Absent
Friends?
AUSTRALIA AND THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY|NORMANDY 75
T
he alliance that stood off the
Normandy coast encompassed
many nations. Among them, the
British, Canadians and Americans had
jurisdiction over the landing beaches,
Dutch and Norwegian ships were
included in the taskforce, Polish and
Czech-crewed aircraft took to the skies
and a small Free French commando
force landed on Sword. However, one
staunch ally of Britain, which had stood
shoulder to shoulder in North Africa
and in the Far East, appears to have
been oddly absent – Australia.MAIN IMAGE
Sqn Ldr Donald
Smith (standing)
of 453 Sqn RAAF,
with his pilots at
a café in Bayeux,
July 1944. Seated,
L to R: Fg Offs John
Olver and Kenneth
Lawrence, Flt Lt
Vernon Lancaster,
Fg Off Michael
West, and Flt Lt
Patrick McDade.divisions had returned from the
European and Mediterranean theatres
to Australia, where they were needed
to fight against the Japanese in the
Pacific.
Although there would be no
Australian army units involved in
the D-Day landings, approximately
3,200 Australian airmen and sailors
did participate in the day of invasion.
Thousands more would serve during
the Normandy campaign and beyond;
at sea, in the air and in small numbers
on the ground.On June 5, 1944, the eve of the D-Day
landings, at General Montgomery’s
21st Army Group headquarters, there
was tension in the air. Some officers
began recalling their feelings before the
key battles at El Alamein in 1942, at
which point Major-General ‘Freddie’ de
Guingand reportedly said: “I wish we
had the 9th Australian Division with us
this morning.”
That famous division had played a
key role in North Africa at Tobruk
and El Alamein, but since then three
Australian Imperial Force (AIF)http://www.britainatwar.com^83