Battle of Normandy

Template:Battlebox The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allied forces. Sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, remains the largest sea borne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France.

Twelve Allied nations provided units that participated in the invasion: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Normandy invasion began with overnight paratrooper and glider landings, massive air and naval bombardments, and an early-morning amphibious assault on June 6, "D-day". The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads. It concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Chambois pocket.

Contents

1 Prelude 1.1 Allied preparations 1.2 German preparations 1.3 The Allied invasion plan 1.3.1 Codenames 1.4 German defenses 2 The landings 2.1 Airborne landings 2.2 Sword Beach 2.3 Juno Beach 2.4 Gold Beach 2.5 Omaha Beach 2.6 Pointe du Hoc 2.7 Utah Beach 3 After the landings 4 Chronology 5 Political considerations 6 Aftermath and strategic appraisal 7 Notes 8 Bibliography 9 Dramatizations 10 See also 11 External links

Prelude

Allied preparations

After the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), the Soviets had done the bulk of the fighting against Germany on the European mainland. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had committed the United States and United Kingdom to opening up a "second front" in Europe to ease the desperate Soviet situation, initially in 1942, and again in spring 1943.

Rather than repeat the head-on frontal assaults of World War I, the British, and Churchill in particular, favoured attacking the peripheries of western Europe and allowing the insurgency work of the SOE to come to widespread fruition, while making a main Allied thrust from the Mediterranean to Vienna and into Germany from the south. Such an approach was believed to also offer the advantage of creating a barrier to limit the Soviet advance into Europe. However, the U.S. believed from the onset that the optimum approach was the shortest route to Germany emanating from the strongest Allied power base. They were adamant in their view and made it clear that it was the only option they would support in the long term. Two preliminary proposals were drawn up: Operation Sledgehammer for an invasion in 1942, and Operation Roundup for a larger attack in 1943, which was adopted and became Operation Overlord, although it was delayed until 1944.

The process of planning was started in earnest in March 1943 by British Lieutenant General Sir Frederick E. Morgan. His plan was later adopted and refined starting in January 1944 by the SHAEF, led by General Dwight Eisenhower.

The small operating range of Allied fighters, including the British Spitfire and Hawker Typhoon, from UK airfields greatly limited the choices of landing sites. Geography reduced the choices further to two sites: the Pas de Calais and the Normandy coast. While the Pas de Calais offered the shortest distance from the UK, the best landing beaches and the most direct overland route to Germany, it was for those reasons the expected invasion point, and thus the most heavily fortified and defended. Consequently, the Allies chose Normandy for the invasion.

Largely because of the lessons learned in the disastrous 1942 Canadian raid on Dieppe, the Allies also decided not to directly assault a French seaport in their first landings. Landings in force on a broad front in Normandy would permit simultaneous threats against the port of Cherbourg, coastal ports further west in Brittany, and an overland attack towards Paris and towards the border with Germany. Normandy was a less-defended coast and an unexpected but strategic jumping-off point, with the potential to confuse and scatter the German defending forces.

It was not until December 1943 that General Dwight Eisenhower was named as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, effectively giving him overall charge of the Allied forces in Europe. In January 1944, General Sir Bernard Montgomery was named as operational commander for the invasion ground forces.

At that stage the plan required sea landing by three divisions, with two brigades landed by air. SHAEF quickly increased the scale of the initial attack to five divisions by sea and three by air, reflected in the plans for an additional assault at Utah Beach. In total, 47 divisions would be committed to the Battle of Normandy: 26 divisions of British, Canadian, Commonwealth and free European troops, and 21 American divisions.

About 6,900 vessels would be involved in the invasion under the command of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, including 4,100 landing craft. 12,000 aircraft under Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory were to support the landings, including 1,000 transports to fly in the parachute troops. 10,000 tons of bombs would be dropped against the German defenses, and 14,000 attack sorties would be flown.

