TheD-Day Allied Invasion of France On 6 June 1944 the Allied military machine embarked on ‘Operation Overlord’, the invasion of German-occupied France. Its target was the coast of Normandy, and a vast armada of ships carried more than 130,000 fighting men and vehicles across the English Channel. Ahead of them, planes and gliders transported another 24,000 Airborne troops to deploy behind the beach defences. This was the biggest amphibious landing in history, and its aim was to end the war in Europe and bring victory to the Allies. The assault was conducted in two phases: an air assault landing There was nothing inevitable about the Allied victory in of 24,000 British, American, Canadian and Free French airborne Normandy. The Germans had 61 divisions, 11 of which were troops shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of armoured, protecting the French coastline. This force was Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France roughly equivalent to the total Allied commitment to Operation commencing at 6:30 AM. There were also decoy operations Overlord and had no intention of giving up without a fight. mounted under the code names Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the German forces from the real landing areas. FRANCE British 6th Airborne Division Y A N D R M CAEN O N BAYEUX ORNE RIVER OMAHA GOLD SWORD JUNO 7 Canadian 47 RM Commando Infantry 69 Infantry Brigade Brigade 185 9 Infantry Infantry 4 SS Brigade 9 Canadian 231 Infantry Brigade 8 Infantry Brigade Brigade Infantry 1 SS Brigade Brigade Brigade 151 Infantry 56 Infantry Brigade Brigade 8 Canadian 8 Armoured Brigade E 27 Armoured Infantry N Brigade Brigade 2 Canadian G Armoured L Brigade 49th (West Riding) Division I S 7th Armoured H Division C H A 51st (Highland) N N E L 3rd Division Division 3rd Canadian Division BRITISH XXX CORPS BRITISH SECOND ARMY BUCKNALL BRITISH I CORPS DEMPSEY CROCKER 10 Assault by Air “Show me a man who will jump out of an airplane, and I’ll show you a man who’ll fight.” General James Gavin To eliminate the enemy’s ability to organize and launch counter-attacks during the amphibious assault phase of the Normandy invasion, airborne operations by British and US troops were utilized to seize key objectives, such as bridges, road crossings, and terrain features, particularly on the eastern and western flanks of the landing areas. The airborne landings some distance behind the beaches were also intended to ease the egress of the amphibious forces off the beaches, and in some cases to neutralize German coastal defence batteries and more quickly expand the area of the beachhead. Although not always successful, the parachute and glider landings proved crucial in confusing and delaying the German defenders. The tenacity and aggressive nature of the paratroopers meant that the Germans could not afford to ignore their presence and were forced to assign desperately needed troops and armour to deal with them. G U L F COUTANCES O F S ST. LÔ T . N D Y M M A A R nd st O US 82 & 101 L N Airborne Divisions O CARENTAN STE. MÈRE EGLISE COTENTIN PENINSULA POINTE-DU-HOC UTAH OMAHA CHERBOURG 22nd Infantry Ranger Regiment th Brigade 47 RM Commando 16 Infantry th 12th Infantry Regiment th 8 Infantry 116 Infantry Regiment Regiment Regiment 18th Infantry Regiment 115th Infantry 90th Infantry Regiment 4th Infantry Division Division 8 Armoured th Brigade th st 9 Infantry 50 1 Infantry Division Division (Northumbrian) th Division 29 Infantry US VII CORPS th Division 49 (West Riding) 2nd Armoured COLLINS Division Division 2nd Infantry Division US V CORPS GEROW 21ST ARMY GROUP BRITISH XXX CORPS MONTGOMERY BUCKNALL US FIRST ARMY BRADLEY 11 The Beaches “We want to get the hell over there. The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest too, before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit.” General George S. Patton The landing points were broken into five beaches. Three for the The Americans who landed on Omaha beach faced the veteran British and Commonwealth troops, Sword, Juno and Gold. Two German 352nd Infantry Division, one of the best trained on the for the Americans, Omaha and Utah. beaches. Omaha was the most heavily fortified beach with barbed wire, minefields, pillboxes, Tobruk pits and heavy machine guns On Sword Beach, the British infantry came ashore suffering spread along the 50 metre high sea wall. Due to the rough seas the only light casualties. They had advanced about eight kilometres landings missed their assigned sectors on the beaches. Commanders (five miles) by the end of the day but failed to make some of considered abandoning the beachhead, but small units of infantry, the overly ambitious