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FRENCH HISTORY

Inflatable tanks and ‘fake news’: What you probably didn’t know about D-Day

On June 6th, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops invaded the northern French coast, marking the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany - here are some lesser known facts about a remarkable day in history.

Inflatable tanks and 'fake news': What you probably didn't know about D-Day
The Normandy American Cemetery, close to Omaha Beach, in Colleville-sur-Mer Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP

Every year, the anniversary of the D-Day landings are marked in northern France, with commemorations at memorials along the coast.

This year, French prime minister Elisabeth Borne will be among the dignitaries honouring those who died during the landings. 

As part of its preparations for the 80th anniversary of the landings in 2024, the Normandy tourist board has also commissioned a video by travel influencer Bruno Maltor and TV presenter Jamy on the subject of the landings – informal in style it’s intended for younger French people, to ensure they remain aware of their own history.

Here are some of the other lesser-known facts about the D-Day (or Jour-J in French) landings;

‘Erotic adventure’

“When the Germans came, we told the men to hide. But when the Americans came, we had to hide the women!”

The French joke refers to the “erotic adventure” which the US military promised American soldiers fighting in France, historian Mary Louise Roberts writes in “What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France.”

Propaganda painted France as “a tremendous brothel inhabited by 40 million hedonists”.

Readers of the military newspaper “Stars and Stripes” could learn the French for “you are very pretty”, “I am not married” and “are your parents at home?”, whereas the German vocabulary section offered phrases such as “No cigarettes!” and “Line up!”, Roberts explains.

American promiscuity sparked outrage in cities like Le Havre and Reims, where sexual acts “took place in parks, cemeteries, streets and abandoned buildings”.

More than 150 American soldiers were tried for rape, most of them black men, underlining the racial discrimination at the time, Roberts said.

Threat of defeat

With D-Day looming, the Allies prepared for the worst.

Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe – and future US president – Dwight Eisenhower, prepared himself in advance for announcing a failure.

He penned a statement on June 5th entitled “In case of failure” which said that “any blame or fault… is mine alone”.

“My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available…. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.”

Allied forces quickly gained control of five points along an 80-kilometre front on beaches codenamed Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword.

But at Omaha, heavy casualties earned the beach the sombre nickname “Bloody Omaha”.

High cliffs there gave the Germans an immediate advantage.

Americans were left waist deep in rough seas as crashing water sank their landing craft, and some drowned. Of the 34,000 Americans deployed, 2,500 were killed or wounded.

Some paratroopers drowned in “catastrophic” jumps, said French historian Jean Quellien, author of “The Battle of Normandy”. Heavy equipment weighing 30 to 40 kg pulled them underwater.

Inflatable tanks

“Fake news” might be considered a modern phenomenon, but the British led a deception campaign, codenamed Operation Fortitude, to try and fool the Germans into thinking the Allies planned to attack Scandinavia, then France’s Calais region, rather than Normandy.

Inflatable tanks were positioned on the British coast facing Calais, and metallic lures were used to make it appear to German radar that a large force was about to land near Calais. Fake radio messages were leaked to German
intelligence services.

Even after the D-Day landings on June 6th, the Germans believed a second attack was planned in the Calais region. Hitler eventually ordered troops to join the Normandy front.

Native American ‘code talkers’

Communicating through coded messages would have taken too long during the landings and commanders couldn’t speak in English in case they were intercepted by the Germans.

Instead, the Americans used Native American “code talkers”, especially the Comanche, who worked in their indigenous language.

John Parker, son of “code talker” Simmons Parker, remembers that “bomber plane” was translated as “pregnant bird”.

He said his father told him that in the Comanche language, “crazy white man” meant Hitler.

Landing in… Indonesia

In December 2018, the British postal service, Royal Mail, apologised after releasing a stamp commemorating D-Day’s 75th anniversary showing American troops landing in Indonesia, then known as Dutch New Guinea.

“We would like to offer our sincere apologies,” Royal Mail said.

