Tomorrow June 6, 2015 is the 71st Anniversary of the D Day Invasion. As you may or may not know, I am a bit of a history buff and love to read and learn about military history. One of my favorite subjects is the D Day invasion. I have great respect for those brave souls who put their life on the line for a greater purpose in order to free people of the kind of tyranny that Nazi Germany brought upon the world. Since D Day fell on a Saturday this year, we decided to program a special WOD to commemorate and celebrate the men and women of The Greatest Generation.
Here are a few facts and tidbits about D Day. The operation code named Operation Overlord was conducted by 160,000 Allied Troops consisting of soldiers, sailors and airman from the United States, Great Britain and Canada. Over 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft deposited airborne and infantry troops across a 50 mile stretch of coastline in the Normandy region of France. This location was chosen for the ease of air cover and this stretch of the Germany’s Atlantic Wall was less heavily defended than a more obvious choice of Pas de Calaise. The Allied Forces suffered 9.000 casualties, close to half (4,413) were fatalities. Of the fatalities, roughly 2,500 were American losses.
The amphibious invasion was preceded by the Airborne Assault of over 20, 000 airborne troopers parachuted or landed in gliders behind enemy lines. The amphibious invasion was conducted across five beaches code named Omaha and Utah beaches were assigned to US Forces. Sword, Gold and Juno were assigned to British and Canadian Forces.
As I put this workout together, I wanted to represent the factors of the invasion. So here is an explanation of the workout.
One Comment to "D Day WOD -1"
Fred says:
June 5, 2015 at 6:49 pm -
I have read many of the book about D-Day and World War 2. One of our greatest trips was spending several days in the Normandy area visiting many of the landing sites. I still recall having lunch at a restaurant near the beach where the first vehicles finally breached the beach area.