June 6th 1944 D-Day

[Joris]

 

 

[Tony B]

Not welcomed by all. This was the start of the worst year of the Occupation for the Channel Islands.

[antarmike]

The Allies enjoy almost total Air supremacy. Out of 14,674 sorties flown in the first 24 hours, only 113 aircraft are lost. Despite freshly applied high visibility black and white identification stripes most planes were lost to "friendly fire"

 

The Germans only managed to fly 319 sorties in the same period.

[Tony B]

Batteries mounted on Alderney, Gurnersey and Jersey fired on the beaches and various ships. During one period the HMS Rodney bombarded gun batteries on Alderney. There was also a battle off Jersey bettween German forces and American PT boats, the loss of PT boats was the highest in Europe. forces from the island also carried out a raid on Granville capturing somne US troops.