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Americans had laid a pipe-line across the English Channel pre-
vious to Invasion Day was incorrect-all gasoline was taken across
the Channel in ships.
The Engineering Forces are indeed the unsung heroes of the
War. Continually subjected to shell-fire, they repaired cratered
airfields during the French invasion. Wherever the fighting
Army went, the Engineers were alongside or ahead of them.
After learning what the Engineers had accomplished in Europe,
it was impressed on me that our Engineer Forces were well
equipped to supervise the building of flood control such as TVA,
Missouri Valley, etc., and much better equipped for this work
than could be any civilian political force.
At Paris, one General told us of the secrecy maintained as to
the exact date of V-Day. Very few officers knew the date. They
wvere known as "bigoted" officers, which was the code word.
Code Words of the Invasion
We were told of the various code words used during the war.
The Normandy invasion was always referred to as OVERLORD,
the North African invasion TORCH. Important officers returning
to America for consultation with the War Department were re-
ferred to as EVERSHARP.
We were told that there were only 26 officers on Eisenhower's
staff who knew the exact date and point of the invasion, that
thousands of man-hours were spent drawing maps of the coast-
line from Belgium to Bordeaux so that the printers and work-
men would not be able to ascertain that the invasion was to be
on the "Omaha" and "Utah" beaches. Generals have told
me
that when they talked among themselves as to the intimate
phases of the invasion, they almost locked themselves in vaults so
they could not be overheard.
Every harbor from Belfast to London was loaded with ships
for the invasion, we were informed. The plan was to put 18,000
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