80 years ago today, on June 6, 1944, from just after midnight, an enormous military operation to liberate Europe began.
We call it D-Day, though really that’s a generic military term for the go date of an operation.
This operation was Operation Neptune, the landing of more than 150,000 troops on the shores of Normandy, to begin Operation Overlord, the complete liberation of Europe from the Nazis and their Axis allies.
Although the Allies had enormous resources, the attack was perilous.
All amphibious attacks are against-the-odds gambles, and Germany had been building up defences along the Channel Coast in preparation for an attack. Even minor changes in the Channel’s fickle weather could spell disaster for one of the greatest feats of logistics in world history.
We all know now that D-Day can be judged a success.
By August 25, 1944 Paris was back in French hands, though it was to be a long, bloody year before Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945.
A huge series of operations involving tens, hundreds of thousands, and then millions of people, D-Day has generated a huge volume of collectible material.
Much is in archives and museum collections. But private collectors can also assemble compelling portfolios commemorating the turning point of the war and the surrounding weeks and months.
Prices have been on the rise, and this year’s anniversary will see a spate of sales that will hope to set records for D-Day collectibles.
These 10 artefacts, sold at auction or in private deals, are those that best tell the story of one of the greatest military achievements in history.
10 - Ensign Wilhoit’s flag
This flag has certainly seen action.
If anything tells the story of D-Day’s struggles it is this battered Old Glory that has so obviously seen action - with significant bullet damage.
Ensign Wilhoit was forced to take command of his landing craft when his commanding officer was killed in the first moments of the assault. This flag flew from the landing craft as battle raged.
It reminds us that D-Day’s grand narrative is an assembly of countless personal tragedies, moments of heroism and doubt.
D-Day flags - particularly with great stories - are very valuable. This one realised $55,000 (£43,310) in 2019.
9 - Admiral Ramsay's order of the day
Admiral Ramsay summed up the day for his troops.
Bertram Ramsay had retired from the navy in 1939. He was persuaded back by Winston Churchilll and by 1944 had the task of planning the landing of around 1.5 million men in a month.
One of the original paper orders issued by Ramsay to subordinates shortly before D-Day sold in 2004 for $1,500. It told those under his command the scope of what they were about to embark on.
"It is to be our privilege to take part in the greatest amphibious operation in history - a necessary preliminary to the opening of the Western Front in Europe which in conjunction with the great Russian advance, will crush the fighting power of Germany."
The relatively modest price at auction would surely be surpassed today.
8 - Weather maps
Maps on which the future of the world turned. Image courtesy John Rolfe Auctions.
The German forces arrayed in northern France under Field Marshall Rommell were a formidable enemy. Perhaps as potentially dangerous to D-Day’s success was the weather.
The enormity of shifting 10s of thousands of troops, plus a huge amount of equipment, relied on relatively calm, stable weather. Something the English Channel rarely provides.
Any D-Day collection should include weather maps, and this set of 6 sold just this April for £4,000.
The printed maps were hand-annotated with air pressure predictions that were vital to Eisenhower’s decision to delay the invasion, probably saving the day.
7 - A Rupert
Ruperts were fairly rudimentary, but they were relatively effective.
Alongside a massive actual operation to invade Europe, the Allies also ran a large-scale shadow operation of tricks, deceptions and feints.
They ran well into D-Day itself, when around 500 dummies were dropped from planes behind German defensive lines in an attempt to confuse the defenders and draw them away from the beach. This was Operation Titanic.
The Ruperts, as they were called, were pretty rudimentary. Some contained explosives that added to their realistic effect, and the SAS men who dropped alongside them had the gear to fake a large-scale landing.
Because they were designed to be destroyed very few Ruperts survive. This example was sold in 2006, in Germany, for just short of $6,000.
6 - The D-Day VC
CSM Hollis was twice heroically brave on D-Day, and won the only VC.
Only one Victoria Cross was won on D-Day. It went to a rather shy man from Middlesborough called Stan Hollis.
Stan’s almost suicidal personal heroism resulted in dozens of prisoners being taken. He undoubtedly saved the lives of many of his own men.
