UNITED KINGDOM: On 5 June 44 Alan Brooke CIGS, received the following signal from Montgomery:
"I would like to thank you personally for your kindly help and guidance during the last five months. It has not been an easy time for anyone. My great desire throughout has been to justify your confidence in me and not to let you down and I hope I have been able to do this to your satisfaction.
"I cross over to France to-morrow night - if all goes well - and may not see you again.
"So good-bye and good luck."
(Jay Stone)
To me the line, "I cross over to France to-morrow night" has a
poetic sound to it. I remembered it years after reading Bryant's work on
Brooke's diaries. I often wonder if Brooke, when he received that signal,
thought back to the night of 30 May 40, just a few days more than four years
ago, when he handed over command of 2 Corps to Montgomery at La Panne and
returned to England. Things were far different then than they would be four
years later. These two soldiers had conducted a difficult retrograde for almost
three week and had held the fate of a large part of Britain's armies in their
hands They and their troops were close to exhaustion. They knew that they would
have to leave a large part of their army's equipment in France. (Brooke even had
to leave a new pair of boots and breeches.)
Now so much had changed. Together, in the dark days of 1940 they had organized the ground defence of the kingdom. Brooke had spent 2+ years riding herd on Churchill and viewing the war from a global point of view. Montgomery had gone out to the desert and seen Rommel off, been victorious in Sicily and taken the Eighth Army to Italy. He was preparing to lead the largest amphibious force ever assembled back to France.
The British had fought a long, weary and courageous war and now perhaps Brookie and Monty could see the beginning of the end. I believe that it was an emotional time for both of them. I wonder if they had even a vague idea of what the post war world held for their nation. (Jay Stone)
Portsmouth: At 4pm today the die was cast and there can be no turning back. The day before, at Eisenhower's battle headquarters, Southwick House, Portsmouth, Montgomery had wanted to go ahead with the invasion in spite of the rough weather. Many troops have been in cramped landing craft since the beginning of the month and are sick, tired and cold.
Eisenhower had overruled Montgomery then and postponed Overlord for 24 hours. Warships already at sea had to be recalled. When the commanders met again today they were told that the weather would improve for a brief period and then deteriorate. Everybody looked at Eisenhower. His deputy, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, wanted to postpone the operation: effective air cover needed good visibility. Montgomery and the naval commander, Admiral Ramsey, wanted to go.
Delay would push the operation to the end of the month. It needs a rising tide in daylight, as near to dawn as possible. For the night-time airborne drop a moon is desirable. These conditions set 5 and 6 June as good dates; after that the best is 19 June - but without a moon, and a million men and their supplies already loaded would have to be pulled back. Eisenhower's chief of staff, Lt-Gen Bedell Smith, was struck by the loneliness of his commander.
Eisenhower was writing: "Our landings in the Cherbourg -Le Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place were based on the best information available. The troops, the air and navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone." He slipped the note in his pocket without telling the others of its contents.
"I'm quite positive we must give the order," he said slowly, "I don't like it, but there it is. I don't see how we can possibly do anything else." He paused and added: "OK let's go."
FRANCE: As 1,136 RAF bombers bomb ten coastal batteries in Normandy, the first invasion troops, of the British 6th Airborne Division, land by glider at 11.55pm at Benouville, near Caen.