FRIDAY 6th JUNE 2014 08:27 BST

NEW BOOK AVAILABLE NOW!! - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK

FOR MORE BITE-SIZED WISDOM, CHECK OUT MY TUMBLR PAGE

FOR PERSONAL ISSUES, OR TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, WHY NOT CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. THIS DAY IN WORLD WAR 2 (6th June 1944)
Normandy, Northern France...
The Allied invasion of France is launched.
At dawn, six Allied aircraft drop leaflets over Normandy warning inhabitants to seek safety and avoid roads and railways.


Allied naval forces for "Operation Neptune" comprise seven battleships, two monitors, 23 cruisers, three gunboats, 105 destroyers, and more than 1000 smaller naval vessels 

More than 200 Allied minesweepers clear the approaches to the Normandy landing beaches

Allied air forces -- including 3467 heavy bombers, 1645 medium and light bombers, 5409 fighters, and 2316 transports -- fly more than 14,000 sorties over Normandy. Large numbers of French civilians killed by air-land-sea operations during landings, including more than 700 people in Caen.

British 6th Airborne Division drops on the eastern flank of the Normandy invasion beaches and captures Merville battery, Orne River bridge near Ranville, and Pegasus bridge over the Caen canal at Benouville

23,250 troops are landed on Utah, 34,250 on Omaha, 24,970 on Gold, 21,400 on Juno, and 28,845 on Sword beach on D-Day

Utah Beach:
Landings are very successful with only 200 casualties. Success is greatly enhanced by US paratroops causing confusion amongst the German defenders and preventing major counterattacks.

Omaha Beach:
A combination of strong defences, rough seas and poor pre-landing decisions proved disastrous for the first wave of attack. Most DD tanks are floated too early and sink (as do many other vehicles) - and none provide any support for landing troops, the survivors being pinned down on the beach by machine-gun fire. However, by inspired leadership and improvisation from surviving commanders on the beach, naval artillery support and sheer weight of numbers of successive waves of landing troops, the beach is secured and troops move approximately 1.5 miles inland. Casualties are very high at around 3000.

Gold Beach:
Initial German resistance is fierce but the well-organized British troops equipped with useful modified tanks ("Hobart's Funnies") rapidly break through the defences with light casualties. A large bridgehead six miles wide and six miles inland is established at the cost of 400 casualties.

Juno Beach:
Strong German resistance, rough seas and a delayed landing resulted in heavy casualties in the first wave. However the Canadian force overcomes it with successive waves of landing troops and makes the furthest inland advance of the five beachheads, halting three miles short of Caen, at a cost of 980 casualties.

Sword Beach:
The initial landing is highly successful, meeting light opposition, but the British troops then encounter much stronger resistance inland and a counter-attack by 21st Panzer Division. Nevertheless an entire German infantry division is destroyed along with 50 German tanks and the beachhead is secured at the cost of 683 casualties.

In the English Channel...
RAF Coastal Command conducts strong patrols along approaches to the Channel
British vessel Sambut is sunk by German cross-Channel batteries
Kriegsmarine patrol vessel V-1509 andminesweeper M-4031 are sunk by mines
Kriegsmarine 2nd (Ostend), 4th (Boulogne), and 8th (Ostend) S-Boat Flotillas sortie overnight without encountering any Allied warships or shipping
RN 55th MTB Flotilla and RCN 29th MTB Flotilla attack Kriegsmarine minesweepers off Le Havre overnight, damaging three
Kriegsmarine 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla with T-28, Mowe, and Jaguar sorties from Le Havre and attacks Allied warships and shipping off Sword Beach overnight, sinking Norwegian destroyer Svenner. A second sortie has no success.
Kriegsmarine 5th S-Boat Flotilla and 9th S-Boat Flotilla sortie from Cherbourg overnight to attack Allied warships and shipping off Normandy. S-boats S-139 and S-140 are sunk in an Allied defensive minefield overnight, but the force claims claim LST-715 and one LCT sunk off the Normandy beaches overnight before being driven off .
Kriegsmarine minesweeper is R-221 sunk by Allied aircraft 

Blockships and components of Mulberry artificial harbors depart for Normandy

In Germany...
At news of Allied invasion of Normandy, General Jodl decides not to awaken Hitler. 
Rommel, phoned from his headquarters in France, cancels a visit to Hitler and departs by car for Normandy, reaching the front after nightfall 