The objectives for the first 40 days were to:

• create a beachhead that would include the cities of Caen and Cherbourg (especially Cherbourg, for its deep-water port);
• break out from the beachhead to liberate Brittany and its Atlantic ports, and to advance to a line roughly 125 miles (200 km) to the southwest of Paris, from Le Havre through Le Mans to Tours.

The three-month objective was to control a zone bound by the rivers Loire in the south and Seine in the northeast.

In order to persuade the Germans that the invasion would really be coming to the Pas de Calais, the Allies prepared a massive deception plan, called Operation Fortitude. An entirely fictitious First U.S. Army Group was created, with fake buildings and equipment, and false radio messages were sent. General George Patton was even mentioned as the unit's commander. The Germans were eager to find the landing location, and had an extensive network of agents operating throughout Southern England. Unfortunately for them, every single one had been "turned" by the Allies as part of the Double Cross System, and was dutifully sending back messages confirming the Pas de Calais as the likely attack point. To keep the pretence running for as long as possible, the deception was continued into the battle, with air attacks on radar and other installations in the area.

Another deception, Operation Skye, was mounted from Scotland using radio traffic, designed to convince German traffic analysts that an invasion would be also mounted into Norway, or perhaps Denmark. German troops were sent to Norway against this phantom threat that otherwise could have been moved into France.

A smaller, but effective deception, Operation Titanic, was carried out by 6 SAS commandos early on D-Day. Rubber dummy paratroopers and sound effects confused the enemy and took reinforcements away from the landings.

Some of the more unusual preparations by the Allies included armoured vehicles specially adapted for the assault. Developed under the leadership of Major-General Percy Hobart, these vehicles (called 'Hobart's Funnies') included "swimming" Duplex Drive Sherman tanks, mine clearing tanks, bridge-laying tanks and road-laying tanks. Some prior testing of these vehicles had been undertaken at Kirkham Priory in Yorkshire, England.

The plan also called for the construction of two artificial Mulberry Harbours in order to get vital supplies to the invading forces in the first few weeks of the battle in the absence of deep water ports, and Operation PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) a series of submarine pipes that would deliver fuel from Britain to the invading forces.

Allied forces rehearsed their roles for D-Day months before the invasion. On [April 28]], 1944, in south Devon on the English coast, 749 U.S. soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised a D-Day one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger.

German preparations

In November 1943, when Hitler decided that the threat of invasion in France could no longer be ignored, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel was appointed Inspector of Coastal Defences, and later commander of Army Group B, the ground forces charged with the defense of Northern France. Rommel was of the firm belief that the only way to defeat an invasion was to counterattack the beaches as early as possible with armour, and wanted at least some armour placed close enough to the beaches to deliver an immediate counterattack. But Rommel's authority was rather limited, since he was not the overall commander of German forces in the West; that title was held by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. And Rundstedt—supported by the commander of Panzer Group West, Geyr von Schweppenberg, who was, in turn, supported by Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, the Inspector General of Armoured Troops—favoured concentrating the Panzer divisions farther inland so that the primary enemy line of advance could be determined, and then a counter-attack in force could be launched to blunt it.

The operational debate reflected the differing experiences in the war of the key decision-makers. Rundstedt and Guderian had the bulk of their command experience when the Luftwaffe controlled the skies over the battlefield or, in the vast expanses of the Eastern Front, where neither side was able to claim air superiority over the entire front when these two commanders last had a combat command. Rommel's experiences, however, were vastly different, and would turn out in hindsight to seem far more applicable. Rundstedt and Guderian apparently never considered Allied airpower in terms of the Luftwaffe's heydey in 1939–1941, of which Allied air power was now several magnitudes greater. Rommel, however, having fought the Allies in the Western Desert Campaign under a decidedly-unfavourable air power disparity, knew the stark reality of what their tactical bombers were capable.

In attempting to resolve the dispute, Hitler split the six available Panzer divisions in Northern France, and allocated three directly to Rommel. The remaining three were placed a good distance back from the beaches, and could not be released without the direct approval of Hitler's operations staff. The air defences of the North French coast comprised just 169 fighter aircraft, since airfields in northern France had been seriously pummelled by incessant Anglo-American air attacks.

