What was D-Day? The name given to the day that the Allied forces invaded France to begin the defeat of Hitler and Nazi Germany. The idea had started as an experiment, trialled on a wing and a prayer, but Bing and his canine colleagues had made the dream of the air dog become a reality.

Omaha Beachhead". Historical Division, War Department. 20 September 1945. p.80 . Retrieved 2007-06-10.D-Day Dog was voted favourite children’s audiobook by Calibre Audio, the national charity that provides a completely free for life audiobook service to everyone with a disability that makes reading print difficult or impossible, thank you to all who listened to my book and Rachel Reay for narrating. Commanding the Western Task Force responsible for landing troops on the American beaches was Rear Adm. Alan G. Kirk. The Utah landings were supervised by Rear Adm. Don P. Moon. Omaha Beachhead". Historical Division, War Department. 20 September 1945. pp.63–65 . Retrieved 2007-06-10. Of the nine companies landing in the first wave, only Company A of the 116th RCT at Dog Green and the Rangers to their right landed where intended. E/116, aiming for Easy Green, ended up scattered across the two beaches of the 16th RCT area. [45] G/116, aiming for Dog White, opened up a 1,000-yard (900m) gap between themselves and A/116 to their right when they landed at Easy Green instead. I/16 drifted so far east it did not land for another hour and a half. [46] Arctic Star has also been chosen by LoveReading as a 2021 Star Book and has been chosen by Toppsta in their big Summer Reading Feature.

The coastline of Normandy was divided into sixteen sectors, which were assigned code names using a spelling alphabet—from Able, west of Omaha, to Roger on the east flank of Sword. The area of beach that would become Omaha was originally designated X-Ray, from the phonetic alphabet of the day; the name was changed on 3 March 1944. The names of both Omaha and Utah were probably suggested by Omar Bradley, as two privates fitting out his London headquarters were from Omaha, Nebraska (Gayle Eyler) and Provo, Utah; they were not named after the corps commanders, who were from Virginia (Gerow) and Louisiana (Collins). [2] Eight further sectors were added when the invasion was extended to include Utah on the Cotentin Peninsula. Sectors were divided into beaches identified by the colors Red, White and Green, corresponding to the colored lights used on naval craft to designate the port (left), amidships, and starboard (right) sides. [3] The tide was also low, and so the vehicles were dropped far out on the flat, sandy beach into low water. There were deep, hidden channels. The whole contents of one LCT drove off the ship and straight into a deep channel, never to be seen again.Utah was the last landing area selected for Overlord, but its position afforded the U.S. VII Corps an excellent start at the vital port of Cherbourg, only thirty-five miles away. Though lightly defended, Utah Beach posed some difficulty in the flooded country and rough terrain to the north, in the direction of Cherbourg. Watch the news. On 5 th and 6 th June there will be extensive news coverage of commemorative events in Portsmouth and Normandy, including the MV Boudicca sailing with 300 D-Day veterans from England to France on the same journey they made exactly 75 years before. a b "Omaha Beachhead". Historical Division, War Department. 20 September 1945. p.57 . Retrieved 2007-06-10. The US forces that were on the beach with them were traumatized and immobile. Many men were dead or injured. 21 BDS’ position was grave, and they too were suffering casualties. The only solution was to get off the beach and get into the shelter of a ravine.