The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne
operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in
Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and
often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in
history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later Western
Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western
Front.
Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the
invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed
Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of
the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the
operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have
meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had
requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day
that meant only a few days each month were deemed suitable. Adolf Hitler
placed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of
developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an
Allied invasion. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed Major General
Dwight D. Eisenhower in command of Allied forces.
The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval
bombardment and an airborne assault鍟he landing of 24,000 American,
British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied
infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at
06:30. The target 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast was
divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong
winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions,
particularly at Utah and Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun
emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered
with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire,
making the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous.
Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno,
and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house
fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using
specialised tanks.
The Allies failed to achieve any of their goals on the first day.
Carentan, Saint-L� and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major
objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno
and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not
connected until 12 June; however, the operation gained a foothold that the
Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. German casualties on
D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were
documented for at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. Background
After the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his new allies for the creation of a
second front in western Europe.[17] In late May 1942, the Soviet Union and
the United States made a joint announcement that a "... full understanding
was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a second front in
Europe in 1942."[18] However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
persuaded U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to postpone the promised
invasion as, even with U.S. help, the Allies did not have adequate forces
for such an activity.[19]
Instead of an immediate return to France, the western Allies staged
offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, where British
troops were already stationed. By mid-1943, the campaign in North Africa
had been won. The Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943
and subsequently invaded the Italian mainland in September the same year.
By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a major victory
at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel
invasion within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference in
Washington in May 1943.[20] Initial planning was constrained by the number
of available landing craft, most of which were already committed in the
Mediterranean and Pacific.[21] At the Tehran Conference in November 1943,
Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the
long-delayed second front in May 1944.[22] Meeting of the Supreme
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), 1 February 1944. Front
row: Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder; General Dwight D. Eisenhower;
General Sir Bernard Montgomery. Back row: Lieutenant General Omar Bradley;
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay; Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory;
Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith.
The Allies considered four sites for the landings: Brittany, the Cotentin
Peninsula, Normandy, and the Pas-de-Calais. As Brittany and Cotentin are
peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the
Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were
rejected.[23] With the Pas-de-Calais being the closest point in
continental Europe to Britain, the Germans considered it to be the most
likely initial landing zone, so it was the most heavily fortified
region.[24] But it offered few opportunities for expansion, as the area is
bounded by numerous rivers and canals,[25] whereas, landings 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 eventually into Germany. Normandy was hence chosen as
the landing site.[26] The most serious drawback of the Normandy coast鍟he
lack of port facilities𨫎ould be overcome through the development of
artificial Mulberry harbours.[27] A series of modified tanks, nicknamed
Hobart's Funnies, dealt with specific requirements expected for the
Normandy Campaign such as mine clearing, demolishing bunkers, and mobile
bridging.[28]
The Allies planned to launch the invasion on 1 May 1944.[25] The initial
draft of the plan was accepted at the Quebec Conference in August 1943.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.[29] General Bernard Montgomery
was named commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all land
forces involved in the invasion.[30] On 31 December 1943, Eisenhower and
Montgomery first saw the plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three
divisions with two more divisions in support. The two generals insisted
that the scale of the initial invasion be expanded to five divisions, with
airborne descents by three additional divisions, to allow operations on a
wider front and to hasten the capture of Cherbourg.[31] The need to
acquire or produce extra landing craft for the expanded operation meant
that the invasion had to be delayed to June.[31] Eventually, thirty-nine
Allied divisions would be committed to the Battle of Normandy: twenty-two
U.S., twelve British, three Canadian, one Polish, and one French,
totalling over a million troops
|
|