6.6.1944 Normandy landings

In early June 1944, the key operation of World War II began. Allied troops landed in Normandy. But many men drowned without making it ashore.

The Allies planned the invasion of northern Europe, Operation Overlord, for May 1944. They chose five beaches in Normandy as the landing site, while staging a carefully prepared deception operation to convince the Germans that the strike would land further east on the Pas de Calais. Eisenhower was named the supreme military commander, Montgomery was the commander of the ground forces.

Montgomery's insistence on increasing the number of troops and landing craft assigned to the operation forced a postponement to 5 June. Everything was ready for that day except the weather. "A storm broke and the invasion had to be halted. Faced with an uncertain weather forecast for the next day, Eisenhower made the courageous decision to go ahead against all odds," writes R. G. Grant in Battles - 5,000 Years of Warfare.

A huge armada of landing craft made its way across the Channel in the middle of the night, while American and Britishplanters before it parachuted with mixed success and landed in gliders inland behind the invasion beaches. "During the night of June 5 to 6, 1944, the skies rang with the roar of aircraft engines as a large air arm transported British, Canadian, and American paratroopers across the canal to their designated drop sites. In the early hours, before the protective cover of darkness, these men began landing on French soil - the first of more than 150,000Marriott Leo and Forty Simon recount the events of that day in their book, The Battlefield at Normandy - D-Day and the Battle of the Bulwark.

The German defensive positions on the Normandy coast were only partially completed and manned by second-rate troops. The defenders were taken completely by surprise when Allied warships opened fire on the coastal fortifications. "On the beach lay wreckage, a burning tank, bundles of blankets and equipment, bodies and pieces of bodies. One fellow near me was torn in two by a shell...," recalled British gunner Charles Wilson, who was on Gold Beach on June 6, 1944.

Although soldiers of twelve nationalities took part in the operation, the invasion force was primarily made up of Americans, British and Canadians. Bad weather resulted in a higher than usual tide, which led to unexpected sweats when they came ashoreMany heavily laden soldiers drowned without trace when they left their landing craft in water that was too deep. However, the American landings on Utah Beach and the British and Canadian landings on Sword, Juno, and Gold beaches went more or less as planned.

This was not the case for the Americans on Omaha Beach. Most of the American tanks and artillery sank without reaching shore. Lightly armed infantry were pinned down on the beach by fire from concrete bunkers on the cliffs above. At the end of a long day, the Americans fought their way off the beach, but it was at the cost of heavy casualties.

Sources:
R. G. Grant: Battles - 5000 Years of Warfare
Marriott Leo, Forty Simon: The Battlefield at Normandy - D-Day and the Battle of the Bulwark
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