Five for Fighting (Meta)

This Thursday (June 6) is the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the Normandy Invasion known as D-Day. This image explains the grid layout. https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2019/05/D-Day-landing-beaches-map-c4e4dbf.jpg?quality=90&resize=726,737 Just to create more constraints, I added the country codes US, GB, and CA at the top, to align with their beachhead attacks. Plus DE at the bottom.

Nice construction, Peter. Great 32A at the end!

Yeah, I'm not that old to remember it.... but an easy Google find, and a free history lesson, too. ;) Thanks, Peter.

Nice one. Thanks, Peter

Nice puzzle. I am glad you included the explanation so that we could enjoy the details that I missed. Great construction.

Wow. Google search aren't much easier than that. I was a bit surprised to see the auto-complete fill in my search within the first two words. Bit ashamed that the amazing construction is completely lost on the likes of me.

I was really afraid this was going to be a going to be a sporting event and was frustrated that I truly saw nothing and had no idea what to google and figured "well, I might as well try...." Wow. Taken aback.

Great puzzle!

Ironically, I had to look at this twice despite having pointed out the significance of last weekend's WSJ answer!

got it from omaha... since it appears often enough in crosswords to be clued as the beach... didn't know the other 4 but thank you google :) nice puzzle... and i recently learned "rocket" for arugula so was pretty excited to be able to fill that in

Based on the title, I was looking for something related to hockey, since the penalty is 5 minutes for fighting... Then the starts of the 5 theme answers set in.

Nice! More intricate construction than I realized.

Excellent!

I put in D-Day landing the first time because I was thinking of what technically all of those were and they were the beaches. D-Day itself was a MUCH bigger undertaking with coordinated paratrooper, glider and amphibious troops. But I figured it was simply D-Day when the D-Day landing was rejected.

Interestingly, one gentleman in our church was one of the meteorologists who was tasked with determining if D-Day would be a go or no-go because of the weather. He is unfortunately gone now and with him his stories of what was and is still the largest military landing.

If you ever get to France you have to visit the D-Day memorial, I defy anyone to walk away from that unchanged.

Salute! I knew Utah and Omaha, but the association didn’t click (I was thinking sports, expecting medals or something). Googled the first words and it came up immediately, along with the map. Didn’t see the beach configuration or the US, GB and CA (or DE) until you explained! Great puzzle!

I recognized enough of the beach names to get it, and google confirmed the remainder. Nicely constructed, particularly getting the country codes in the grid. Thanks!

Embarrassed to say I remembered almost none of this (admittedly, I was very young at the time). Even after I Googled the five as a group and got the answer, Omaha was the only one I recognized. Instead I went down the boxing rabbit hole. I went looking for two other punches, a cross and an uppercut -- letters going across or upwards (the latter hunch got further reinforcement from the "Up to par" clue). I even Googled Five For Fighting's greatest hits.

Nice one Peter! Was stuck in the boxing rabbit hole (plus KING made me think of Don King), but the nudge worked -- didn't even need to Google, as I immediately saw it from that hint. Thanks for the puzzle!

Nice puzzle, thank you! I'm not a big history guy and Omaha is the only beach amongst these that I've heard of... good to learn more about this. Thanks for the fun puzzle!

Gah -- should have seen it. No, I wasn't there -- but I've read enough about WWII... Very, very nice, Peter, in many respects.

I have been to the site, but I still needed the nudge to see the answer, head slap. No Googling needed...

Nice one Peter...only needed the first nudge. Thanks!

Rats, I had the meta but somehow didn't get any of the possible solutions in my guesses. I kept using the word "beaches". Nice puzzle