targets set by Montgomery. In particular, often forming ad hoc groups of infantry, engineers and support Caen, a major objective, was still in German hands by the end of troops, eventually infiltrated the coastal defences. Further landings D-Day, and would remain so until 8 August. were able to exploit the initial penetrations and by the end of the day two isolated footholds had been established. The tenuous beachhead was expanded over the following days, and the original D-Day objectives were accomplished by D+3. At Pointe du Hoc, the task for the 2nd Ranger battalion was to scale the 30 metres (98 ft.) cliffs under intense enemy fire and an almost constant rain of grenades using ropes and ladders. Once they reached the summit they would have to then destroy the guns and fortifications they found there. The beach fortifications themselves were still vital targets since a single artillery forward observer based there could have called down accurate fire on the US beaches. The Rangers were eventually successful, and captured the fortifications. What followed was two days of hard fighting to hold the location, during which they lost more than 60% of their men. The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced a veritable firestorm from heavy batteries of machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a sea wall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach. Juno was the second most heavily defended beach on D-Day, next to Omaha. The high sea wall proved to be the Canadians salvation as it provided much needed cover to those troops that made it across the beach. Despite the obstacles, and thanks to some sterling work by the engineers in Sherman crab flails with Churchill AVRE support the Canadians were off the beach within hours and advancing inland with surprisingly light casualties. The Canadians were the only units to reach their D-Day objectives. At Gold Beach, the heavy seas caused the landing craft to jostle together and they were forced to delay their arrivals as each craft drove all the way into the beaches and then tried to extract itself back out to the waiting fleet. The Germans had strongly fortified a village on the beach, manning each building with heavy and Casualties on Utah Beach, the westernmost landing zone, were light machine guns which took a heavy toll on the invaders. the lightest of any beach; only 197 out of the roughly 23,000 Weighed down with equipment the infantry struggled to cross troops that landed. Although the 4th Infantry Division troops that the soft sand to the relative safety of the sea wall, enduring a landed on the beach found themselves too far to the southeast, withering hail of fire the whole time. Despite the hardships, they landed on a lightly defended sector that had relatively little the 50th Tyne & Tees Infantry Division doggedly overcame the German opposition, and the 4th Infantry Division was able bunkers and entrenched German troops and advanced almost to to press inland by early afternoon, linking up with the 101st the outskirts of Bayeux by the end of the day. Airborne Division. 12 The German Defenders “The enemy must be annihilated before he reaches our main “At the present time, it is still too early to say whether this is a battlefield… We must stop him in the water … destroying all his large-scale diversionary attack or the main effort” equipment while it is still afloat” German C-in-C West Field Marshall Erwin Rommel Morning Report for 6th June 1944 22nd April 1944 With the 352. Infanteriedivision forming the backbone of Erwin aggressive defence was most successful at the Omaha beach Rommel’s Atlantic Wall defenders the allies were never going to landings as the 352nd. caused horrendous casualties on the 29th have it all their own way. Rommel had spent the previous year and 1st US infantry divisions. turning the French coastline into a veritable fortress of earth Following Rommel’s orders, the German 21. Panzer Division and steel fortifications working his men tirelessly to make the mounted a concerted counter-attack, between Sword and Juno beaches as deadly and uninviting as they could. beaches, and succeeded in nearly reaching the Channel. Stiff Rommel knew that German success would hinge upon defeating resistance by anti-tank gunners and fear of being cut off caused the invaders on the beaches and constantly demanded that the them to withdraw before the end of 6 June. According to some German high command give him more armour and men as reports, the sighting of a wave of airborne troops flying over most of his regiments were dangerously below strength at the them was instrumental in the decision to retreat. time of the invasion.