Summary of the D-Day Invasion



The Invasion of Normandy

(D-Day/Operation Overlord)

At the beginning of World War 2, Germany invaded Poland, causing France, Great Britain and Canada to declare war on Germany. By the spring of 1940, the German army was ready to invade France, defended by not only the French military, but also a sizable British force as well. Within six weeks, the Germans defeated the Allies and seized control of France. By 1944, the Germans knew that the Allies, also now including the United States, among others, would attempt an invasion of France to liberate Europe from Germany. The Allied forces, based in Britain, decided to begin the invasion by landing a huge army at a place called Normandy Beach, which is located on the northwest coast of France. Code-named "Operation Overlord", and commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allies landed on June 6, 1944 at five beaches in the Normandy area with the code names of: Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach. Prior to the actual amphibious invasion, Allied planes pounded the Nazi defenders and dropped thousands of paratroopers behind German lines the night before the seaborne landings. Local French Resistance forces, alerted to the imminent invasion, engaged in behind-the-lines sabotage and combat against the occupying Germans.

156,000 American, British and Canadian troops met heavy resistance from the German forces defending the area, but were able to punch inland, securing safe landing zones for reinforcements. The German failure to successfully defend the Normandy area from the Allied liberation forces in essence doomed Hitler's dream of a Nazi controlled "Fortress Europe" and marked the beginning of the end for Germany.

The exact number of men on both sides who died that day will probably never truly be known. Different sources cite different numbers of Allied, U.S. and German casualties:

--The D-Day Museum in Portsmouth, England claims a total of 2,500 Allied troops died,

while German forces suffered between 4,000 and 9,000 total casualties on D-Day.

--The Heritage Foundation in the U.S. claims 4,900 U.S. dead on D-Day

--The U.S. Army Center of Military History cites a total casualty figure for U.S. forces at

6,036. This number combines dead and wounded in the D-Day battles

--John Keegan, British Historian and Author believes that 2,500 Americans died along

with 3,000 British and Canadian troops on D-Day

By the end of the of the entire Normandy Campaign, nearly 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded, or missing.

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D-Day Timeline

Introduction

After years of planning, the invasion of Europe had been set for June 5th 1944. Secrecy was maintained until the very last moment when the vast, assembled fleet was ready to set sail.

But then, everything had to be stopped. Weather reports over the coast of Normandy were terrible, and the invasion would have to be delayed for 24 hours. The forecast for the next day, June 6th, was still not good, but it was better, and every moment of delay now reduced the chance of catching the Germans by surprise. Eisenhower gave the order to sail.

The attack on Normandy began from air, as paratrooper divisions from Britain and America were dropped into enemy territory. They had the essential task of capturing key bridges, so that the Germans would not be able to launch an effective counter-attack, at the same time eliminating some of the most deadly defenses of the Atlantic Wall. In the darkness and in foreign territory, there were horrifically high casualty rates among these paratroopers.

The Allies had already established air superiority and at 3am, 5000 Allied fighters quickly brushed away 119 enemy aircraft, allowing the heavy bombers to begin their work. They would soon be joined by the battleships, in a heavy bombardment which swept up to 20 miles inland. Finally, the land troops disembarked onto the beaches. There were five separate landing sites: the British and Canadian beaches codenamed Juno, Sword and Gold, and the two American sites codenamed Utah and Omaha. After heavy fighting, all five were eventually captured as beachheads.

00:00 hrs: Airborne Landing Begins

Allied airborne forces began the invasion of Europe shortly after 00:00 hours. First in were the elite pathfinder units, who marked out drop zones on the ground for the rest of their divisions. Landing by parachute and glider, British and American paratroops deployed on the flanks of the invasion zones to seize important bridges and road junctions. British 6th Airborne Division successfully captured and held Pegasus Bridge on the eastern flank, preventing German reinforcement of the beaches and securing an exit route for the invasion force.

03:00 hrs: Heavy Bombing Raids

Allied bombers launched massive raids against German defensive positions in Normandy. The complete air superiority of the Allies meant that the bombers were almost entirely unchallenged as they chose their targets.

