2015 June

Page 1

The Veterans Memorial Museum Newsletter

June 2015The Museum is open Wednesday - Saturday 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

To set up a tour call the Museum at 256-883-3737 during Museum hours.

Museum News by Dennis Gaare

-

Buy a General Admission ticket to the U.S. Veterans

Memorial Museum for a friend. Tickets may be

obtained at the Museum office.

The City of Huntsville has vacated the Health Clinic, located on the backside of the

Museum. The Museum Staff has moved into the former clinic and has almost completed

stocking the shelves with books and articles relocated from the former archives. To date

7,400 books have been archives

On 13 May the Warrant Officers Association, held its monthly meeting.

On May 30, the Museum supported the Aviation Heritage Fly-In at the Huntsville

Executive Airport with display of the Vietnam era USMC “MUTT” (Jeep) by Mr. Bob

McCoy. Museum volunteer Chief Warrant officer 5 Jeff Oosting also displayed his

Vietnam era 2 ½ ton truck (deuce and a half).

On 30 May, Museum Volunteers John Omenski and Brian Knox displayed the Museum’s

HMMWV (Hummer) at the Madison Public Library.

On Monday 1 June, the AUSA had a breakfast meeting at the Museum.

On Wednesday, June 3, a group from the Veterans Administration toured the Museum.

2015 June

Page 2

Upcoming EventsThe following events are scheduled at the Museum:

On Saturday June 6, the Museum will display a military vehicle at the Vets with Vettescar show at the Milton Frank Stadium from 1000 to 4PM. Come out and see a lot ofnice cars. June 11 the Burwell Tae Kwan Do Summer Program will tour the Museum

June 12 Museum staff will meet with a representative of the Gadsden Museum of Artto coordinate support for their Veterans Display

Saturday 13 June the Museum will be a stop in the Poker Run by the Vietnam VetsLegacy Motorcycle club.

Wednesday 17 June the Veterans Affairs, Huntsville, will tour the Museum. Saturday 20 June a group from the Harris Home will tour the Museum. Saturday 20 June the Antique Car Club of Murfreesboro, TN will tour the Museum. Tuesday 23 June, The Civil War Roundtable will meet at the Museum. Tuesday 30 June, A group from Woodmont Baptist Church, Florence, will tour the

Museum.

Museum Artifact by Rob Robley

Operation Overlord D-Day: 6 June 1944

D-Day: Was the greatest amphibious operation the world has ever seen. D-Day was a truly

staggering feat of logistics that involved putting ashore at Normandy a total of 176,475 men,

3,000 guns, 1,500 tanks, 15, 000 other assorted vehicles. Some 11,000 ships were committed to

invasion force. 10,500 air sorties were flown by allied Air Forces. Allied commanders secretly

predicted that as many as 10,000 men might die in the initial assault, fewer than 2,500 allied

soldiers were killed on D-Day.

D-Day, the actual invasion date in military jargon, however was only the start of a long and

arduous campaign which was not to end until

Germany finally collapsed in the spring of the

following year. The basic object of Overlord was

to secure a beachhead in France from which

further operations could mount. The assault

phase of the operation was code-named

Neptune, which envisioned the landing of five

divisions between the mouth of River Orne and

neck of the Cotentin Peninsula. To seal off the

battlefield airborne troops would be dropped at

either end in advance of the actual landings. The

coast was divided into two sectors. British and

American, and subdivided into five actual beaches,

American First Army: Utah 4th Inf. Div

Omaha: 1st Inf. Div

2015 June

Page 3

British Second Army: Gold 50th Inf. Div

Juno 3rd Canadian Inf. Div

Sword 3rd Inf. Div

To the left of our 40&8 boxcar is our D-Day display of soldiers, sailors, and airmen in invasion

uniforms and some weapons and artifacts used during the invasion. Included in the display is a

prop M-1 Rifle used in the movie "Saving Private Ryan", A "Cricket" used by the Airborne troops

to identify each other during the night drop in Normandy. I click (Are you friend?), 2 clicks (Yes!)

and sand from Omaha and Utah beaches.

