Iboltscrew,
First, thank you for the compliment in your earlier post. I am glad someone agrees with a few of my screwy ideas.
Second, I have a minor dispute with a few things in your latest post. While I cannot dispute the presence of Canadians during the D-Day invasions, nor can I dispute the recollections of your grandfather, I can dispute your assertions that most of the American forces arrived by air and that the beaches were secured by Canadian troops long before the amphibious portion of the invasion began.
A simple look at the invading units would tell you that only three of the divisions (out of 9 total) were airbourne. Those units were the 6th British Airbourne Division, the 82nd Airbourne Division, and the 101st Airbourne Division. The 6th British Airbourne landed near Caen, the 82nd Airbourne landed near Ste. Mere-Eglise, and the 101st Airbourne landed between Ste. Mere-Eglise and Carentan. A quick look at the map of the invasion beaches show that the American beaches of Omaha and Utah were closer to the 82nd and 101st's areas of responsibilty. That same look would show that the British and Canadian beaches of Gold, Sword and Juno were closer to the 6th's drop area.
A further look at the list of invading units would show that Americans landed three divisions (the 1st, 4th, and 29th Infantry Divisions), the British landed 2 divisions (the 3rd and 50th Infantry Divisions), and the Canadians landed 1 division (the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, not to be confused with the 3rd British Inf. Div.).
Now, given that 5 American infantry/airbourne divisions were involved in the invasion and two of those divisions arrived by air, that leaves three divisions that arrived via the sea. Of the total forces involved (Br., Can., and US), the majority showed up on ships, NOT via the air.
Furthermore, your assertion about the beaches being secured before the US forces showed up would probably come as a surprise to the 9000 men killed or wounded on Omaha beach. The beaches were not secured by the airbourne. It simply wasn't their job to secure them. The airbourne (both Br. and US) were to secure the bridges in the immediate invasion area. The British for the most part did achieve this by the set deadline, but due to the scattering of the US drops, the US airbourne had some difficulty in achieve their objectives.
A careful study of the actual invasion and the units involved shows that your arguements do not hold up under scrutiny.
(I apologize to anyone who reads this for the "sketchiness" of the info, but it is late, I am tired, and I am not going to write a complete history of D-Day! Sorry about that.

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