By Maharram @Adobe Stock
Actively Identifying the Weather Window
6 June 1944: The odds were daunting – 13 to 1 – if you were a betting man. General Dwight D. Eisenhower wasn’t at all comfortable placing the lives of the Allied troops on those odds, but that’s what it felt like for the General 80 years ago this week.
As May 1944 turned into June 1944, unsettled weather – a succession of low pressures and fronts coming across the Channel – threatened D-Day, the invasion to get troops and supplies into Normandy and beyond.
Clashing Approaches
Group Chief Greg Stagg was not a general or a foot soldier. He was a meteorologist and adviser to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who relied on an evolving science using hand-drawn charts, observational data, and newer understandings of upper-atmosphere patterns, whose approaches often clashed.
Captain Stagg’s job was more than scientific. It required diplomacy. Transcripts show strong differences in opinion between the General and the forecasting teams. Tensions were strong.
The American team head wanted to be the bearers of good news, the first to give Eisenhower the green light. Stagg felt compelled to warn Eisenhower of the unpredictability of the region’s weather. Unpredictable because it was so changeable.
The American team of meteorologists thought 5 June was the date to go. With the threat of gales sweeping through Normandy, however, 5 June looked impossible.
“OK, We’ll Go
June 6 was finally and edgily decided upon, and, as they say, the rest is history. The air temp was around 55 degrees and the water 59. Winds gusted at times higher than 10-20 mph, creating waves and surf that complicated beach landings and made airborne drops difficult. … Sea sickness would be the least of the problems about to face the Allied troops.
From the NYT:
… the storm over northern Scotland shifted southward into the North Sea, weakening as it did. This unexpected change allowed winds to ease slightly, and visibility improved as the front over northern France moved away.
The remaining strong winds caused whitecaps in the Dover Strait and high waves to sweep across the beaches. Yet somehow, as often happens in love and war, providence was on the Allies’ side: Gen. Rommel received reports from his German meteorologists that conditions were so poor that no Allied landing could possibly happen until 10 June.
The Germans assumed incorrectly about high tide, cover of darkness, and better cloud, wind, and visibility conditions than the Allies needed. When the Allied forces struck, the Germans were unprepared.
Worthy of contemplation are those who died 81 years ago to help save Western Civilization.
Some reports, including those by Daniel Oliver in American Greatness, call Coleville-sur-Mer – the burial ground of 9,387 Allied soldiers – the 8th Wonder of the World.
Rows and rows of graves marked by crosses, and some by Stars of David, remind us that greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for a friend.
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