Normandy would be a pivotal battleground during the Second World War. At a time when the war
was still raging and a major change in fortunes was needed for the Allied forces.
It came on the beaches of northern France. History would remember the D-Day landings
and the liberation of France and western Europe from the Nazis. The beaches remember the huge
casualties and sheer violence which still scar them to this day.
The efforts of so many people helped create what some call the 'greatest armada of all
times'. Much is known about the struggle for ground and how many lives were lost. But there
are some facts that may surprise.
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler may have been seen as the real bigot of the times, but it was
the way this word was used in Britain that hugely helped D-Day planning. If you knew
the most sensitive details, like the date of the invasion, where it would take place,
you had knowledge above Top Secret and you were put on a BIGOT list. You had a security
card which had been stamped with BIGOT in big letters. Authorities reckoned it wasn't
something that you would happily wave around. You were banned from travelling outside the
UK in case you were captured and let details slip. That is unless you were Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, the man who chose the word in the first place. BIGOT actually stood for
British Invasion of German Occupied Territory.
Fantasy and reality worked side by side during the planning of D-Day. And for the German
High Command at times it merged into one. A crucial intention of the British Government.
It created Operation Fortitude and a man called Juan Pujol helped fabricate that deception.
Codenamed Garbo, the Spaniard had already been recruited by the Germans, but secretly
loathed Nazism and was eventually picked up by MI6 and became a double agent. He helped
create a network of spies that fed so much misinformation to the Germans they decided
not to continue to infiltrate the UK. Germany suspected a major invasion but believed it
would be at Pas de Calais not Normandy.
After a carefully-worded message from Garbo, they believed in the FUSAG - a huge American
army, seemingly stationed in Kent and Essex, ready to join the invasion.
The Germans held back numerous divisions, which some experts believe may have helped
them win at Normandy, but instead allowed the Allied forces to make vital gains. The
FUSAG was a 'ghost army'.
There was a major battle behind the scenes as cryptography played a crucial role in preparations.
Code words and sentences that could be used to make orders but not be deciphered by the enemy.
To help in the Allied Forces advancement through France, French resistance workers were employed
in various distraction and destruction tasks.
The 'Dice is on the red carpet' - actually meant 'destroy trains and railway lines.'
'It's hot in Suez' - was a call to 'destroy cable and telephone lines.'
They had to be short, easy to learn, simple enough to be effective. And in many cases
they were.
Today the heart of London beats in time to the hopes of the free world.
Clues to where the Allied forces would land actually appeared in a newspaper nearly blowing
the whole operation. If you had picked up one particular copy of the Daily Telegraph
and had a go at the crossword, you may have guessed 'Overlord' and 'Neptune' - the code
word for the naval part of the invasion.
'Utah' appeared as a clue to an answer - that was one of the beaches where troops landed.
It failed to have an impact and MI5 would clear the compiler of doing anything wrong.
The coincidence remained just that and unexplained.
Nothing was allowed to slip, tongues were not allowed to wag. And for some peace of
mind, army officials tested their own troops. Plain clothed women were sent into village
pubs to try and extract information from the soldiers, about a top secret assault on the
Merville Gun Battery. The home-grown pretend spies were from the Women's Auxiliary Air
Force and had been sent in by Terence Otway, commander of the paratroop assault. The soldiers
kept quiet keeping the mission on track.
Despite the huge loss of life, the Normandy Landings proved a key victory for the Allied
Forces in their struggle against the Nazis. Five days after they landed, soldiers had
secured the beaches. Paris was liberated on August 25th, and Germany surrendered in May 1945.
Without the immense planning and secrecy, this would not have been possible. The war
may have ended much differently, prompting a Europe that would have looked a lot different
to now.