05-26 D-Day question of the day

[franksolich]

I have to depart for the big city in a couple of hours, so as to take the new computer tower and hard-drive in to the internet service provider, to get it set up for a good connection, and so this is being posted rather, uh, early.

In all descriptions of landings on Normandy, especially those on the Omaha front, one encounters cases of men being separated from their units.  Of course; especially on the Omaha front, they all seemed to have landed--those who succeeded--in scattered fragments, bits-and-pieces strewn here and there.

Cohesion with those whom one knows, I suppose, is important for military morale and success.

Suppose one is a 19-year-old infantryman, suddenly in the hedgerows of Normandy, all alone.  He is in a world he has probably never seen before, and one assumes his first instinct would be to find others like himself, who might or might not know what's going on.

He latches up with someone from another unit; a stranger, but at least another person from his own time and place, which is some comfort.

Through time and chance and luck, he and the other slowly latch up with others, until ultimately there's, for example, 16 or 17 privates, a couple of sergeants and corporals, and a couple of second lieutenants.  All, or nearly all, from different units, all, or nearly all, strangers to each other.

And surely it must have happened more than a dozen times, in that mix being a stray U.S. sailor or British soldier, or a couple from the Polish, Norwegian, or Dutch who had gone along with the invasion of Normandy.

All these different people, with only two things in common; that they wish to stay alive, and that they wish to carry on.

One imagines--and please correct me if the imagination is wrong--everyone simply naturally gets in line behind the highest-ranking person, and proceeds.

And hence today's question--what happened after then?

Now, no one here was on the beaches of D-Day, so no one probably knows for sure what happened after then, but please at least speculate.

Here is this odd assortment of guys, from perhaps a dozen different units, all of them strangers to each other.  The foreign nationals and the sailor excepted, was the policy to try to get the U.S. Army infantrymen back to their own units if possible (I suppose there were cases where such was not possible), or were these guys just combined with other strangers to make a full unit, to carry on for the duration of the war?

[franksolich]

This now also here

http://www.freerepublic.c...s/f-vetscor/2258254/posts

to plumb the awesome brains of freerepublic, too.

It's suggested that readers check both here and there for responses, as the combination is awesome.

[dutch508]

This happened quiet frequently during D-Day- especially with the airborne drops.

What happened, once things calmed down is that the soldiers made their ways back to the rear, linked up with their division HQs, got moved back to their units. There are people who were missing for a couple of weeks suddenly showing up back at their battalion HQs.

They would then be either sent down to their companies, or possible combined into an ad hoc force for use.

Are you watching Band Of Brothers, Frank?

[franksolich]

Are you watching Band Of Brothers, Frank?

Don't watch television or movies, dutch, sir; deaf, remember.

[DumbAss Tanker]

In a given zone, you are actually dealing with a fairly limited set of units, but it is the nature of infantry combat that you quickly assimilate new strangers into squads and carry on.  As soon as regular communications with higher command, medical and supply chains are established, stragglers are sent back up the chain to be returned to their proper units, it's a very short-term thing for organizations on the attack.  In a defense like St. Vith or Bastogne, it will more likely last for the full duration of the enemy siege.  The advantage of common doctrine and highly-standardized training is that it makes such incorporation much quicker than otherwise, it would be much more difficult to effectively mix soldiers from different nationalities or personnel from different services than just soldiers from different units.   

In the vast landscape of the runnig fights on the Eastern front, the Germans had to form much more enduring organizations from individuals and rag-tag scraps of units up to regimental size or even larger, referred to as Kampfgruppen (Battle groups) and often taking as their identity either the name of the senior officer or the organization in them (e.g. Kampfgruppe Steiner or Kampfgruppe Wiking).  It was very common for German military personnel in transit to be snatched up and incorporated into such forces to deal with Soviet breakthroughs, and the Wehrmacht was pretty good at it.   

[Thor]

Don't watch television or movies, dutch, sir; deaf, remember.

Why not, Frank?? Most TVs have the closed captioning capabilities nowadays (for the last couple of decades). Most broadcasters and movies have closed captioning included in their shows & DVDs.

[franksolich]

Why not, Frank?? Most TVs have the closed captioning capabilities nowadays (for the last couple of decades). Most broadcasters and movies have closed captioning included in their shows & DVDs.

Oh now, come on, Thor, sir.

During college football season, I suggest you shut your ears and just watch the close-captioning.  It'll open the eyes, that there is no substitute for actual hearing.

[thundley4]

Oh now, come on, Thor, sir.

During college football season, I suggest you shut your ears and just watch the close-captioning.  It'll open the eyes, that there is no substitute for actual hearing.

Hm, I dunno, my wife and I watch quite a bit of Japanese anime, that is in Japanese with English subtitles, and often have the sound down .

[Thor]

Oh now, come on, Thor, sir.

During college football season, I suggest you shut your ears and just watch the close-captioning.  It'll open the eyes, that there is no substitute for actual hearing.

I'd be inclined to agree, but it's still better than nothing. I used to watch closed captioned Mexican TV shows. It was a way to learn some of the language.

[dutch508]

Don't watch television or movies, dutch, sir; deaf, remember.

read the damn book, Frank. Watch the movies for the images. The images alone are worth it.

BTW- got my hearing aides a couple of weeks ago. I was not aware of how loud I spoke prior to getting them.

[franksolich]

BTW- got my hearing aides a couple of weeks ago. I was not aware of how loud I spoke prior to getting them.

You're way too young to have hearing diminishment, unless it's genetic.

Did the wife pressure you to get them?

If so, it's very sad, because that's the worst excuse for getting them, just for the convenience of someone close, who finds it "too much trouble" to simply speak a little louder.

It's a lot less trouble for one person to merely speak up, than it is for the other person to deal with diminished hearing.  But apparently I'm the one who thinks of that.

[dutch508]

You're way too young to have hearing diminishment, unless it's genetic.

Did the wife pressure you to get them?

If so, it's very sad, because that's the worst excuse for getting them, just for the convenience of someone close, who finds it "too much trouble" to simply speak a little louder.

It's a lot less trouble for one person to merely speak up, than it is for the other person to deal with diminished hearing.  But apparently I'm the one who thinks of that.

getting blown up a few times does a number on your hearing, Frank. The Army thoughtfully provided them after my last annual hearing test- and although the MRS is happy, I am ok with it.

Don't feel them when they are in and unless someone really looks you can't see them. The first week I wore them the tone was a bit tinny- however, they tweeked them like you would a high-end stereo system by linking them into a computer and tuning the freqs.

[franksolich]

getting blown up a few times does a number on your hearing, Frank. The Army thoughtfully provided them after my last annual hearing test- and although the MRS is happy, I am ok with it.

Don't feel them when they are in and unless someone really looks you can't see them. The first week I wore them the tone was a bit tinny- however, they tweeked them like you would a high-end stereo system by linking them into a computer and tuning the freqs.

Okay, I was afraid the wife had pressured you into getting them; that's an alas all-too-frequent situation, and down the road it leads to significent resentment between both partners.

I see it all the time; it's not pretty.