Uncertainty about the Allied place of landing also upset German plans. In order to sustain an offensive, the Allies would have to take a deep water port, or land at Pas de Calais and simply use the shorter shipping route to make up for the slower offloading. This being the case an invasion would have to take place near Brest, France, Cherbourg or le Havre, the only ports within easy shipping and aircraft range of bases in England. (In retrospect Brest was rather unlikely; it was out of range of the RAF, heavily defended due to the large U-Boat bases there, and far from the interior of France.) This meant that the forces would almost certainly be landing near Cherbourg-le Havre or Pas de Calais (which are only a short distance from each other), yet the German forces were spread throughout western France to counter an invasion at many different points.¹

Rommel inspected the shoreline defences, known as the Atlantic Wall, and ordered many improvements before D-Day. Some bunkers were still under construction when Allied forces landed.

The Allied invasion plan

The order of battle was approximately as follows, east to west:

• British 6th Airborne Division, comprising 8th and 9th Parachute Battalions of 3rd Parachute Brigade and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, airlifted and delivered by parachute and glider to the east of the River Orne to protect the left flank.
• 1 Special Service Brigade comprising No.3, No.4, No.6 and No.45(RM) Commandos landed at Ouistreham in Queen Red sector (leftmost). No.4 Commando were augmented by 1 Troop and 8 Troop (both French) of No.10 (Inter Allied) Commando.
• British 3rd Infantry Division and the 27th Armoured Brigade on Sword Beach, from Ouistreham to Lion-sur-Mer.
• No.41(RM) Commando (part of 4 Special Service Brigade together with Nos.46(RM), 47(RM) and 48(RM) Commandos), landed on the far right of Sword Beach.
• Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Armoured Brigade and No.48 (RM) Commando on Juno Beach, from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer to La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur.
• No.46(RM) Commando at Juno to scale the cliffs on the left side of the Orne River estuary and destroy a battery. (Battery fire proved negligible so No.46 were kept off-shore as a floating reserve and landed on D+1).
• British 50th Division and 8th Armoured Brigade on Gold Beach, from La Riviere to Arromanches.
• No.47(RM) Commando on the West flank of Gold beach.
• U.S. V Corps (U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division) on Omaha Beach, from Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to Vierville-sur-Mer.
• U.S. 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc (The 5th diverted to Omaha).
• U.S. VII Corps (U.S. 4th Infantry Division plus others) on Utah Beach, around Pouppevile and La Madeleine.
• U.S. 101st Airborne Division by parachute around Vierville to support Utah Beach landings.
• U.S. 82nd Airborne Division by parachute around Sainte-Mère-Église, protecting the right flank.
• Activities by the French resistance forces, the Maquis, helped disrupt Axis lines of communications.

Prior to the battle, the Allies had carefully mapped and tested the landing area, paying particular attention to weather conditions in the English Channel. A full moon was required both for light and for the spring tide. D-Day for the operation was originally set for June 5, 1944, but bad weather forced a postponement. The weather on June 6 was still marginal, but General Eisenhower chose not to wait for the next full moon. This decision helped catch the German forces off-guard, as they did not expect an attack in such conditions—so much so that, on June 4, Rommel returned to Germany for his wife's 50th birthday.

The 82nd Airborne had originally been tasked with dropping further west, in the middle part of the Cotentin, allowing the sea-landing forces to their east easier access across the peninsula, and preventing the Germans from reinforcing the north part of peninsula. The plans were later changed to move them much closer to the beachhead, as at the last minute the 91 Luftlande Division was found to be in the area.

Codenames

The Allies assigned codenames to the various operations involved in the invasion. Overlord was the name assigned to the establishment of a large-scale lodgement on the Continent. The first phase, the establishment of a secure foothold, was codenamed Neptune. According to the D-day museum [1] (http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm#overlord):

"The armed forces use codenames to refer to the planning and execution of specific military operations. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of north-west Europe. The assault phase of Operation Overlord was known as Operation Neptune. (...) Operation Neptune began on D-Day (6 June 1944) and ended on 30 June 1944. By this time, the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy. Operation Overlord also began on D-Day, and continued until Allied forces crossed the River Seine on 19 August 1944."

