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Highlights for June 6
On this day in 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower
gives the go-ahead for largest amphibious military operation in history:
Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France.
By daybreak, 18,000 British and American parachutists were already on the
ground. At 6:30 a.m., American troops came ashore at Utah and Omaha beaches. At
Omaha, the U.S. First Division battled high seas, mist, mines, burning
vehicles-and German coastal batteries, including an elite infantry division,
which spewed heavy fire. Many wounded Americans ultimately drowned in the high
tide. British divisions, which landed at Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches, and
Canadian troops also met with heavy German fire, but by the end of the day they
were able to push inland.
Despite the German resistance, Allied casualties overall were relatively light.
The United States and Britain each lost about 1,000 men, and Canada 355. Before
the day was over, 155,000 Allied troops would be in Normandy. However, the
United States managed to get only half of the 14,000 vehicles and a quarter of
the 14,500 tons of supplies they intended on shore.
Three factors were decisive in the success of the Allied invasion. First, German
counterattacks were firm but sparse, enabling the Allies to create a broad
bridgehead, or advanced position, from which they were able to build up enormous
troop strength. Second, Allied air cover, which destroyed bridges over the
Seine, forced the Germans to suffer long detours, and naval gunfire proved
decisive in protecting the invasion troops. And third, division and confusion
within the German ranks as to where the invasion would start and how best to
defend their position helped the Allies. (Hitler, convinced another invasion was
coming the next day east of the Seine River, refused to allow reserves to be
pulled from that area.)
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of Britain's Twenty-first Army Group
(but under the overall command of General Eisenhower, for whom Montgomery, and
his ego, proved a perennial thorn in the side), often claimed later that the
invasion had come off exactly as planned. That was a boast, as evidenced by the
failure to take Caen on the first day, as scheduled. While the operation was a
decided success, considering the number of troops put ashore and light
casualties, improvisation by courageous and quick-witted commanders also played
an enormous role.
The D-Day invasion has been the basis for several movies, from The Longest
Day (1962), which boasted an all-star cast that included Richard Burton,
Sean Connery, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum-and Fabian, to Saving Private Ryan
(1998), which includes some of the most grippingly realistic war scenes ever
filmed, captured in the style of the famous Robert Capa still photos of the
actual invasion.
1984: INDIAN ARMY STORMS SIKH'S GOLDEN TEMPLE:
In a bloody climax to two years of fighting between the Indian government and Sikh separatists, Indian army troops fight their way into the besieged Golden Temple compound in Amritsar--the holiest shrine of Sikhism--and kill at least 500 Sikh rebels. More than 100 Indian soldiers and scores of nonbelligerent Sikhs also perished in the ferocious gun and artillery battle, which was launched in the early morning hours of June 6. The army also attacked Sikh guerrillas besieged in three dozen other temples and religious shrines throughout the state of Punjab. Indian officials hailed the operation as a success and said it "broke the back" of the Sikh terrorist movement.
The Sikh religion, which was founded in the late 15th century by Guru Nanak, combines elements of Hinduism and Islam, the two major religions of India. The religion is centered on the Indian state of Punjab in northern India, where Sikhs comprise a majority and speak Punjabi. In the 1970s, agricultural advances made Punjab one of India's most prosperous states, and Sikh leaders began calling for greater autonomy from the central government. This movement was largely peaceful until 1982, when the Sikh fundamentalist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers launched a separatist campaign in Punjab. Employing terrorism and assassination, Bhindranwale and his guerrillas killed scores of political opponents and Hindu civilians in the name of establishing an autonomous Sikh Khalistan, or "Land of the Pure." Most Sikhs did not support Bhindranwale's violent campaign, in which the extremists also assassinated several Sikhs who spoke out against the creation of Khalistan.
To appease the Sikhs, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi nominated Zail Singh to be the first Sikh president of India in 1982, a significant choice because the Sikhs comprise a small percentage of India's overall population. Most Sikhs distrusted Singh, however, because as Indian head of state he generally supported Gandhi's policies. Meanwhile, the separatists occupied the Golden Temple and other Sikh holy sites and turned them into armed bases.
The Golden Temple, known as the Harimandir in India, was built in 1604 by Guru Arjun. It was destroyed several times by Afghan invaders and rebuilt in the early 19th century in marble and copper overlaid with gold foil. The temple occupies a small island in the center of a pool. There are a number of other important buildings in the 72-acre temple compound, including the Akal Takht, which is the repository for Sikhism's Holy Book of scriptures and the headquarters of the religion.
