quinta-feira, maio 20, 2004

1944 (ii)

Hoje, há sessenta anos, era dia D-16. O desembarque aliado na Normandia estava marcado para 5 de Junho.

A hora H variava, devido às marés, de acordo com o local exacto do desembarque, que seria feito a meio tempo entre a hora da baixa-mar e a hora da preia-mar. Seria às 0630 nas praias "Utah" o "Omaha", e às 0730 em "Gold", "Juno" e "Sword".

Por essa altura, tendo sido largadas pouco após a meia-noite de 4 para 5, a 82ª (USA), a 101ª (USA) e a 6ª (GB) divisões aerotransportadas estariam já há umas horas no terreno.
# Lançado por PSA às 6:19:00 da manhã
"In North America the black bear was seen by [Samuel] Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects in the water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale."
Darwin, Charles; "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" (On the origin and transitions of organic beings with peculiar habits and structure)