German defenses

The Normandy defenses were under the command of the German LXXXIV Korps (Erich Marcks), German Seventh Army (Friedrich Dollman). The order of battle in the landing area was approximately as follows, from east to west.

• German 21st Panzer Division (Edgar Feuchtinger), comprising the 22nd Panzer Regiment (partly with old French tanks), 200th Assault Guns Battalion, and the 125th and 192nd Panzer Grenadier Regiments. This veteran panzer unit (although during rearming) was located in the Caen region, and formed part of Rommel's panzer reserve.
• German 716th Static Infantry Division (Wilhelm Richter), comprising the 441 Ost Battalion, 726th and 736th Infantry Regiments. This coastal defense division protected the coastal area of the Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno landing zones.
• German 352nd Infantry Division (Dietrich Kraiss), comprising the 914th, 915th, and 916th Infantry Regiments (only 2 battalions per regiment). This regular infantry division defended the Omaha landing zone, and city of St. Lo.
• German 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment (Frederick von der Heydt). This was an elite parachute regiment belonging to the German 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division. Defended Carentan.
• German 91st Air Landing Division (Luftlande – air transported) (Wilhelm Falley), comprising the 1057th and 1058th Infantry Regiments. This was a regular infantry division, trained, and equipped to be transported by air (i.e. transportable artillery, few heavy support weapons) located in the interior of the Cotentin Peninsula, including the landing zone of the American airdrops.
• German 709th Static Infantry Division (von Schlieben), comprising the 729th, 739th (both with 4 battalions, although 4th were Ost), and 919th Infantry Regiments. This coastal defense division protected the eastern, and northern (including Cherbourg) coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, including the Utah beach landing zone.
• German 243rd Static Infantry Division (Generalleutnant Heinz Hellmich), comprising the 920th (2 battalions), 921st, and 922nd Infantry Regiments. This coastal defense division protected the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula.
• German 30th Fast Infantry Brigade, comprising of 3 bicycle battalions.

The foreshore area had been extensively fortified by the Germans as part of their Atlantic Wall defences, causing the landings to be timed for low tide. It was guarded by four divisions, of which only one (352nd) was of high quality (in fact, the only quality was from a cadre of 321st Division — the core of 352nd). The other defending troops included Germans who, usually for medical reasons, were not considered fit for active duty on the Eastern Front, and various other nationalities such as Soviet prisoners of war from the southern USSR who had agreed to fight for the Germans rather than endure the harsh conditions of German POW camps.

The 21st Panzer division guarded Caen, and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was stationed to the south-east. Its soldiers had all been recruited directly from the Hitler Youth movement at the age of sixteen in 1943, and it was to acquire a reputation for ferocity and war crimes in the coming battle. Some of the area behind Utah beach had been flooded by the Germans as a precaution against parachute assault.

The landings

Airborne landings

The British 6th Airborne Division was the first full unit to go into action, at sixteen minutes past midnight, in Operation Tonga. One set of objectives was Pegasus Bridge and other bridges on the rivers at the east flank of the landing area. The bridges were very quickly captured by glider forces and held until relieved by the Commandos later on D-Day. Another objective was a large gun battery at Merville. Although this larger glider and paratroop force was widely scattered, the battery was destroyed. However, the diminished assault team suffered 50% casualties in the attack.

The 82nd (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne (Operation Chicago) were less fortunate in quickly completing their main objectives. Partly due to inexperienced piloting and the difficulty of the terrain, many units were widely scattered and unable to rally. Efforts of the early wave of pathfinder teams to mark the landing zones were largely ineffective. Some paratroopers drowned when they landed in the sea or in deliberately flooded areas. After 24 hours, only 2,500 of the 6,000 men in 101st had assembled. Many continued to roam and fight behind enemy lines for days. The 82nd occupied the town of Sainte-Mère-Église early in the morning of June 6, giving it the claim of the first town liberated in the invasion.

