D-Day: The Invasion at Normandy Beach

The English Channel

Southern England

• 1 million Americans transported by Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary

• American Soldiers had little trouble getting along with locals– Frequently gave chewing gum/Hershey bars to British children

who were not use to such luxuries

• 8 villages entirely evacuated by 9/20/43, after which civilians were barred from re-entry

• Area A – North of Portsmouth – 43 mile parking area for Tanks– 17 barbed wired encircled camps

Preparations

• Code named – Operation Overlord

• Enormous invasion force had been gathering in England for 2 years– 3 million soldiers– greatest array of naval vessels/armaments ever assembled in 1

place

• Germans expected the invasion to be at the narrowest part of English Channel

• Invasion came along 60 miles of the Cotentin Peninsula on the coast of Normandy

Preparations

• Y-Day – June 1st

– Everything had to be ready to go– No corrections could be made– Only waiting for Supreme Commander’s word

to go

• First Attempt: June 4, 1944– Wind and high seas make conditions poor

Soldiers in mess line in one of the marshaling camps in southern England

The Morning of the Invasion

Eisenhower visiting with members of the 101st Airborne before they

parachuted into France on D-Day.

Note the barbed wire in the foreground.

Before the Beach Invasion

• Needed to rid the area of Nazi defenses

• VERY Early June 6, 1944– Airplanes, battleships bombarded the Nazi

defenses– Paratroopers dropped behind German lines

night before to seize critical roads and bridges for the push inland

A paratrooper boards an airplane that will drop him over the coast of Normandy for the Allied Invasion of Europe, D-Day, June 6, 1944. Soldiers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions parachuted behind enemy lines during the night, while fellow Soldiers assaulted Normandy beaches at dawn

The Invasion

• 5 major beaches in Normandy– Utah and Omaha – US– Gold and Sword – British– Juno – Canadian

• 5,300 ships and 11,000 planes had crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy

• 156,000 troops crossed English Channel

"You have no idea how miserable the Germans made that beach ... we could see rows upon rows of jagged obstructions lining the beach ... When our ramp went down and the soldiers started to charge ashore, the [Germans] ... let loose with streams of hot lead which pinged all around us. Why they didn't kill everyone in our boat, I will never know.“

-A Coast Guard coxswain describes his first trip to Omaha Beach.

After Securing Normandy• Allied losses had been high:

– U.S. AIRBORNE - 2,499– U.S. / UTAH - 197– U.S. / OMAHA - 2,000– U.K. / GOLD - 413– CAN. / JUNO - 1,204– U.K. / SWORD - 630– U.K. AIRBORNE - 1,500– TOTAL -9,000 casualties, approx. 3,000 fatalities

• Fighting fierce, but superior manpower and equipment forced German troops off coast of Normandy in a week

• Allied forces went on to liberate Paris August 25, 1944

• Force most of German troops out of Belgium and France by September