In the Atlantic...
36 U-Boats sail from Atlantic ports to attack the Allied invasion armada
U-740 is sunk by patrolling Allied aircraft
Kriegsmarine destroyers sail from the Gironde for Normandy, but are attacked and damaged by RAF aircraft off St Nazaire

In Italy...
British 8th Army reaches Civita Castellana, Monterotondo, and Subiaco
US 5th Army advances north of Rome

In the Mediterranean...   
German vessel Reaumur is sunk by RN submarine Sickle

In Washington DC...
US Joint Chiefs of Staff set 1 October 1945 for the invasion of Japan 

In the Pacific...
Japanese vessels Kashimasan Maru and Havre Maru are sunk by USN submarine Pintado 
IJN destroyer Minazuki is sunk by USN submarine Harder off the East Indies
IJN Coast Defense Vessel No. 15 sunk by USN submarine Raton in the South China Sea
US 41st Infantry Division continues fighting to secure Biak Island 

In China...
Operation To-Go (Hunan-Kwangsi Operation): 
Japanese 11th Army reaches the Laotao River and prepares to encircle Changsha 

In Burma...
Chindit Morrisforce unsuccessfully attack Maingna east of Myitkyina
Heavy dogfighting over Myitkyina results in Japanese air ace Lt Goichi Sumino and American ace Capt Walter F. Duke being shot down and killed. 

In India...
Indian 7th Infantry Division attacking the Japanese rearguard position on Kekrima Ridge east of Kohima 
British 2nd Infantry Division advance south on the road from Kohima to Imphal 
Indian 5th Infantry Division advance northward from Imphal toward Kangpokpi on the road to Kohima 
Japanese 33rd Infantry Division attacks Indian 17th Infantry Division in the Bishenpur sector south of Imphal, using flame-throwers for the first time on this front  

Today's Air Raids...
Ludwigshafen, Germany by RAF Bomber Command
North Sea minelaying by RAF Bomber Command
Galati, Ploesti, and Brasov, Romania by US 15th Air Force
Belgrade, Yugoslavia by US 15th Air Force
Truk Atoll by US 13th Air Force
Ponape Island by US 7th Air Force
Bougainville Island military targets by US 13th Air Force
Manokwari and military targets in New Guinea by US 5th Air Force - 3 ships are sunk at Manokwari
Wakde Airfield by Japanese aircraft - six USAAF planes destroyed on the ground and 80 more are damaged.
China military targets by US 14th Air Force
 
2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Client follow up
Ironing
Meditation
Shift 1 of the Weekend Job
Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 1,750 (no change)
Nonfollowed eliminated = 0
Unfollowers eliminated = 1
@celebritymate
New followers = 1 
@JaiManny

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION 
Today feels like I've a lot to pack in before heading out for the weekend job, so its essential I don't get flustered and cranky. I will stick firmly to the techniques I have learned and let my ego take a step back to allow my Higher Self's energy to flow through the experience. I will probably do meditation first rather than last after blogging to ensure my mind is in the right place. I don't want to prematurely end my "purple patch".

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
Do you know how to break down a heavy day into manageable chunks?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
Dry and sunny all day
Cloud arrives in the evening and will steadily build, but it will remain dry.
A moderate south-easterly wind will swing easterly by midnight
Max Temp = 18 degC
Min Temp = 11 degC
Sunrise at 04:39
Sunset at 21:32
Jetstream: Over Northern England and drifting north

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
A blind man walks into a bar…. and a table… and a chair. :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
Never Mind The Buzzcocks - Vajazzling 

8. TRIVIA
The human brain consists of approximately 100 billion neurons (which is as many cells as there are stars in the Milky Way). Each neuron has somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 synapses, equaling about 1 quadrillion synapses. If all the neurons in the human brain were lined up, they would stretch 600 miles. As a comparison, an octopus has 300,000 neurons, a honeybee has 950,000, and a jellyfish has no brain at all.

9. ZEN WISDOM
No matter how just the cause or in whose name it is wielded, the use of force inscribes bitterness in the hearts of the next generation and risks entrenching and perpetuating conflict.