Originally Posted by
ancientaviator62
LB,
perhaps the greatest and certainly the most important met forecast in history is that provided by Group Captain Stagg for the Normandy landings. The pressure on him must have been immense and the consequences of getting it wrong would have been of strategic importance. Great skill and moral courage indeed.
Yes, absolutely, what some might call balls of brass these days.
Interestingly the names spoken in reverent whispers were of CKM Douglas and Sverre Peterssen. Douglas retired just before I joined and was regarded as the best weather forecaster, day to day, in the business. Stagg was, I think, more of a diplomat, with British and USA opinions to reconcile.
I will attach part of an account centred on Douglas, OBE and AFC ....... ex fighter pilot!
https://www.douglashistory.co.uk/his...%20Douglas.pdf
Meteorological events preceding and during the D-Day landings in France in June 1944 have been documented in Group Captain J. M. Stagg‟s book, Forecast for Overlord, and an account by Douglas himself was published in the Meteorological Magazine (1952). In 1943, Stagg was appointed Chief Meteorological Adviser to the Supreme Allied Expeditionary Force, and as such he became responsible for the forecast for the D-Day landings. Stagg‟s job was to give a comprehensive meteorological briefing as far ahead as possible, and he had to fuse together into a compatible report the frequently diverging perceptions of the leading British and American forecasters of the day (Ratcliffe 1994a). Also in 1943, Sverre Petterssen, the talented Norwegian meteorologist, was placed in charge of the upper-air unit at Dunstable, where Douglas himself became the senior forecaster in 1944. Vital information was regularly disseminated throughout the meteorological services of the British and American military formations, and Douglas‟s observations were rated highly over the years when Bomber Command‟s operations called for telephone conferences among responsible forecasting centres. Sverre Petterssen was to forecast five days ahead in general terms, using mainly information from the upper-air unit. Douglas, however, held the view that trying to forecast more than 3648 hours ahead, using the methods then available, constituted conjecture except in rare circumstances. The Americans, on the other hand, were already endeavouring to forecast six days ahead, largely by recourse to historical analogues. Stagg was faced with the unenviable task of presenting agreed meteorological forecasts between the American and British teams without bias, yet nevertheless from his own experience believing Douglas‟s views to be the most sound. The intense moment came with the forecasts leading up to the military landings on the Continent, which Ratcliffe (1994b) so aptly describes as “a meteorologic epic”. Stagg exercised tact and meteorological expertise of a high level, and he carried out his task in a highly commendable manner. But it was Douglas who was the key figure - the mastermind - behind the D-Day forecasts; ably supported by Petterssen, Douglas led the British team, and it was for this that he was awarded the OBE. The forecasters had displayed an international and inter-service approach which led to the success of the forecasts, and which was then considered the most important in the history of the world. Douglas‟s very demanding responsibilities during World War I1 caused him to behave sometimes in an odd manner, for Berson (1991) records that he would suddenly run twice around a double row of desks whilst on duty. B