Notes 7 D-Day Modern US History Unit 3 WWII April 12th, 2011

Notes 7 D-Day

Modern US HistoryUnit 3 WWIIApril 12th, 2011

By spring of 1944 the Allies were moving north through Italy and the Soviets were moving west into Poland. In England, General Eisenhower was planning for Operation Overlord – the planned invasion of France.

Location and Research

When deciding where to launch the attack, the Allies pinpointed two landing sites in France – the Pas de Calais and Normandy.

Location and Research The route to the Pas de

Calais was the shortest distance from England, much closer to Germany and had the most accessible beaches. Because of this, it was the most fortified. Consequently, the Allies chose Normandy as the site for their invasion.

Location and Research

To ensure that the beaches at Normandy would support the weight of an attack, the Allies sent 5 British soldiers in midget submarines to collect soil samples. The samples, which came from what would be later known as Sword Beach, showed that the ground could withstand the invasion.

Training Prior to Operation

Overlord many amphibious invasions had been unsuccessful. The Allies realized that they would only have one shot and that it was their best opportunity to regain Paris and moved straight to Germany.

Training In order to prepare, the

Allies had American forces practice landing for the invasion of Utah beach. This was known as Exercise Tiger. The exercise lasted for eight days and helped to solve many problems that could have arisen during the actual battle.

Planning for the Final Attack

The final plan had 47 divisions that were committed to the Battle of Normandy: 21 American, 19 British, five Canadian, one Polish (under British command) and one French division totaling 156,000 troops. There were 4,000 landing crafts, 500 war ships and 11,000 planes, including 1,000 transport planes to carry the parachute division.

Double Cross Double Cross was a system headed by the

British in which German spies were turned and used as double agents. Most of these spies were captured but some turned themselves in.

Although originally Double Cross was used to get information about the Germans it was later used to pass false information to the Germans. This came into play before the Battle of Normandy.

Operation Fortitude & FUSAG Using the Double Cross

system, the Allies worked to convince the Germans that the main invasion would be at the Pas de Calais and in Norway as well. The Allies orchestrated a plan for deception called Operation Fortitude.

Operation Fortitude & FUSAG

One of the most convincing parts of Operation Fortitude was the creation of a fake division – the First US Army Group (FUSAG). This group of ‘soldiers’ was located in southeastern England and was used to convince the Germans that the Allies were planning to land at the Pas de Calais.

Operation Fortitude & FUSAG

General Patton was placed in command of this outfit, which further confused the Germans. With the help of Hollywood, dummy tanks, trucks, landing crafts and troops were placed in ports on the coast of Britain to look as if there was an actual army.

Dummy Paratroopers On the night of June 5th,

1944 a small group of special air servicemen dropped dummy paratroopers over Le Havre and Isigny to convince Germans that an actual air attack had occurred. This occupied German troops and kept them confused as to what was really going on.

Higgins Boats & LST’s Higgins Boats – A boat

with a wide ramp on the front that allowed the Allies to land large numbers of soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. The men would climb down using rope nets from the larger ships onto the Higgins Boats to go to shore. They could be also used to move small vehicles.

Higgins Boats & LST’s

Landing Ship Tank (LST) – This was a large boat that could carry tanks to show for an amphibious landing. They were used both in Sicily and Normandy.

Hobart’s Funnies

Hobart’s Funnies were types of British tanks that were designed to fill special needs during the war.

Hobart’s Funnies

Armored Ramp Carrier (ARK) – This tank would lay down a ramp for other tanks to move past obstacles or clear a ditch.

Hobart’s Funnies

Crab-Modified Sherman Tank – This tank had rotating chains on the front – called a mine flail – to clear land minds in it’s path

Mulberry Harbors Three days after D-Day,

two large harbors were built in England codenamed Mulberry ‘A’ and ‘B’. These harbors were floated across the English Channel and constructed at Omaha Beach and Arromanches.

Mulberry Harbor Unfortunately barely two

weeks later a storm took out the American harbor at Omaha Beach, leaving the British Harbor, which later became known as Port Winston. In only 100 days Port Winston was used to help nearly 2.5 million men land at Normandy, as well as 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tons of supplies.

Mulberry Harbor It took 600,000 tons

of concrete between 33 jetties to finish a Mulberry harbor. In the end, there were 10 miles of floating roadways that were used to land men, vehicles and supplies at Normandy.

The Invasion of Normandy

Allies had to choose the date of the invasion very carefully because the weather and tide needed to be just right in order for it to be successful. D-Day was originally set for June 5th, 1941, but there was a storm in the channel, which made it impossible to attack. So the Allies decided to land the following day – June 6th, 1944.


The night before soldiers landed on the beach, 3 airborne divisions of men use parachutes and gliders to drop behind the German line and flank the beaches. The naval vessels preparing to land on the beaches meet in the middle of the channel at what is called Piccadilly Circus.


As men waited in the channel the rough water causes a lot of seasickness, which led to issues when they landed. Throughout the night, the Allies bomb the beaches from the ships and with aircrafts.


At 6:30 am (known as H-Hour) the first American troops landed at Normandy. American troops landed at Omaha and Utah Beach. All together there were five separate sections of the beach – Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword. Troops were met with fierce fire and considerable obstacles, including barbed wire, mines, trenches and large guns firing from German bunkers on the cliffs above.


Omaha Beach was the most heavily fortified – within minutes of landing most commanding officers had been killed or wounded. Part of what made the Allies’ victorious at D-Day was their ability to think for themselves and not wait for orders from a commanding officer. Nearly 2,000 men died at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

The Invasion of Normandy The area called Pointe

du Hoc was located in between Omaha and Utah beaches. The cliffs of this area looked like a ‘W’ allowing the Germans on top to fire on both beaches – although the reach to Omaha was much better.


Prior to landing, Allied troops were told that thanks to the bombing the night before, all of the Germans would either be dead or in shock. This was not the case. The bunker on top of Pointe du Hoc rained bullets down on the Allies as the approached the base of the cliff.


225 Army Rangers began to scale the cliffs in order to take the out the Germans at the top. Of the 225 Rangers, 135 were killed. The Rangers eventually reach the top and disable the German forces and destroy their weapons.


American troops experienced less resistance at Utah Beach when they landed at the wrong sector. The troops landed at Victor sector, slightly southeast of the original target. This area had fewer German defenses and allowed more soldiers to press inland.


Nearly 160,000 men landed at Normandy, in the largest land-sea-air operation in all of history. Of this, 10,000 men lost their lives. The Allies were able to take the beach and hold it. Within a month nearly half a million soldiers, 600,000 tons of supplies and 170,000 vehicles landed at Normandy to support the war in France as the Allies moved towards Germany.

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Notes 7 D-Day Modern US History Unit 3 WWII April 12th, 2011