Sword Beach

On Sword Beach, the regular British infantry got ashore with light casualties. They had advanced about five miles (8 km) by the end of the day but failed to make some of the deliberately testing targets set by Montgomery. In particular, Caen, a major objective, was still in German hands by the end of D-Day.

1 Special Services Brigade went ashore in the second wave led by No.4 Commando with the two French Troops first, as agreed amongst themselves. The British and French of No.4 Commando had separate targets in Ouistreham, the French a blockhouse and the Casino, and the British two batteries which overlooked the beach. The blockhouse proved too strong for the Commando's PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti Tank) guns, but the Casino was taken with the aid of a Centaur tank. The British Commandos achieved both battery objectives only to find the gun mounts empty and the guns removed. Leaving the mopping-up procedure to the infantry, the Commandos withdrew from Ouistreham to join the other members of 1 SAS Brigade (Nos.3, 6 and 45), in moving inland to join-up with the 6th Airborne.

Juno Beach

The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach. The first wave suffered 50 per cent casualties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads (the highest was Omaha Beach).

Despite the obstacles, within hours the Canadians were off the beach and beginning their advance inland. The 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) was the only Allied unit to meet its June 6 objectives, when it crossed the Caen–Bayeux highway 15 km inland.

By the end of D-Day, 14,000 Canadians had been successfully landed, and the 3rd Canadian Division had penetrated further into France than any other Allied force, despite having faced such strong resistance at the beachhead. The first counter-attack of D-Day was launched by the 21st Panzer division between Sword and Juno beaches, and the Canadians held against several stiff counter-attacks on June 7 and 8 by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend.

Gold Beach

At Gold Beach, the casualties were also quite heavy, partly because the swimming Sherman DD tanks were delayed, and the Germans had strongly fortified a village on the beach. However, the 50th division overcame its difficulties and advanced almost to the outskirts of Bayeux by the end of the day. With the exception of the Canadians at Juno Beach, no division came closer to its objectives than the 50th.

No.47(RM) Commando was the last British Commando unit to land and came ashore on Gold east of Le Hamel. Their task was to proceed inland then turn right (west) and make a ten mile (16 km) march through enemy territory to attack the coastal harbour of Port en Bessin from the rear. This small port, on the British extreme right, was well sheltered in the chalk cliffs and significant in that it was to be a prime early harbour for supplies to be brought in including fuel by underwater pipe from tankers moored offshore.

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach was the bloodiest landing beach on D-Day. The U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division faced the German 352nd Division, some of the best trained on the beaches. Omaha was the most heavily fortified beach, and pre-landing bombardment of the bunkers was ineffective. Half of the swimming DD tanks swamped en route to the beach. The official record stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded [...] It had become a struggle for survival and rescue". There were about 2400 casualties, most in the first few hours. Commanders considered abandoning the beachhead, but some survivors regrouped and pressed inland.

Pointe du Hoc

The massive concrete cliff-top gun emplacement at Pointe du Hoc was the target of the U.S. 2nd Ranger battalion. The task of the 225 men, led by Lt.Col. James Earl Rudder, was to scale the 30 metre cliffs under enemy fire with ropes and ladders, and then attack and destroy the guns, which were thought to command the Omaha and Utah landing areas. The emplacement was successfully reached, and the guns, which had been moved out (probably during the preceding bombardment), were found and destroyed.

Utah Beach

Casualties on Utah Beach, the westernmost landing zone, were 197 out of around 23,000 landed, the lightest of any beach. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division was able to press inland relatively easily and succeeded in linking up with parts of the airborne divisions, which had helped secure the beachhead and confuse the enemy prior to the landings, with heavy casualties.

After the landings

Once the beachhead was established, two artificial Mulberry Harbours were towed across the English Channel in segments and made operational around D+3. One was constructed at Arromanches by British forces, the other at Omaha Beach by American forces. The Omaha harbour was destroyed in severe storms around D+13. Around 9,000 tons of material was landed daily at the Arromanches harbour until the end of August 1944, by which time the ports of Antwerp and Cherbourg had been secured by the Allies, and had begun to return to service.

