World War II Blogs

At dawn on D-Day, August 15, 1944, there were ships as far as the eye could see.[1] Onboard an LST in the Mediterranean Sea, Phil Larimore […]

OPERATION DRAGOON [the southern France D-Day], originally called ANVIL, had first been intended as a diversion during OPERATION OVERLORD [the D-Day at Normandy] to occupy eighteen […]

By August 13, [almost all of the ships were] underway, part of a naval force totaling some 1,000 ships, all committed to landing some 151,000 troops, […]

Phil wrote his last letter home before the D-day apparently from the ship on which he was sailing.[1]

The Marnemen left the Naples area by convoy.[1] Units had received maps in sealed packages seventy-two hours before embarking, together with the Seventh Army identification code […]

On the afternoon of August 11th, the Chief of Staff and other personnel boarded the USS Henrico in the Bay of Naples. Here the Seventh Army […]

After two days of sailing, on August 10, Phil and Ross Calvert were sharing a smoke on their ship’s afterdeck when they noticed a speck in […]

Finally, on August 9, we pushed off, and looking out over the harbor, we saw Winston Churchill, riding around in a speedboat, smoking his cigar, and […]

Final loading of Phil’s 30th Infantry Regimental troops, along with the 3rd Infantry Division troops, was completed on 8 August, 1944.[1]

A final briefing of all commanders of battalions and higher units took place on August 7.[1]

VI Corps was moved from Lt. General Mark Clark’s Fifth Army to Lt General Alexander “Sandy” Patch’s Seventh Army, which was to lead the upcoming amphibious […]

Below is Phil’s second to last letter home before the coming D-Day attack on southern France. It was one of his longer ones. One wonders if […]