The sale of his medal, in 1982, was extremely controversial, and his wife reportedly received hate mail as a result of her decision - urged on her by a dying Stan according to some accounts.
It realised £32,000, a record at the time, and one that would certainly be surpassed were the unique medal to be auctioned today.
5 - French Forces of the Interior band and papers
French forces were vital on D-Day but some of them were still very ad hoc. Image courtesy Bonhams.
D-Day was an invasion, but it was also an uprising. The arriving Allies - including many Free French service men - had an underground network already working on their behalf.
After D-Day the disparate French Resistance forces were given official status as the Free French Forces of the Interior.
They remained a somewhat ragtag force in terms of equipment and uniform though as this armband shows. It carries the Cross of Lorraine, emblem of the north-eastern provinces occupied by Germany, that was the most common symbol of French resistance.
This small collection of FFI items is a poignant reminder of the French occupation and its final end, and the role of resistance fighters, without whom Liberation would have taken much longer. It sold for $800 in 2019.
4 - Robert Capa Omaha Beach prints
Capa got as close to his subjects as he could to capture the reality of war. Image courtesy Christie's.
Photojournalism really came into its own in the 1930s and 40s, and the story of World War II often comes into our thoughts as a series of iconic still images.
Robert Capa, the Hungarian born photographer, was responsible for many of those images.
He travelled to Spain for the Civil War and to China to see the resistance to the Japanese invasion before travelling through the European fronts of World War II.
On D-Day Capa was characteristically near the action - “If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough,” he would say - as US troops stormed up Omaha Beach.
Sadly most of the images he took were destroyed in a processing accident, but the 11 that survived are among the most famous images of D-Day.
Two gelatine silver prints of one of the best-known of those pictures realised £6,250 in London in 2008.
3 - Churchill’s visit photograph
Churchill was snapped on board HMS Kelvin. He was frustrated by the delay in getting to France.
You cannot tell the story of D-Day without Winston Churchill.
Documents like his pre-invasion Inspection of the Fleet realised several thousand pounds over 20 years ago. We suspect they’d make much more now.
An image that looked like a fairly standard signed portrait photograph realised $10,000 at auction last year because of its D-Day connection.
Churchill tried desperately to actually attend the Normany Landings. He was finally, reluctantly talked out of it and arrived in France on June 12 aboard the HMS Kelvin, for whose navigator he signed a portrait that is a perfect D-Day artefact.
2 - Eisenhower’s planning table
Some of the most important discussions in history were held around this 12-seater table.
General Eisenhower was the guiding hand of D-Day.
The table on which he made many of the plans for the complex web of operations that comprised D-Day was sold in January 2007 for $55,000 in New Jersey, USA.
The undistinguished replica George III-style dining table made 11 times over its estimate.
It had been in Stanwell House, Middlesex, UK where an extraordinary level of secrecy was maintained as Eisenhower met with the huge number of people needed to make the plans work.
Eisenhower traded a successful military career into a political one, serving as president of the USA in from 1953 to 1961.
A plaque and good provenance confirmed its authenticity. It had travelled from Stanwell House to the US via an antiques collector.
1 - Operation Overlord plans
Operation Overlord plans changed as they went along, and this set reflected that.
It’s amazing that you can buy the plans for one of the most consequential days in world history. In 2013 a full set of Operation Overlord Plans sold for $62,500 at Sotheby’s in New York.
The set of plans contained extraordinary and updated details of the scheme to land in Normandy, establish a beachhead and from there, attack into the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Replete with multiple “MOST SECRET” stamps, and instructions to keep “UNDER LOCK AND KEY”, the documents had been kept by Bernard Pettingill, an assistant to US general Omar Bradley.
There couldn’t be a more historic relic of the day that turned the tide in WWII.
Buy military history today
Military history is a deeply engaging area to collect.
Nothing tells the human story more completely.
We sell militaria and military memorabilia.
And you can sign up for our newsletter here. It only takes a minute, and you won’t miss out when we get exciting new items in.