To put things in perspective; envision moving the population of the city of Huntsville, to Mobile in

absolute secrecy in three days, and depositing them in precise order.

Part of the deception prior to D-Day, was the use of General Patton. Patton had been relieved of

command for slapping a soldier in Italy. He was relegated to being the commander of a "Ghost

Army", stationed in Northern England. Gen. Patton was the most feared commander due to his

victories in North Africa, and Italy. Poised in Northern England, giving the impression of an Army

preparing for a cross channel invasion from Dover to Cherbourg, which was the most direct route

to France, The "Phantom Army" broadcast messages, had inflatable trucks, tanks and aircraft to

give the impression of an Army preparing for a cross channel invasion, thus forcing the Germans

to move their Armor to repel Patton's Army.

Historical facts by Rob Robley

U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum.

Most of us know the names of the famous leaders of the invasion forces on D-Day. "Ike" General

Eisenhower, "Brad" General Bradley, "Blood and Guts" General Patton, and "Monty" British

General Montgomery. One of the least know of the Generals, who was instrumental in assuring

the success of the invasion was Maj. Gen Percy Hobart, he was one of a small group of British

officers who pioneered the use of tanks between the wars, Known as "Hobo", who incidentally

was Monty's brother-in -law. Hobart was forced to retire from the army on account of unorthodox"

views and in 1940 was serving as a corporal in the Home Guard. Rescued from oblivion by the

direct order of Churchill, he was put in charge of development of armored vehicles designed to

perform specialist tasks. He set up his small organization at Bovington, the home of Royal Tank

Regiment, and from the workshop there emerged a whole series of armored vehicles that were

to play a decisive role on D-Day, and the campaign in northwest Europe. Many of these vehicles

were given animal names as a cover, hence the nickname of "Hobart's Menagerie" also known

as "Hobart's Funnies". The Crab or flail tank was a device for clearing minefields and barbwire,

2015 June

Page 4

consisting of rotating drum on the front of a conventional tank. This had a length of chain

attached literally flailed or beat a path through the minefield.

NOTE: (This concept is still in use today.) The Crocodile was a Churchill tank chassis, fitted with

a flamethrower, a weapon much hated by the Germans. The fuel was towed behind the tank in a

specially designed armored trailer.

One of the lessons learned from an earlier commando raid on the French port city of Dieppe, was

the difficulty of tanks crossing obstacles such as sea walls and anti-tank ditches. To cope with

this, Hobart developed a number of bridge carrying vehicles including the Arc. The Bobbin tank

uncoiled a matting roadway from a huge drum to lay a path over soft sand and fascine, which

could drop a large bundle of branches into a crater or ditch. The vehicles were all variants of

Armored Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE), which could also be used for firing a heavy explosive

charge at concrete fortifications. Instead of the normal gun in the turret, a large spigot mortar was

fitted. The projectile from this was known as the "flying dustbin" owing to its size. (NOTE: In

2015 June

Page 5

modern times, The US Army combat engineers had 152 and 165mm short barrel "bunker buster"

projectiles in both HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) and HEP (High Explosive Plastic)

configuration, on their Combat Engineer Vehicle (CVE), based on the M-60 Chassis, soon to be

replaced by a CEV on the M-1 "Abrams" Chassis.)

Other devices did not progress much further than initial test, many of which were carried out on

the beaches of the South, including the "Panjandrum". This was like a large Catherine (Ferris)

Wheel designed to crush through barbed wire, which when tested ran amok, Highly successful,

however was the Sherman Duplex Drive (DD) Tank. This was a swimmable tank, which was kept

afloat by collapsible canvas screens. The engine could drive either propellers or the tracks, and

on D-Day, the DD tanks swam onto the beach to support the initial infantry attack waves.

In early 1943, all these vehicles (other than the DDs ) were formed in to the 79th Armored

Division commanded by Hobart. The Americans proved skeptical and other than the DD, did not

accept the help offered. ON The British beaches , specialist armor was to prove invaluable and

saved considerable number of lives.

