The glider assault that seized two bridges over a canal and river just after midnight (1944)
Major John Howard's coup de main at what became Pegasus Bridge, the first action of the day
History · The 20th century
D-Day
6 June 1944
Amphibious assault — the opening of the Western Front in occupied France
The Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, the largest seaborne invasion ever mounted and the opening of Operation Overlord. Under the supreme command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery commanding the ground forces, about 7,000 vessels put some 132,000 troops ashore on five beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, while roughly 24,000 British, American and Canadian airborne troops landed by parachute and glider overnight. The naval operation was codenamed Neptune. Bad weather forced a postponement from 5 June. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, where the American assault came close to failure. By nightfall all five beachheads were held, and within weeks more than two million Allied personnel had passed through them; Paris was liberated on 25 August.
How to spot them
- ▸Five beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword
- ▸Postponed by a day on a meteorologist's forecast of a brief break in a Channel gale
- ▸Artificial harbours towed across the Channel in sections
- ▸A deception plan that convinced the Germans the blow would fall at the Pas-de-Calais
- ▸The largest seaborne invasion in history, with about 7,000 ships and landing craft
What happened
US Rangers scaling a 30-metre cliff to silence guns that had been moved inland (1944)
The 2nd Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc, under Lieutenant Colonel James Rudder
The beach where the American assault came close to being called off (1944)
Omaha, where the pre-landing bombardment missed and the defenders were a full-strength division
Concrete caissons and steel roadways towed across the Channel to make harbours (1944)
The Mulberry harbours at Arromanches and Saint-Laurent; the American one was wrecked in a storm on 19 June
A deception plan built on a fictitious army group under Patton in Kent (1944)
Operation Fortitude South, part of Operation Bodyguard, which kept German divisions waiting at Calais for weeks
The order of the day beginning You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade (1944)
Eisenhower's message to the Allied Expeditionary Force; he also wrote an unused note taking sole blame for failure
Quick-fire facts
- •The overall campaign was Operation Overlord; the assault phase was Operation Neptune
- •Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander; Montgomery commanded the 21st Army Group; Ramsay commanded the naval forces and Leigh-Mallory the air forces
- •Group Captain James Stagg's forecast of a brief improvement persuaded Eisenhower to go on 6 June after postponing from 5 June
- •Roughly 132,000 troops landed by sea on the first day and about 24,000 by air
- •Gold, Juno and Sword were the British and Canadian beaches; Utah and Omaha the American ones. Juno was the Canadian beach
- •Allied casualties on the day are estimated at about 10,000, of whom some 4,400 were killed
- •German commanders were divided: Rommel wanted the panzers near the coast, Rundstedt held them back, and Hitler was not woken to release them
- •Specialist armour known as Hobart's Funnies, including flail tanks and swimming DD tanks, supported the British and Canadian beaches
- •PLUTO, Pipe-Line Under The Ocean, later carried fuel across the Channel
- •The Normandy campaign ended with the closing of the Falaise pocket in August 1944; Paris was liberated on 25 August
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Sources
- US Army — D-Day: The US Army in the Normandy Campaign
- Antony Beevor — D-Day: The Battle for Normandy