The John Bannister Collection - D-Day and Militaria
Lot 1084:
Description
This museum-quality collection centers on the U.S.S. Charles Carroll (APA-28) and the harrowing assault on the Dog White sector of Omaha Beach. The archive’s centerpiece is a rare landing card for Dog White—a central-western stretch of the beach located between the Vierville and St. Laurent draws. On the morning of June 6, 1944, this sector became a pivotal theater of the invasion; while the neighboring Dog Green was famously decimated, Dog White provided a slim opening where Brigadier General Norman Cota and the 5th Ranger Battalion rallied alongside the 116th Infantry Regiment. It was here that Cota famously stood upright under fire, shouting, “Rangers, lead the way!” to motivate the stalled troops to breach the seawall. The archive includes a 1-page report from Mutual War Correspondent Larry Meier, who was aboard the Carroll and documented the “brutal” first waves, alongside Admiral B.H. Ramsay’s “Special Order of the Day” and a 1944 letter from French Lt. Colonel Aubé. These documents, paired with several “Exercise Fabius” and “Exercise Fox” rehearsal maps (all marked SECRET), trace the 3rd Battalion’s journey from their training in England to the chaos of the Normandy bluffs. Exercise FABIUS was the last full dress rehearsal for Operation NEPTUNE and Exercise FOX was a US amphibious exercise in the UK by Major General Leonard T. Gerow’s V Corps of Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley’s 1 st Army in preparation for ‘Neptune’ (and ‘Overlord’ (9 March 1944). The paper elements exhibit expected age-toning, brittleness, and edge wear, with the landing card showing light handling marks and the larger maps containing typical fold lines and minor separations at the creases. Three maps measure 22”x17”. Two documents are 8”x10”. War correspondent account 13”x8”. Dog White landing card 8”x5”. Photo print 4.5”x2.75”. Part of the John Bannister Collection. John acquired over a lifetime of collecting. Please see photos.
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