The Invasion of Normandy

The development of the new generator prompted attempts by CWS staff officers in England to get a smoke generator company for the theater. War Department inquiries about the requirements for such units got little response from the Eighth Air Force, which came to the conclusion that the advantages of airdrome concealment were equaled or outweighed by the interference of smoke with operations. But SOS authorities in the theater showed interest in smoke as a means of concealing supply installations and later included the ports in 

Great Britain through which flowed the build-up of troops and supplies from the United States. Diminishing German air raids reduced theater interest in this type of activity, although during mid-1943 planners envisioned the use of some twenty or twenty-four smoke companies to conceal continental ports once the invasion was under way.  

The 33d Chemical Decontamination Company landed on Utah Beach on D-day with the multiple mission of decontamination reconnaissance, smoke, and CWS supply. Although by that afternoon the unit was prepared to provide smoke on call from VII Corps, the German Air Force failed to appear in strength and the need for smoke never materialized. As a consequence, the 33d s main mission became that of supply the CWS dump maintained by the unit handled over 

According to plan, the companies of the 23d Smoke Generator Battalion were to have assumed the smoke mission at Omaha on D plus 3. The land contingent of the battalion, the 84th and 16 ist Companies, arrived off the beach on the afternoon of D plus 2 and came ashore that evening. Both companies experienced a great deal of difficulty. Men and equipment became separated some roads indicated on the map were nonexistent and others were heavily mined or subject to enemy fire. Fortunately, few German planes appeared over the area and smoke was not required.  

The 79th and 80th Smoke Generator Companies, with their men and Mi smoke generators aboard thirty of His Majesty s trawlers, on 9 June arrived off Omaha Beach, where they served as the offshore element of the 23d Battalion smoke installation. But they received no requests for smoke. The great storm of 18—21 June wrecked some of 

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The exit road for silk was paved by 1938, a year after Carothers s death, when nylon was introduced to the world, primarily as a replacement for silk in hose and stockings and as toothbrush bristles. It is certain that the invention of nylon gravely alfected the Japanese trade balance, and in consequence, the overall position of the Japanese industry in world markets at the threshold of the Second World War. The influence of this miracle fiber, that could be produced at the fraction of the cost as its natural counterpart, is indisputable. Allied use of nylon in parachutes during the invasion of Normandy may have played a decisive role in the war s military outcome. The most obvious influence may come from its impact on consumer consumption. 

In the following month, it happened, Secretary Morgenthau was ordered to England and France by President Roosevelt to look into the many financial problems resulting from the invasion of the Continent. The Allies had landed in Normandy on June 6 and had already secured a firm foothold in northern France when we arrived in August of 1944. 

The author felt like he was watching the troops, in this case the first medical students who took RSR 13, go ashore at the battle of Normandy while being safely sequestered on a ship watching the invasion and praying that no one would be injured. 

Marshall SLA. Night Drop The American Airborne Invasion of Normandy, New York Little Brown... 

Fig. 2-37. The M5 Combat Service Mask, the first U.S. mask with the canister placed directly on the cheek. The M5 mask was part of the personal equipment of the troops who landed at Normandy on 6 June 1944. Postwar tests indicated that it might have protected against respiratory exposure to the nerve agent tabun if the Germans had chosen to use it against the invasion armada. Photograph Chemical and Biological Defense Command Historical Research and Response Team, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

Next to the gas mask, protective clothing was the soldier s most important defense against gas warfare and every individual moving overseas received a complete issue. In the theater of operations this individual issue was maintained either in the hands of the soldier or in readily available supply locations. In addition, theater reserves were stocked in the early part of the war on a 100 percent reissue basis and later in the war on a descending scale according to the vulnerability of each area to the initiation of gas warfare.. Protective clothing was actually worn in operations in which the enemy s initiation of gas warfare appeared possible, such as the Normandy invasion. ... 

Already scurrying blobs of khaki have piled it high with war stores. Five hundred tons of 6 howitzer shell awaiting despatch during the build-up to the Normandy invasion. 

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