D-DAY FLAG: A BLOWN-OUT US COAST GUARD FLAG FOR LCI(L)-86.

D-DAY FLAG: A BLOWN-OUT US COAST GUARD FLAG FOR LCI(L)-86.
US Made: Flown during the Landings in Normandy, June 6th 1944 onwards.
An American manufactured USCG woolen flag. 390 x 240 mm. The luff marked with a faint stencil "CG Ensign". The ensign badly blown out at the fly with just 33% of the flag remaining, slightly discolored. Framed and glazed;
TOGETHER WITH: British Admiralty Chart. English Channel Chart. Eastbourne to Poole, Etretat to Mont St. Michel. 600 x 475 mm. The chart annotated in pencil with the mineswept lanes across the Channel for the Allied Invasion fleet, marking out routes from Plymouth, Weymouth and Portsmouth to a holding station off the Isle of Wight, and then on to Cherbourg, Utah, Omaha, Gold and Red beaches on the Normandy Coast, and two areas in mid channel marked "Mined". Lower margin slightly trimmed, the lower corners torn. Framed and glazed.
Provenance: John Kelly White, Signalman USS LCI (L)-86; by descent.

AN HISTORIC D-DAY FLAG AND MAP FROM A COASTGUARD VESSEL OFF OMAHA BEACH. This coastguard vessel with signalman White aboard formed part of Assault Group O-2, operating off Omaha Beach, and served as Command HQ for the Group Omaha 2, under Deputy Commander US Navy Captain W.D.Wright. The Coastguard vessels had a organizational; structure with the LCI (large) vessels organizing the smaller workhorses, the LCI's, which were moving around just off the beach head. The Coast Guard had up to 100 ships off Omaha beach. The role of the USCG at Omaha is not widely known but 60 cutters survived the day and performed important work both as escorts and rescue vessels for the landings all day. During the Landings at Omaha Beach, signalman White was given the vital task of organizing and maintaining the visual lines of communication between his HQ ship and the attacking landing craft. Following the Omaha Beach Operation White managed to retain this blown-out USCG ships ensign and the map as mementos. White joined the USCG in July 1943, at 17, and after training joined LCI(L)-86 in England, in preparation for the Normandy Invasion. He was involved off the Normandy coast for several months, and was present during the sinking of SS Leopoldville a few months later. He left the Coast Guard in 1946.

The detailed landing map that accompanies this flag is the original map used aboard LCI(L)-86, and is marked up with the mineswept lanes across the Channel used by Allied vessels during Operation Overlord.