The German defenders positioned on the beaches put up relatively light resistance, being ill-trained and short on transport and equipment, and having been subject to a week of intense bombardment. An exception was the 352nd Infantry division, moved earlier by Rommel from St. Lo, which defended Omaha beach. The tenacity of the 352nd's defence, and perhaps also the indication by Allied intelligence that there would be only two 2 battalions of the 716th Division there, was responsible for Omaha's high casualty rate. Other German commanders took several hours to be sure that the reports they were receiving indicated a landing in force, rather than a series of raids. Their communication difficulties were made worse by the absence of several key commanders. The scattering of the American parachutists also added to the confusion, as reports were coming in of Allied troops all over northern Normandy.

Despite this the 21st Panzer division mounted a concerted counter attack, between Sword and Juno beaches, and succeeded in reaching the sea. Stiff resistance by anti-tank gunners, and fear lest they be cut off caused them to withdraw before the end of 6 June. According to some reports the sighting of a wave of airborne troops flying over them was instrumental in the decision to retreat.

The Allied invasion plans had called for the capture of Carentan, St. Lo, Caen and Bayeux on the first day, with all the beaches linked except Utah, and Sword (the last linked with paratroopers) and a front line six to ten miles (10 to 16 km) from the beaches. In practice none of these had been achieved. However overall the casualties had not been as heavy as some had feared (around 10,000, compared to the 20,000 feared by Churchill), and the bridgeheads had withstood the expected counterattacks.

Priorities in the days following the landing for the Allies were: to link the bridgeheads; to take Caen; and to capture the port of Cherbourg to provide a secure supply line.

The German 12th SS (Hitler Youth) Panzer division assaulted the Canadians on June 7 and June 8, and inflicted heavy losses, but were unable to break through. Meanwhile the beaches were being linked — Sword on June 7, Omaha June 10, Utah by June 13. The Allies were actually reinforcing the front faster than the Germans. Although the Allies had to land everything on the beaches, Allied air superiority and the destruction of the French rail system made every German troop movement slow and dangerous.

The country behind Utah and Omaha beaches were characterised by bocage; ancient banks and hedgerows, up to three metres thick, spread one to two hundred metres apart, and so both being impervious to tanks, gunfire, and vision, and making ideal defensive positions. The U.S. infantry made slow progress, and suffered heavy casualties, as they pressed towards Cherbourg. The elite airborne troops were called on again and again to restart a stalled advance. Hitler expected the Cherbourg garrison to resist to the end, and deny the port to the Allies, but the commander of Cherbourg surrendered on June 26.

Believing Caen to be the "crucible" of the battle, Montgomery made it the target of three separate attacks from June 7 to July 1, before it was surrounded and bombed on July 7 in Operation Charnwood. Seeking a decisive breakout into the open country that led to Paris, between July 18 and July 20 Montgomery launched a major offensive from the Caen area with all three British armoured divisions, codenamed Operation Goodwood. Initially successful, it was eventually stopped by determined and improvised resistance from the 1st and 12th Panzer divisions, supported by German engineers acting as infantry. The British tank casualties were very high; yet the German reserves had been committed to hold the line, and could not now be used to combat the American Operation Cobra, launched on July 24. With the German troops committed to the north, Cobra succeeded, and the advance guard of the U.S. VIII Corps rolled into Coutances at the western end of the Cotentin Peninsula, on July 28, penetrating the German line for General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army to advance through into northwestern France. The bulk of German resistance in the region was finally eliminated on August 21, with the successful closure of the Falaise Gap by Canadian and Polish troops. The liberation of Paris by the French 2nd Armoured Division took place a few days later.

