Ferry Veerman

Wees wijzer

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@EdKirry @jessikavanlee24 https://t.co/qCmwnlC4qm

#talkingheads

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

Twee wedstrijden tegen middelmatige tegenstanders: nul uitgespeelde doelpunten (alleen penalties).

#oranje

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

Fargo op SBS 9 🥳

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

The idea was brilliant. The execution was catastrophic.

Allied planners knew that the men hitting the beaches of Normandy would be cut apart without armor support in those first critical minutes. The solution was the DD tank. The Duplex Drive Sherman. A standard 33-ton Sherman tank fitted with a collapsible canvas flotation screen and two small propellers bolted to the rear. Raise the screen, drop into the water, swim to shore, lower the screen, start shooting. Tanks arriving with the first wave, ahead of the infantry, suppressing German positions before the ramps even dropped.

The concept worked perfectly in testing. The designers had one requirement: waves no higher than one foot.

On the morning of June 6th, 1944, the waves off Omaha Beach were six feet high.

Nobody stopped the launch.

At 5:40 AM, the 741st Tank Battalion began dropping their DD tanks into the English Channel, six thousand yards from shore. More than three miles of open water, in seas that were six times rougher than the tanks were designed to handle. The first tank hit the water. The canvas screen, designed to hold the weight of a Sherman afloat, was immediately overwhelmed. Waves crashed over the top. Water flooded in. The tank went down.

Then another. Then another.

The canvas screens collapsed like paper bags in the swell. Tanks that had been designed to float became 33-ton anchors the moment they hit the water. Crews inside had seconds. Some got out through the hatches. Many did not. The tanks took them straight to the bottom of the English Channel.

Some crews managed to get a radio signal out as their tank went under, warning the following units not to launch. The warnings either did not get through or came too late.

29 DD tanks were launched by the 741st Tank Battalion that morning. 27 sank before reaching the beach. The entire left flank of Omaha Beach, where the 1st Infantry Division was assaulting, had five tanks to support it. Five. Against fortified German positions housing hundreds of machine guns, 88mm guns, and mortars zeroed on every inch of that sand.

The infantry arrived first. Alone.

What happened next at Omaha Beach, the 2,400 casualties, the slaughter in the first ten minutes, the near-total destruction of Company A, is inseparable from the loss of those tanks. They were supposed to be there. They were supposed to be firing at German positions while the ramps were still closed. Instead they were on the bottom of the Channel with their crews.

The story of the 743rd Tank Battalion makes it worse.

The 743rd was assigned to the western sector of Omaha Beach. Their LCT flotilla commander looked at the sea conditions that morning, looked at the waves, and made a different decision. He refused to launch his tanks into the water. Instead he drove his LCTs directly onto the beach and dropped the ramps in the shallows. The tanks rolled off onto sand.

Nine tanks were knocked out by German fire during the assault. But they were there. They were fighting. The infantry had armor.

At Utah Beach, the sea was calmer, protected from the prevailing winds. 28 of 32 DD tanks launched there made it ashore. The infantry had support. Utah Beach cost 197 casualties. Omaha cost 2,400.

The sunken tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion still lie on the bottom of the English Channel off Omaha Beach. They have never been raised. Divers have visited them. Inside some of the wrecks, they found what they expected.

They are still there today, 82 years later, three miles off the coast of Normandy, on the bottom of the sea.

Today is June 6th.

Remember them.

[Tom Antonov @Tom_Antonov]

Meanwhile in Sainte-Mère-Eglise.
#DDay #normandy #airborne 🍺
📸 by willys_mb_borek

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@DiederikBoomsma @OlgervanDijk Neem nog wat voorlichters aan en huur nog wat extern advies in. Dan komt het vast goed.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@fampoes @vandaaginside Handdoek aangever voor de keeper.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@WOuapie @af_toe Laatstgenoemde had zich binnen 'no time' aangepast aan Volendam door, volgens goed lokaal gebruik, een bijnaam te verwerven: Peter Ver Mis.

Weet niet zeker of hij het heeft kunnen waarderen.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@fampoes @EenVandaag En daarnaast: drinkpauzes, rust van 30 minuten en extra veel VAR- momenten.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@fampoes @NUnl Eens.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@MiesBee @Lorefloor De nieuwe columniste voelt kennelijk de behoefte om haar positie te rechtvaardigen.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@BartvanHorck @ChrisAalberts De meeste mensen willen veiligheid en perspectief, dat is grofweg te vertalen in een woning en een baan. Met 15 miljoen mensen is dat gemakkelijker te realiseren dan met 20 miljoen mensen.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@tonfvandijk @ChrisAalberts En gelijke plichten.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@WNLVandaag @D66 @RvanAsten Staat het plan ergens online, of is het ergens in te zien?

Zo nee, dan is er geen plan, maar slechts een onorginele luchtballon.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@nausicaamarbe Zon gaat niet slechts over temperatuur, maar vooral ook over straling. Kleding beschermt tegen de straling. Eén laagje is genoeg natuurlijk 😅

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

Brobbey opnieuw ijzersterk en belangrijk op het hoogste niveau.

[Voetbal International @VI_nl]

Voor het eerst in 53 jaar heeft Sunderland zich weer geplaatst voor Europees voetbal. Als promovendus werd de ploeg van Régis Le Bris al snel bestempeld als de gedoodverfde degradatiekandidaat, maar The Black Cats hebben voor een van de grootste stunts van het seizoen gezorgd. Zo constateerden de Engelse media. https://t.co/Dt6sLyWSSX

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@Footballtweet Coëfficiënt-technisch gezien een interessante ontwikkeling @uefacoef

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@JohanMuhren Ik denk dat dit ook mogelijk is in Olympisch Stadion.

Maar snap je punt!

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@fampoes @fcvolendam Ja, is net bericht van gekomen, dat kan.

[Ferry Veerman @FerryVeerman]

@MiesBee 😬