The weather forecast that decided the outcome of World War Two #britishhistory #historyshorts #ww2

On the night of 4 June 1944, with rain hammering the windows of Southwick House near Portsmouth, a Scottish meteorologist named Group Captain James Stagg told General Eisenhower he believed a narrow window of acceptable weather would open on 6 June — enough to launch the largest seaborne invasion in history. D-Day had been planned for 5 June but had been postponed by 24 hours after a severe Atlantic storm. The next available date with the right tidal conditions was 18 to 20 June — a delay that risked losing the element of surprise. Eisenhower said: “OK, we go,” then sat down and wrote a letter taking personal responsibility if the invasion failed, and put it in his pocket. Stagg’s forecast advantage came partly from weather observations at a remote post office at Blacksod Point in County Mayo, made by a 21-year-old Met Office worker named Maureen Flavin Sweeney, which gave the Allies earlier warning of Atlantic weather systems than German forecasters could access. The Luftwaffe’s chief meteorologist, without that data, predicted two weeks of storm. German commanders left their coastal defences to attend war games. Field Marshal Rommel went home to Germany to present his wife with a pair of Parisian shoes for her birthday. On 6 June 1944, 132,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. The weather was rough but the window Stagg had predicted was real. On 19 June a major storm struck the Channel — the worst in twenty years — which would have made the landings impossible. Eisenhower wrote across Stagg’s meteorological report: “Thanks — and thank the gods of war we went when we did.” The story of those 72 hours is told in Pressure, a new film starring Andrew Scott as Stagg and Brendan Fraser as Eisenhower, in cinemas from 29 May. The History Fox covers the strange, forgotten, and occasionally catastrophic corners of British history. #Shorts #WW2History #BritishHistory #DDay #DidYouKnow #HistoryTok #DDay80 #Normandy #Eisenhower #JamesStagg #OperationOverlord #WW2 #Pressure