PLUTO:

These initials literally stood for Pipe Line Under The Ocean, an idea that was born as far back as

April 1942. At that time, Lord Louis Mountbatten was considering the problems of fuel supplies to

an army which had landed on the Continent. During the following year a number of trials were

undertaken and two systems were developed, both of which were in fact used after D-Day. The

first was a flexible hollow cable known as "Hais" which would be laid on the sea bed in the same

manner as telephone cables. The other called Hamel and consisted of lengths of 3" diameter

Steel pipe which could be welded together and coiled into 30 foot diameter drums. These were

known as Conums. In all 172 million gallons of petrol was supplied through Pluto, which

continued operation until July 1945. Pumping into a system on land pipelines reaching out well

inside Germany.

MULLBERRY HARBORS:

As early as the First World War, Winston Churchill had suggested the use of concrete element]s

to form an artificial ,harbor, and he returned to the subject in May 1942 when Combined

Operations were considering ways and means for a cross-channel assault. In a memo to

Mountbatten he referred to piers for use on open beaches which 'must float up and down with the

tide. It was not until June 1943 that the scheme of providing complete harbors was seriously

considered. By then, the awful lesson of Dieppe had been absorbed. that it was impossible to

capture a defended port - and the planners thought that it was unlikely that Cherbourg and the

Brittany harbors would be free for use until D-Day +40. The COSSAC staff came up with a

requirement for two artificial harbors each the size of Dover, which could be towed in sections

across the Channel and be assembled of the Normandy beaches

2015 June

Page 6

The basic scheme was as follows. As soon as possible after the actual landings, lines of old

ships (Corncobs) were to be sunk of each beach to form a breakwater or Gooseberry. These

would provide a modicum of shelter for immediate unloading operations.

In the meantime, the first units of the artificial harbors would be on their way across the channel,

consisting of concrete caissons known as Phoenix’s. Each was almost as big as a five-story

block of flats (apartments), measuring 200 feet in length, 55 feet in width and 60 feet high. Their

total weight was 6,000 tons each. The Phoenix Caissons would be joined to the line of

"Corncobs" to form an outer breakwater, and when flooded would sit firmly on the bottom of the

sea. The next stage was then to construct floating roadways running out from the beach

connected to steel pier heads known as whales. These slid up and down on Spud legs standing

on the bottom of the bottom. One Mulberry was to be located near the British beaches and the

other, for the Americans to Omaha Beach.

To give just some idea of the scale of the operations, a total of some two million tons of

pre-fabricated material had to be towed across the channel and assembled. Seventy-four

obsolete ships were used as corncobs, and 213 Phoenix caissons were built, as well as 93

Bombardons, huge floating pontoons designed to form a further breakwater for deep draught

ships to seaward of the Mulberries. Every available Tug both in Britain and the United States was

pressed into service to transport the mass of material to the invasion beaches.

General Information

The U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum, located in Huntsville, Alabama, is a 501c3 not-for-profit

organization. There are more than 30 historical military vehicles from World War I to the present

as well as artifacts and other memorabilia dating back to the Revolutionary War. Displays

include a "Merci" 40 et 8 boxcar from World War I, a Cobra attack helicopter, a collection of

jeeps, Sherman tanks and Stuarts, a half-track and flags, maps, uniforms and other artifacts

from every U.S. conflict. The Museum is located just west of Memorial Pkwy in John Hunt Park at

2060A Airport Road, Huntsville, Al 35801. The U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum is dedicated to

promoting the accomplishments of American military men and women.

The Museum's web page is www.memorialmuseum.org.

The Museum email of is Info@memorialmuseum.org.

If you would like to be removed from our mailing list, send “REMOVE” to

Info@memorialmuseum.org.

Follow the U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum on Face book.

If you would like to be “ADDED” to our mailing list, send “Add to Newsletter” to

Info@memorialmuseum.org.