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The
Allied landing at Normandy, France on 6
June 1944 (D-Day) was the largest military
operation ever undertaken. Allied air, sea
and land forces were pitted against German
forces and by the end of this day – famously
hailed as "The Longest Day" -
the Allies had a foothold.
The
Allies, like the Germans, had long realized
that an Allied victory in Europe required
a landing on the western coast of Europe.
Since occupying France in 1940, the Germans
had built a string of fortifications – called
the Atlantic Wall – to defend the coastline.
Since
early 1942, after the USA entered the war,
the Soviet Union, fighting on the Eastern
Front, had pressured the Western Allies
to open up a ‘second front’. In 1943, they
agreed to land in France in May 1944. Normandy
was chosen because it was south of the narrower
parts of the English Channel, where the
Atlantic Wall was strongest, and its beaches
were suitable for amphibious landings. A
difficulty securing enough landing craft
in time pushed D-Day, as it was codenamed,
back a few weeks into early June 1944.
For
months ahead of D-Day, the Allied air forces
raided German defenses, roads, railways,
bridges, supply depots and other facilities
over much of France – not just the invasion
area, as this would have given away the
Allied plan. French resistance fighters
also attacked German facilities and troops.
In Britain, the Allied armies stepped up
training and employed various ruses, like
erecting fake tanks in fields away from
the build-up and embarkation areas, to hide
preparations from German reconnaissance
aircraft. The Allied navies and merchant
navies assembled more than 6000 vessels
to transport the invasion force and provide
naval fire support.
D-Day
was originally to be 5 June 1944 but bad
weather set in and so it was pushed back
one day. When weather forecasters assured
the Allied supreme commander, General Dwight
D Eisenhower, that conditions would be better
on the 6th, he declared: “OK. We’ll go.”
D-Day
operations began on the evening of 5 June
1944. As the invasion fleet started across
the English Channel, bombers took off to
‘soften up’ German positions and glider-tugs
and transport aircraft took off transporting
airborne troops who would land in darkness
behind the beaches and secure roads and
bridges. Allied aircraft also flew radar-jamming
sorties and to the north conducted deception
flights, using electronic counter-measures
equipment, and diversionary bombing raids
to fool the Germans into believing the landing
would be there.
GOLD
BEACH
This,
the western most point of the British beaches,
was the landing ground for the 50th. Northumberland
Division. The D-Day objective being, to
take the beach and move inland seven miles
to Bayeux to meet up with American forces
coming off Omaha at Port en Bessin.
Unlike
the American landings, the British landed
at 7:25 a.m. almost an hour later. The German
defenses were known to be of a very high
caliber at this location, they included
the 716th. Static Division along with the
352nd. Infantry Division. Following a massive
bombardment by the Royal Navy the landing
craft were deployed from seven miles out
from shore, this gave them a lot shorter
run in than the Americans who deployed twelve
miles from shore.
Due
to the heavy seas, it was decided not to
launch the D. D. Tanks from their landing
craft, but actually run them straight up
to the beach head, this was an extremely
successful decision, as, unlike at Omaha,
the British infantry had the protection
of heavy armour landing with them on the
beach and this certainly prevented a massacre,
the like of which had been experienced on
Omaha.
The
shelving sand at Gold beach meant the landing
craft grounded earlier than expected, and
the men had a long way to wade ashore, this
was the last thing they needed. The first
wave came under heavy fire from the German
defenders and the 1st. Battalion, The Hampshire
Regiment suffered the loss of their commanding
officer and also their second in command
within minutes of landing!
Second
to land were the Commandos of the 4th. Special
Service Brigade, they suffered tremendous
loss with only one of their landing craft
actually reaching the shore! The commandos
were not used as front line infantry but
were designated special missions, No. 47
Royal Marine Commando had the objective
of Port en Bessin, which was taken after
a tremendous fire fight on June 7th.
Heavy
armour was the key to the success
of the landings on Gold Beach.
The
69th. Brigade Group came ashore with their
special equipment known as "Funnies"
helped clear a path for the invading forces.
The
infantry that came ashore on Gold Beach
where protected by the D.D. Tanks (Duplex
Drive). Unlike the Americans at Omaha the
British didn't launch the D.D.'s but brought
them ashore on their landing craft, a brilliant
decision as every one of them were brought
into action almost immediately on hitting
the beach.
