Nostalgia USA June 2016 Nostalgia USA June 2016 | Page 10

G
oldBeach
O wing to the direction of the tides,
British troops began storming Gold, the
middle of the five D-Day beaches,
nearly an hour after fighting got
underway at U tah and O maha. T he
Germans initially put up robust
resistance, but in sharp contrast to
O maha, an earlier aerial bombardment
had wiped out much of their defenses.
British warships also proved effective.
T he cruiser H M S Ajax, for example,
displayed such pinpoint accuracy from
miles away that it apparently sent one
shell through a small slot in a German
artillery battery?s concrete exterior? the
military equivalent of a hole-in-one. O n
shore, meanwhile, armored vehicles
known as ?Funnies? cleared away
minefields and other obstacles. W ithin
an hour, the British had secured a few
beach exits, and from there they rapidly
pushed inland. T hey also captured the
fishing village of Arromanches, which
days later became the site of an artificial
harbor used by the Allies to unload
supplies.