early May was particularly ferocious. The Germans, unable to obtain victory, eventually resorted to the use of chlorine gas and Brigade casualties during the first week in May 1915 were 33 officers and 1,553 men. However, the line was held until reliefs were brought forward and the Brigade withdrawn.
The United States was attacked on September 11, 2001 by al Qaeda terrorists who hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them in coordinated strikes into both towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and its target was likely a prominent building in Washington, D.C., most probably either the Capitol Building or the White House. Within three hours of the start of the first hijacking and two hours after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center, Rumsfeld raised the defense condition signaling of the United States offensive readiness to DEFCON 3, the highest it had been since the Arab-Israeli war in 1973.
On 12 May 1968 airlifters in Vietnam as they were called upon to evacuate the camp at Kham Duc. Although two C-130s, one of which was from the 374th, were shot down and others were damaged, they managed to bring out about half of the camps defenders while US Army and USMC helicopters brought out the remainder who did not exfiltrate out on the ground. Lt. Col. Daryl D. Cole was awarded the prestigious MacKay Trophy for the most meritorious flight of the year for flying his badly damaged C-130A out of Kham Duc. Lt. Col. John Delmore's crew crash landed at Kham Duc but were quickly rescued by US Army personnel.
On May 29, 1898, 1060 Rough Riders and 1258 of their horses and mules made their way to the Southern Pacific railroad to travel to Tampa, Florida where they would set off for Cuba. The lot awaited orders for departure from Major General William Rufus Shafter. Under heavy prompting from Washington D.C., General Shafter gave the order to dispatch the troops early before sufficient traveling storage was available. Due to this problem, only eight of the twelve companies of The Rough Riders were permitted to leave Tampa to engage in the war, and many of the horses and mules were left behind. Aside from Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's first hand mention of deep, heartfelt sorrow from the men left behind, this situation resulted in a premature weakening of the men. Approximately one fourth of them who received training had already been lost, most dying of malaria and yellow fever. This sent the remaining troops into Cuba with a significant loss in men and morale.
The first mission "over the hump" took place on 8 April 1942. Flying from the Royal Air Force airfield at Dinjan, Lt. Col. William D. Old used a pair of the former Pan Am DC-3s to ferry of aviation fuel intended to resupply the Doolittle Raiders. The collapse of Allied resistance in northern Burma in May 1942 meant further diversion of the already minuscule air effort. The ABC Ferry Command resupplied Stilwell's retreating army and evacuated its wounded, while establishing a regular air service to China using ten borrowed DC-3s, three AAF C-47s, and 13 CNAC C-53s and C-39s. Only two-thirds of the aircraft were serviceable at any time. Dinjan was within range of Japanese fighters now based at Myitkyina, forcing all-night maintenance operations and pre-dawn takeoffs of the defenseless supply planes. The threat of interception also forced the ABC Ferry Command to fly a difficult 500-mile (800 km) route to China over the Eastern Himalayan Uplift, which came to be known as the "high hump", or more simply, "The Hump".
The official history of the Army Air Forces states:
Unfavorable weather conditions along the route were a major contributing factor to its difficulty:
The point of view of a veteran crewman who flew the Hump was described in a feature story for a local newspaper years after:
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time (18:18 GMT). The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section), were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The Gas attacks at Wulverghem (30 April and 17 June 1916) were German cloud gas releases during the First World War on British troops in the municipality of Heuvelland, near Ypres in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The gas attacks were part of the sporadic fighting between battles in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. The British Second Army held the ground from Messines Ridge northwards to Steenstraat and the divisions opposite the German XXIII Reserve Corps had received warnings of a gas attack. From 21 to 23 April, British artillery-fire exploded several gas cylinders in the German lines around Spanbroekmolen, which released greenish-yellow clouds. A gas alert was given on 25 April when the wind began to blow from the north-east and routine work was suspended; on 29 April, two German soldiers deserted and warned that an attack was imminent. Just after midnight on 30 April, the German attack began and over no man's land, a gas cloud drifted on the wind into the British defences, then south-west towards Bailleul.
Dawson landed with his company at the Easy Red sector of Omaha beach early in the morning on June 6, 1944. After being pinned down on the beach, Dawson led his men up a narrow ravine, now known as "Dawson's draw," from the beach to the top of the bluff on which the American cemetery now sits. He personally cleared a German machine gun nest with an accurate throw of a grenade. He is known as one of the first officers to reach the top of the bluff overlooking the beach. Once at the top, he led his men to his objective at Colleville-sur-Mer, where he was wounded on the afternoon of June 6. For his actions that day he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (United States), and at the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Dawson was selected by the Army to speak at the ceremonies as the representative of the troops who landed that day.
Some days after D-Day, the "Victoria" landed American assault forces on Utah beach, where resistance had been encountered. She then proceeded to service the harbour at Arromanches, landing troops and supplies.
Reconnaissance parties from 103rd HAA Rgt landed on Queen sector between Ouistreham and Luc-sur-Mer during the late afternoon of D-day, but attempts to land HAA guns on the beaches during the second tide were hampered by a lack of Rhino ferries and by damaged towing gear. By nightfall, only two of 103rd HAA's guns were ashore, and these were without instruments. Nevertheless, they came into action against raids at dusk and were credited with destroying two enemy aircraft. Luckily, "Luftwaffe" attacks on D-Day were few and sporadic, and more HAA guns began to come ashore the following day (D+1).
Forces landing on Utah cleared the immediate area in less than an hour, and penetrated inland by the close of D-Day. Within two hours of landing, the 82nd Airborne captured the important crossroads at Sainte-Mère-Église, but they failed to neutralize the line of defenses along the Merderet on D-Day as planned. While many of the airborne forces landed far from their drop zones and were unable to meet all their D-Day objectives, this widespread scattering of forces had the unintended side effect of confusing the German defenders, who were slow to react.