Fortunes
on Gold were mixed. Some soldiers
made their way ashore without so much
as a shot being fired, others were cut
down on the shoreline. On Gold, the 50th
(Northumbrian) Division quickly secured
enough of the beach to allow the full
machinery of unloading and dispersal to
be working efficiently by noon. They had,
however, suffered significant losses in
some sectors. In the west, No.47 (Royal
Marine) Commando lost forty-three men
when three of their landing craft struck
underwater mines, and the 231st Brigade
encountered heavy resistance as they came
ashore and then struggled against several
machine-gun positions around Le Hamel
until well into the afternoon. On the
other side of Gold, it took the 69th Brigade
several hours to win the beach, but by
the afternoon they were inland and in
the process of routing two battalions
of German infantry. Events proceeded much
more politely in the centre of Gold, and
from here the 50th Division could have
captured Bayeux by nightfall, but the
commanders on the spot, anticipating a
counterattack that their opponents had
no capacity to mount, were cautious and
let the chance slip away in favour of
consolidating their beachhead.
JUNO
BEACH
The
Canadian 3rd. Infantry Division were given
the unenviable task of securing the stretch
of Normandy coastline including, Vaux, Coucelles
sur Mer, Bernieres sur Mer and St.Aubin
sur Mer, this area was code named "JUNO
BEACH".
The
Canadian contingent was made up of men not
only from Canada but also volunteers from
Ireland, Scotland, French Canadians, Poles
and quite a few Americans all of which wanted
to fight for the freedom they believed in.
Accompanying
the 3rd. Infantry at Juno was the No 48
Royal Marine Commando, who were given the
objective of linking up with the No 41 Royal
Marine Commando, who were coming ashore
from Sword Beach.
After
heavy bombardment from offshore the Canadians
prepared for their run-in, the wind and
tides were so strong that most of the landing
craft were out of position, and had to be
re-assembled before the final approach!
this caused them to be at least 10 mins.
behind schedule, the tide had risen on the
beach covering most of the obstacles!! which
led to severe problems.
The
heaviest casualties on the British beaches
were suffered by the 3rd Canadian Infantry
Division on Juno. Many of the assaulting
units suffered very heavy casualties on
the shoreline, and once this resistance
had been overcome it was found that the
terrain beyond was teeming with German
infantry. The Canadians, however, battled
on and won through, and although this
severe opposition had slowed them sufficiently
to deny them their intended first-day
objectives, they swept the farthest inland
farther then any other Allied units.
SWORD
BEACH
Sword
beach had been divided into four sectors,
however the planning phases had revealed
that two and a half of these were completely
shielded by offshore rock formations,
impassable to landing craft. The 8th Brigade
of the 3rd British Infantry Division landed
at 07:25 along an uncomfortably narrow
front, and they found that the German
defenses had suffered under the Royal
Navy's guns but remained unbroken. The
troops wading ashore were met with a sharp
and costly struggle for possession of
the beach, but nevertheless within a few
hours the 8th Brigade were victorious
and in the process of securing the beachhead.
The
main objective of the 3rd Infantry Division
on D-Day was the capture of Caen, ten miles
south of Sword. Given any level of opposition,
this was a most ambitious prize, however
the unexpected arrival of the 21st Panzer
Division in the suburbs of Caen rendered
it completely unachievable. This very well-equipped
Division, the only Panzer formation in Normandy
on the 6th June, not only denied Caen to
the British by its mere presence, but the
city provided them with a firm base from
which to counterattack. Early attacks of
German armour were decisively beaten off,
but by nightfall the 3rd Infantry Division
were hard pressed and struggling to hold
their gains. Furthermore, these probing
attacks had revealed to the Germans that
there was a gap in the British lines between
Sword and Juno, courtesy of the inaccessible
sectors of Sword. Although some German units
drove into this gap and reached the coast,
the possibility of driving a wedge between
the British lines, and thereby destabilizing
the entire left flank of the invasion, was
fortunately never exploited.
It
took seven weeks of fighting for the Allies
to take the whole Normandy area and on 25
July embark on the ‘break-out’. While the
Allies did not suffer any serious setbacks
in this time, it was nevertheless a hard
and costly slog. Today, some 27 war cemeteries
are scattered across Normandy holding some
110,000 dead from both sides including more
than 22,000 from the British Commonwealth
(a quarter of them Canadians) and more than
9000 from the United States.
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