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MAP: Why are so many of France’s casinos in seaside resorts?

There are more than 200 casinos in France, but most of them are in sea-side resorts or spa towns - a situation that we can thank Napoleon for.

MAP: Why are so many of France's casinos in seaside resorts?

France has strict rules that dictate where casinos are allowed to operate, and they date all the way back to Napoleon (as do a surprising number of modern French laws or regulations).

In the early 19th century, the French Emperor sought to regulate the practice of gambling and to discourage the growth of clandestine networks.

You can hear the team at The Local chatting about casino rules in this week’s Talking France podcast – download here or listen on the link below

Tourist areas

As such, in 1806, Napoleon passed a decree restricting casinos to tourist locations – specifically seaside resorts and spa towns. Many French spa towns or former spa towns – often recognisable by the ‘les bains’ or ‘les eaux’ in their names – still have large casinos.

And the legacy of this law can still be seen today, with the modern casinos clustered along the coastline.

Map of the location of casinos in France. Map: Google maps – interactive version here https://www.casinos777.net/casinos-france.htm

Over time, more exceptions were permitted to the rules – a 1907 law that made official the existing rules and allowed for casinos to be opened in resorts in the mountains/ high-altitude tourist areas such as ski resorts.

Relaxation of rules

In the twentieth century the ‘tourist areas’ rule was relaxed and in 1988 the French government passed legislation to allow casinos to open in towns with more than 500,000 inhabitants, which led to places like Lyon and Bordeaux opening them.

As of December 2023, only 196 municipalities in France were permitted to host casinos, in keeping with the ‘internal security code’ article L.321-1.

Any new casino must be authorised by the French ministry of interior. As for other types of gambling, such as sports betting and poker, these activities are regulated by the autorité nationale des jeux (national authority of games). 

Paris exception

One notable part of France without any casinos is Paris. In 1919, France banned any casinos within a 100km radius of the capital, legislation intended to combat gambling addictions.

However, an exception in 1931 allowed for one establishment to be opened in the greater Paris Île-de-France region – a casino in Enghien-les-Bains, located in the Val-d’Oise département, is therefore the only one in the Paris area.

It is located around 20km outside the capital, accessible via the suburban train network or via cycle paths leading out of the city.

Leader in Europe

Despite the strict regulations, France is a leader in Europe when it comes to casinos, with 202 across the country.

France counts about a third (32 percent) of the EU’s total casinos, according to a 2022 report by the Cour des comptes (France’s highest administrative court). 

This proportion has decreased in recent years – as of 2016, France held onto closer to 40 percent of the EU’s stock of casinos, according to reporting by TF1.

As a result of Napoleon’s original rules, many of France’s casinos are still located along the coastline, with notable locations along the Riviera or in Deauville, the famous resort town in north-west France.

38 French départements – (roughly one third of the country) mostly in northern and central parts of the country – were void of casinos entirely as of 2023.

Will there be more casinos in France?

In December 2023, French lawmakers voted in favour of allowing more exceptions to where casinos can be located, in an effort to “reduce territorial inequalities regarding the opening of casinos.”

The exemptions were specifically aimed at areas that have an ‘equestrian heritage’, which might be classified as a historic (and modern) connection to horse racing, stud farms, or influential equestrian events – such as the historic horse-racing town of Chantilly.

MP Frédérique Meunier, from the Les Républicains party, told French media that these areas were targeted in order to help keep the equestrian sector alive, because it is “a major player in French culture (…) but it is disintegrating over time”.

Allowing these towns to open casinos would help keep local economies alive, she said. 

Similarly, communes that are part of an inter-municipal association (intercommunalité) with more than 100,000 people located in départements along France’s border (départements frontaliers) will also be able to apply to open a casino, as long as there has not been one authorised in that département at the date of application. 

Visitors to France’s casinos are required to present either a French ID card or a passport, in order to verify that they are over the age of 18. 

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