ROSS SIMPSON

ROSS SIMPSON

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004)

On June 6, 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower
gave the go-ahead for the largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of northern France, commonly
known as D-Day. 

By daybreak, 18,000 British and American parachutists were already on
the ground. An additional 13,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover
and support for the invasion. At 6:30 a.m., American troops came ashore at
Utah and Omaha beaches. 

The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno
and Sword beaches; so did the Americans at Utah. The task was much
tougher at Omaha beach, however, where 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.

Allied forces Supreme Commander General Dwight D Eisenhower
(left) speaks with US Army paratroopers of Easy Company, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (Strike) of the 101st Airborne Division,
at Greenham Common Airfield in England June 5, 1944.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004)

On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) erupted across
Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British
ocean liner en-route from New York to Liverpool, England.

The earlier German attacks on merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or
take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting
the vessel’s course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these suggestions,
and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton
ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo
blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers. It
sank within 20 minutes.

Sinking of the Lusitania by John Keay.