Chronology

• June 5/June 6 U.S. 82nd Airborne Division (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne Division (Operation Chicago) and British 6th Airborne Division (Operation Tonga) were airlanded.
• June 6 — Seaborne D-Day landings (Operation Neptune)
• June 7-17 3rd Parachute Brigade of the British 6th Airborne Division repulse several German Attacks at Le Mesnil Crossroads.
• June 12 101st Airborne Division captures Carentan
• June 13 101st Airborne Division repel a German Counter Attack west of the city at a place called Hill 30, Elements of the 2nd Armoured Divison is ordered to help relieve the paratroopers
• June 25–June 29 Operation Epsom, an offensive to the west of Caen, was repulsed by the German defenders.
• July 7 — Caen finally captured.
• July 17 — Erwin Rommel was severely injured when his car was strafed by a Royal Canadian Air Force Spitfire.
• July 18–July 20 — Operation Goodwood initiated.
• August 3–August 9 — Operation Totalize, a trap to capture retreating German armour starts.
• August 16 — Operation Dragoon, a joint American/French landing on the French Riviera, begins.

Political considerations

The Normandy landings were long foreshadowed by a considerable amount of political maneuvering amongst the Allies. There was much disagreement about timing, appointments of command, and where exactly the landings were to take place. The opening of a second front had been long postponed (it had been initially mooted in 1942), and had been a particular source of strain between the Allies. Stalin had been pressing the Western Allies to launch a "second front" since 1942, but Churchill had argued for delay until victory could be assured, preferring to attack Italy and North Africa first.

The appointment of Bernard Montgomery was questioned by some Americans, who would have preferred the urbane Harold Alexander to have commanded the land forces. Montgomery himself had doubts about the appointment of Dwight Eisenhower, because Eisenhower had very little field experience. In the event, however, Montgomery and Eisenhower cooperated to excellent effect in Normandy: their well-known disagreements came much later.

Normandy presented serious logistical problems, not the least of which being that the only viable port in the area, Cherbourg, was heavily defended and many among the higher echelons of command argued that the Pas de Calais would make a more suitable landing area on these grounds alone.

Aftermath and strategic appraisal

Although ultimately successful, the Normandy landings were extremely costly in terms of men and material. The failure of the 3rd Division to take Caen, an overly ambitious target, on the first day was to have serious repercussions on the conduct of the war for well over a month, seriously delaying any forward progress. The fortuitous capture of Villers-Bocage followed by the failure to reinforce it, and its subsequent recapture by the Germans, was again to hamper any attempt to extend the Caen bridgehead and push on. By D+11, June 17, the assault had stagnated.

A lot of the problem came down to the nature of the terrain in which much of the post-landing fighting took place, the bocages. These were essentially small fields separated by high earth banks covered in dense shrubbery, which were eminently defensible.

In the end, the invasion of Normandy succeeded in its objective by sheer force of numbers. Many more troops and equipment continued to come ashore after D-Day. By the end of July 1944, some 1 million Allied troops, mostly American, British and Canadian, were entrenched in Normandy.

The success of the battle opened up the long awaited Western Front. Germany had to divert much-needed manpower and resources from the Russian and Italian fronts to fight on the new battlefields in western Europe.

The toe-hold established at Normandy was vital for the Western Allies (largely the British Commonwealth and the U.S.) to bring the war to the western border of Germany. By this time the Soviet forces had the capacity to crush Germany in Europe on their own, and therefore a western invasion was not strictly required to defeat the German Reich. On D-Day, the Red Army was steadily advancing towards Germany and four-fifths of the German forces were in the East. In France, the Allies faced only about 20% of the German army. The second front, however, certainly diverted German resources and attention from the eastern front, and shortened the war.

Given the Soviets' later domination of Eastern Europe, if the Normandy invasion had not occurred there might conceivably have been a complete occupation of northern and western Europe by communist forces. American and British presence helped define the extent that Communism would spread into Europe. Thus the battle of Normandy needs to be understood both within the strategic context of WWII and the strategy of the Cold War which followed.

