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After four months of bombing supply lines the Allied armies landed in Normandy on the northwestern coast of France on June 6, 1944. This day is known as D-Day. This was the most pivotal day of World War II, the outcome of the invasion was to decide the fate of Europe. If the mission were a success then control of the continent would be possible.
If it were lost the control would belong completely to the Axis armies. The invasion of Normandy was history's greatest amphibious operation. It involved 4, 400 ships, 11, 000 fighters and bombers, 1, 500 tanks, and approximately 154, 000 British, Canadian and American soldiers, 23, 000 of those soldiers arriving by parachute and glider. Of the forty-seven Allied divisions used in the invasion twenty-one of them were American. Opposing them were about sixty German divisions in France and the Low Countries. In the area of invasion nine German infantry divisions and a Panzer divisions fortified themselves along the Atlantic Coast.
The Germans believed that the invasion would come from an area known as Pas de Calais. They believed this because this was the easiest place to deploy a large number of troops. American planners created an army that would sail for the Calais but only on paper. The planners hoped that the Germans would catch wind of this and keep armies in the Calais area.
They kept their Fifteenth Army in the Calais area. This is how the coast of Normandy became the invasions site. The morning of June 5 was chosen as the date. It was chosen based on the brightness of moonlight, the lowest winds to hold down channel chop, and the lowest tides. Unfortunately bad weather force General Dwight Eisenhower to postpone the invasion for 24 hours. One day later the weather was still a possible problem General Eisenhower launched the attack nevertheless.
Only a few hours before the attack was to take place two divisions of troops were parachuted into the French countryside. These soldiers were placed there to secure rail lines, bridges, roads, and airfields. These things were necessary for the advancement of the Allied attack. The divisions successfully landed undetected inside German lines.
The attack on the beaches of Normandy was now ready to take place. American forces, led by Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, landed on the western beaches of Utah and Omaha.
British and Canadian troops, led by Gen. Bernard Montgomery and Gen. Sir Miles Dense, landed on the eastern beaches called Gold, Juno, and Sword. Allied air forces controlled the skies but could not penetrate the walls of well-entrenched Germans. Especially at Omaha Beach, at Omaha casualties came to 2, 000 soldiers. In contrast only 210 soldiers died at Utah beach. ?
The came ashore on Omaha Beach, the slogging, unglamorous men that no one envied, ? Cornelius Ryan wrote in his account of events, The Longest Day. ? Some of the men hadn? t a chance. German gunners on the cliffs looked almost directly down on the waterlogged assault craft that heaved and pitched toward these sectors of the beach. Awkward and slow, the assault boats were nearly stationary in the water?
Men plunged over the sides into deep water where they were immediately picked off by machine gun fire. ? The British and Canadian troops had fewer casualties and met less resistance to the east. The British 3 rd division destroyed a battalion of panzer tanks that were sent in response to the attacks on the beaches of Normandy. By the end of D-day close to 150, 000 Allied soldiers and their vehicles, munitions, equipment, and provisions were unloaded on the beaches of Normandy. In a week the troops totaled a half-million men. By July two million troops and quarter of a million vehicles had landed in France.
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