Story behind the song

The story behind Day of Days

  • 6 June 202127 July 2021

Day of Days is a song that remembers the sacrifices that have been made for our precious freedom on D-Day 6 June 1944.

On that Tuesday, so many brave young men landed in occupied Normandy. So many died, so few returned unharmed. We all know the heroic stories of success, but do we really realise what price we had to pay for our freedom?

Screaming Eagles

In the song Day of Days, we tell the story about the first airborne forces who were dropped behind enemy lines. The mission of American paratroopers – the Screaming Eagles – started hours before dawn. Packed in C-47 aircrafts they aimed for the drop zones. Normandy was covered in a thick bank of clouds and fog, making it almost impossible to orientate. And the German anti-aircraft machineguns weren’t that helpful either.

Flash Thunder

When they made the jump, the many men hanging under their round canopy were sitting ducks. And if they didn’t get hit gliding down, they were scattered all around and lost their comrades. In the darkness of D-Day it’s hard to recognise friends from foes. Luckily, they were equipped with crickets, a device that makes a clicking sound. One ‘click’ replied with ‘two clicks’ meant a fellow trooper was nearby. The clicks were followed by the voice code, the password Flash had to be answered by Thunder. In the song you hear us call out Flash and Thunder. And we used this original cricket:

This reproduction cricket has been made by the same company, in the same building, on the same machines and using the same dies that made the original crickets supplied to the troops of the US 101st Airborne Division to jump into Normandy with on D-Day 6th June 1944.

Omaha Beach

The paratroopers had a mission to secure the flanks of the beaches where the invasion took place. Being widely spread over Normandy and with so many men killed, wounded or missing this seemed like a mission impossible. They did what they could, but they couldn’t prevent the terrifying maelstrom of chaos and death that was evolving on the American sector called Omaha Beach. In this killing zone, the sea coloured blood red.

Remember always

On D-Day as many as 4,400 troops died from the combined allied forces. Some 9,000 were wounded or missing. Total German casualties on the day are not known but are estimated as being between 4,000 and 9,000 men. A terrible price to pay. And for those who survived the Day of Days, the nightmares remain. That’s why we honour the men who fought and died for our freedom in this song. And we will remember always, the offers made on that day. On that day of days.

If you like to hear more songs related to D-Day, check out this playlist on Spotify.