The visitor to Normandy today will find many reminders of June 6, 1944. Most noticeable are the beaches, which are still referred to on maps and signposts by their invasion codenames. Then come the vast cemeteries, row upon row of identical white crosses and Stars of David, immaculately kept, commemorating the Allied dead. Streets near the beaches are still named after the units that fought there, and occasional markers commemorate notable incidents. At significant points, such as Pointe du Hoc and Pegasus Bridge, there are plaques, memorials or small museums. The Mulberry harbour still sits in the sea at Arromanches. In Sainte-Mère-Église, a dummy paratrooper hangs from the church spire. On Juno Beach, the Canadian government is building a massive memorial and information centre, commemorating one of the most significant events in Canadian military history. In Caen is a large Museum for Peace (http://www.memorial.fr/indexgb.htm), which is dedicated to peace generally, rather than to the battle itself. The people of Normandy will continue to remember Operation Overlord long into the future.

Every year on June 6, American cartoonist and World War II veteran Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) reserved his Peanuts comic strip to memorialise his comrades who fell at Normandy.

Notes

Note 1: See map "Die Atlantik-Festungen 1944 - 1945 (http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Karte/Atlantikfestungen.htm)" at German-language site www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de. Retrieved April 12, 2005.

Bibliography

• The Battle of Normandy, 1944, Robin Neillands, Cassell, 2002
• Decision in Normandy, Carlo D'Este, London, 1983
• The Second World War, John Keegan, Hutchinson, 1989
• Six Armies in Normandy, John Keegan, Penguin, 1994
• The Fighting First: The Untold Story of The Big Red One on D-Day, Flint Whitlock, Westview, 2004
• The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice, Alex Kershaw, Da Capo, 2004
• D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, Stephen Ambrose, Simon & Schuster, 1995
• The Struggle For Europe, Chester Wilmot, Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1997
• The Longest Day: June 6th, 1944, Cornelius Ryan, Wordsworth Military Library, 1999

Dramatizations

• The Longest Day, a 1962 American film based on the book, starring Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Werner Hinz, John Wayne and a host of stars in small roles.
• Testa di sbarco per otto implacabili (Hell in Normandy), a 1967 Italian and French film directed by Alfonso Brescia.
• Saving Private Ryan, a 1998 American film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Matt Damon.
• Band of Brothers, a 2001 American miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
• Medal of Honor, a 2002 American computer and video game series.
• Zvezda (movie) (The Star), a 2002 Russian film directed by Nikolai Lebedev.
• Call of Duty, a 2003 American computer and video game.
• Memoir '44, a 2004 American boardgame.
• Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30, a 2005 American computer and video game.

See also

U.S. Divisions Active in the Normandy Campaign

External links

• Cross-Channel Attack (http://www.army.mil/cmh/books/wwii/7-4/7-4_cont.htm) official U.S. Military History
• The D-Day Museum in England (http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/)
• Real Combat Photos in Color (http://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/movies/iwo_jima1) - From WW2incolor.com
• WW2DB: The Normandy Campaign (http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=2)
• The National D-Day Museum in the United States (http://www.ddaymuseum.org/)
• BBC WW2 history (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/launch_ani_overlord_campaign.shtml)
• Utah Beach to Cherbourg (http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/BOOKS/WWII/utah/utah.htm) a U.S. Military History, written by Roland G. Ruppenthal. This work is in the public domain.
• Juno Beach Centre (http://www.junobeach.org/)
• U.S. Navy Online Library of Selected Images: Normandy invasion (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-eur/normandy/normandy.htm)
• Second World War Newspaper Archives — D-Day Invasion and the Normandy Campaign (http://warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/operations/ddaynormandy_e.html)
• The original plan document for Operation Neptune (http://www.britannica.com/normandy/pri/Q00282.html)
• The original plan document for Operation Overlord (http://www.britannica.com/normandy/pri/Q00339.html)
• A new theory on the sinking of the floating Sherman tanks on D-Day (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology/marine_dday_underwater_01.shtml)
• Announcement of imminent invasion to the crew of the flagship, USS Augusta (CA-31) (http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/overlord/announcement.htm)
• Personal accounts of members of the 6th Airborne Division in Normandy (http://www.ornebridgehead.org/) (Pegasus Bridge)
• Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Normandy 1944 (http://www.britannica.com/dday)da:Operation Overlord

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