To suppress the separatist revolt, which had claimed more than 400 Hindu and Sikh lives and virtually shut down Punjab, Prime Minister Gandhi ordered Indian troops to seize control of the Sikh bases by force in June 1984. On June 1, army troops surrounded the Golden Temple and exchanged gunfire with the rebels, who were heavily armed and commanded by a high-ranking army defector. The Sikhs refused to surrender, and in the early morning of June 6 army forces launched an assault on the temple compound. By daylight, the Sikhs were defeated.
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the rebel leader, perished in the attack, allegedly by his own hand. The Indian government announced that 492 Sikh militants were killed, but the Sikhs put the number at more than 1,000. More than 100 army troops were killed and several hundred wounded. More than 1,500 Sikhs were arrested in the operation. The Golden Temple itself suffered only minor damage, but the Akal Takht, a scene of heavy fighting, was heavily damaged.
In the aftermath of the bloody confrontation, Sikhs rioted across India, and more people were killed. Some 1,000 Sikh soldiers in the Indian army mutinied, but these defectors were suppressed, and rebel leaders still at large were captured or killed. On October 31, in a dramatic act of retaliation, Indira Gandhi was shot to death in her garden by two Sikh members of her own bodyguard. This act only led to further violence, and thousands of Sikhs were massacred by angry Hindus in Delhi before Gandhi's son and successor, Rajiv Gandhi, called out the army to end the orgy of violence. Punjab's political status remains a divisive issue in India, and disorder and violence has persisted in the state.
1985 Body of Nazi criminal, Dr Josef Mengele located & exhumed
Although this charade was stage managed for the agreeable governments of the United State, West Germany, and a handful of forensic "experts," the convenience with which it played out was further compromised by the non-scientific evidence offered as proof that the bones were those of the "Angel of Death of Auschwitz," Dr. Joseph Mengele.
The cooperating countries, governments and agencies were under increasing international pressure to form a task force to invade Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil to capture the celebrated fugitive. Suddenly an anonymous tip led Bavarian State police to the Mengele family stronghold in Gunzburg, West Germany. The Mengele name on heavy farm equipment was as well known throughout Europe as that of John Deere in the US.
When the police interrogated a faithful retainer of the family at his house, he told them "Search anywhere -- except in that small closet." They searched and conveniently found a large stack of letters to and from Mengele and his family, nicely tied in ribbons, creating a tale of a broke, depressed Mengele holing up with an illiterate Brazilian couple for many years. In 1979, according to the story the couple told the Brazilian police, Mengele was frolicking in the Atlantic surf when he suffered a stroke and drowned before any help could reach him.
Without saying anything to anyone, the couple put his body into a coffin, which they hauled back to Embu, where they buried it in an empty grave bearing the name of a mutual friend who had died in Austria. That was in 1979. In the meantime, Mengele's nephew, Dieter, an international industrialist, pleaded publicly with his uncle to give himself up and be tried in West Germany, where there is no death penalty.
The circus of 1985 opened with the announcement that the Nazi's grave had been found in Embu, Brazil (near Sao Paulo). While the anchormen, correspondents, and Nazi "experts" were scrambling for airline tickets, the local chief of police presided over the opening of the grave. Urging his men to dig faster, he soon was rewarded with some bones, which he brandished aloft triumphantly. When the skull was uncovered it was tossed from grave to police chief to other officials, grossly tainting whatever evidence it might provide.
The US Department of Justice immediately pronounced itself satisfied that the bones belonged to Mengele, and the Simon Wiesenthal Institute in Los Angeles eagerly seconded that surprising conclusion. This was awkward because Simon Wiesenthal himself, along with other independent researchers and historians, expressed his dissent. The Israeli Mossad said nothing.
Later that year, yet another panel of forensic specialists studied the well-tossed skull and other bones. Unable to pin down any relationship with scientific certainty, they hit upon the novel concept of superimposing a video of style of Mengele's face taken in 1940, over the skull and pointed out how it really was a perfect match. What no one noted was that the upper front teeth in the skull were aligned together. Mengele, as seen in many pictures, had a noticeable gap between his top front teeth.
This matter has still not been resolved to the satisfaction of those who smell a rat. The Justice Department has closed the books on Mengele, and the State Department (and the CIA) has gone back to denying that they ever used Nazi fugitives as spies or agents. However, they will not allow public release of their files, on the grounds that it would compromise "national security" and expose active agents in place to the public.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-Mail me.
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