D-Day Essay, Research Paper

Term/Bonus paper Q-2 D-Day Geneva Jones; E-Flight

D-Day was when the Allied Powers tried to recapture Europe, starting with France. The Allied Powers were made up of the U.S., the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. The Axis Powers were made up of Italy, Germany, and Japan. D-Day took place on June 4, 1944.

The Germans were not prepared for the invasion. The beaches that the Allied soldiers landed on were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach. The bloodiest fight came from Omaha Beach. There were many problems soldiers faced during D-Day. There were many obstacles, and people, against them.

The U.S. and British soldiers had to cross the English Chanell. The soldiers landed on the beach in an area in northern France called Normandy. The first thing the soldiers took place at dawn, they opened fire with battleships on the beaches. Some of the bloodiest fights of the invasion came at Omaha Beach. By the end of June about a million soldiers had reached the country of France. By the end of one day 2,500 soldiers had died at battle. The soldiers landed on 5 different beaches. These were Normandy, Utah, Omaha, Juno, and Sword Beach. The soldiers had seven different obstacles, they were the Atlantic Wall, the Belgian gates, teller mines, ramps, walls of barbed wire and minefields, pillboxes, and concrete bunkers. The Belgian gates were 10-foot high steel structures that were set parallel to the beach. The teller mines were mines that were on post that were angled seaward. Ramps were mine-tipped logs that were driven into the sand. Hedgehogs were mine-tipped 6 foot obstacles that were constructed of steel rails welded together to rip off the bottoms of landing crafts at high tide. Walls of barbed wire and minefields criss-crossed the beach and paths leading on and off the beaches. Pillboxes were small concrete bunkers that shielded machine gun nests and antitank guns. Concrete bunkers were used to protect 75-88 mm guns.

At the beginning of World War 2, Germany invaded Poland, causing France, Great Britain and Canada to declare war on Germany. By the spring of 1940, the German army was ready to invade France, defended by not only the French military, but also a fairly large British force as well. Within six weeks, the Germans defeated the Allies and seized control of France. By 1944, the Germans knew that the Allies, wich now also included the United States, among others, would attempt an invasion of France to liberate Europe from Germany. The Allied forces, based in Britain, decided to begin the invasion by landing a huge army at a place called Normandy Beach, which is located on the northwest coast of France. Code-named “Operation Overlord”, and commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allies landed on June 6, 1944 at five beaches in the Normandy area with the codenames of: Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach. Prior to the actual amphibious invasion, Allied planes pounded the Nazi defenders and dropped thousands of paratroopers behind German lines the night before the seaborne landings. Local French Resistance forces, alerted to the imminent invasion, engaged in behind-the-lines sabotage and combat against the occupying Germans.

American, British and Canadian troops met heavy resistance from the German forces defending the area, but were able to punch inland, securing safe landing zones for reinforcements. The German failure to successfully defend the Normandy area from the Allied liberation forces in essence doomed Hitler’s dream of a Nazi controlled “Fortress Europe” and marked the beginning of the end for Germany.

“Omaha” was the code name for the second beach from the right of the five landing areas of the Normandy Invasion. It was the largest of the assault areas, stretching over 6 miles (10 kilometres) between Port-en-Bessin on the east and the mouth of the Vire River on the west. The western third of the beach was backed by a 10-foot- high seawall, and the whole beach was overlooked by cliffs 100 feet high. There were five exits from the sand and shingle beach; the best was a paved road in a ravine leading to the village of Vierville-sur-Mer, two were only dirt paths, and two were dirt roads leading to the villages of Colleville-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.

The Germans under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had built great defenses to protect this enclosed battlefield. The waters and beach were heavily mined, and there were 12 strong points called Widerstandsnester (”resistance nests”). Numerous other fighting positions dotted the area, supported by an extensive trench system. The defending forces consisted of three battalions of the veteran 352nd Infantry Division. Their weapons were fixed to cover the beach with grazing enfilade fire as well as plunging fire from the cliffs.

Omaha Beach was part of the invasion area assigned to the U.S. 1st Army, under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley. The assault sectors at Omaha were code-named (from west to east) Charlie, Dog (consisting of Green, White, and Red sections), Easy (Green and Red sections), and Fox (Green and Red sections). The beach was to be assaulted at 0630 hours by the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, with the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division attached for D-Day only. Omaha was wide enough to land two regiments side by side with armour in front, and so the 116th Regiment was to land at Dog (Green, White, and Red) and Easy Green, while the 16th Regiment, 1st Division, was to land at Easy Red and Fox Green.

The objectives of the 1st Division were ambitious. First, it was to capture the villages of Vierville, Saint-Laurent, and Colleville; then it was to push through and cut the Bayeux-Isigny road, and then it was to attack south toward Tr?vi?res and west toward the Pointe du Hoc. Elements of the 16th Regiment were to link up at Port-en-Bessin with British units from Gold Beach to the east.

From the beginning everything went wrong at Omaha. Special “DD” tanks (amphibious Sherman tanks fitted with flotation screens) that were supposed to support the 116th Regiment sank in the waters of the Channel. Only 2 of the 29 launched made it to the beach. With the exception of company A, no unit of the 116th landed where it was planned. Strong winds and tidal currents carried the landing craft from right to left. The 16th Regiment on the east half of the beach fared little better, landing in a state of confusion with units badly mixed up.

Throughout the landing, German gunners poured deadly fire into the ranks of the invading Americans. Bodies lay on the beach or floated in the water. Men sought refuge behind beach obstacles, pondering the deadly sprint across the beach to the seawall, which offered some safety at the base of the cliff. Destroyed craft and vehicles covered the water’s edge and beach, and at 0830 hours all landing stoped at Omaha. The troops on the beach were left on their own and realized that the exits were not the way off. Slowly, and in small groups, they scaled the cliffs. Meanwhile, navy destroyers steamed scraping their bottoms in the shallow water, they blasted the German fortifications at point-blank range. By 1200 hours German fire was noticeably decreased as the defensive positions were taken from the rear. Then one by one the exits were opened.

By nightfall the 1st and 29th divisions held positions around Vierville, Saint-Laurent, and Colleville (nowhere near the planned objectives.) The Americans suffered 2,400 casualties at Omaha on June 6, but by the end of the day they had landed 34,000 troops. The German 352nd Division lost 20 percent of its strength, with 1,200 casualties, but it had no reserves coming to continue the fight.