04:00 hrs: Allied Invasion Fleet Arrives

The Allied armada of 3,000 landing craft, 2,500 other ships, and 500 naval vessels arrived off the coast of Normandy at 04:00 hours. The warships, including seven battleships and eighteen coastal cruisers, commenced bombardment of coastal defenses in the region of the five beaches selected as landing sites.

6:30 hrs

06:30 hrs: US Landings Begin

The Allies would attempt to land on five beaches in the early stages of D-Day, codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Later in the day, when the beaches were secure, they would attempt to link-up to create a single salient of the four easternmost beachheads. U.S. landings at Utah and Omaha began at 06:30 hours, an hour before British and Canadian landings. Things immediately began to go wrong: at Utah, the tide carried the landing-craft away from their target beaches by sheer luck this caused American troops to avoid heavier defenses, and the area was quickly secured with few casualties. At Omaha there was less luck. All but two of the amphibious tanks sank in the heavy seas, and German resistance was unexpectedly fierce. Casualties quickly began to mount as successive waves of American assault infantry became pinned-down on the beach.

07:25 hrs: British and Canadian landings Begin

British landings at Sword and Canadian landings at Juno went well, with the beaches rapidly secured after only moderate resistance. At Gold, the British 50th Northumbrian Division had to fight hard to finally overcome German defenses. By midday, all three beaches were secure and reinforcements, including the 7th ‘Desert Rats’ Armored Divisions, began to unload. British forces advancing from Sword established contact with 6th Airborne Division defending Pegasus Bridge. Other troops, from the British 3rd and the Canadian 3rd Infantry Divisions pushed inland towards the Normandy town of Caen, their objective for D-Day.

12:00 hrs: British and Canadian Forces Push Inland

Allied troops were beginning to push inland from the beaches at four of the five landing zones. At Omaha, however, things had gone badly wrong.

Regimental Combat Teams from the 1st US Infantry Division had lost tank and engineer support on the approach to the beach. Specially-modified amphibious tanks had sunk with their crews in the heavy seas. Landing-craft struggled to reach the beach under heavy fire while dodging underwater obstacles. They had also run up against the veteran 352nd German Infantry Division, which Allied intelligence had failed to locate.

Progress was eventually made when small, isolated groups of American soldiers, landing away from the main target beaches, pushed inland and were able to attack German defenses from the flank and rear. But although Americans now had the upper-hand, the beach was still not secure at 12:00 hours. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed or wounded on Omaha beach, and by the end of the day they had penetrated only 2,000 yards inland.

Meanwhile the rest of the beaches had been safely captured. The British 3rd Division began its advance toward its D-Day objective, Caen, at approximately 12:00 hours. Units advancing from Gold and Juno beaches linked-up, before driving south towards Bayeaux. American troops of the 4th Infantry Division landing at Utah took less than 200 casualties on D-Day, and after they had broken through light German defenses on the coastline pushed inland through the marshes to make contact with the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions.

16:00 hrs: Hitler Authorizes German Counter-Attack

As British infantry pushed inland attempting to reach their objectives before the end of the day, they came under heavy German counter-attack. This was the German 21st Panzer Division, attempting to drive a wedge between Canadian and British forces advancing from Juno and Sword. Because British armor was still en route, caught up in the traffic jams on the beaches, it was left to British anti-tank gunners to repel the German attack. This they achieved, but there was now no question of reaching Caen that day. At approximately 16:00 hours at Fuhrer Headquarters, Hitler at last realized the Normandy landings were not a feint intended to draw his reserve divisions away from Pas de Calais, and committed 1st SS Panzer Corps to the fighting in Normandy.

D-Day ends

24:00: D-Day Ends

The Allies have successfully established a lodgment area in Occupied Europe. Although not all objectives have been secured, the landings have been a success. By the end of D-Day, the Allies had landed 130,000 troops by sea and 29,000 troops by air. Determined resistance, German counter-attacks and bottlenecks at beach exits prevented the Allies achieving all objectives.

British 3rd Infantry Division was 3 miles short of Caen, and American troops were struggling to get off the beach at Omaha. Nor had the four eastern landing beaches been established as a single salient. Nevertheless, the Allies had acquired a toehold in Europe and under the cover of overwhelming air superiority, reinforcements and supplies began to pore in.

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