D-DAY:The Allied Invasion of Europe.


On June 6th 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy and opened up for
Germany the war she had always feared - the two-front war.With the
Red Army closing in from the east, the Germans could not afford
the material strain an aditional battle in the West would pose them.
For two years, the British and Americans had been building up a
huge invasion force inside the United Kingdom and on the 6th
June - D day by the Allied planning schedule, OPERATION OVERLORD,
the invasion of Hitler`s `Fortress Europe` had begun!

The Assault from the Sea
While the Germans watched and waited for dawn, the immense Allied
invasion fleet was traversing the Channel and naval parties were 
organizing the landing waves, all in response to the complex
but carefully devised OVERLORD plans. There were five shipping
convoys, one per Normandy invasion beach, and they set out along
five parallel lane swhich had been mineswept. Antisubmarine and
anti-surface ships patrols guarded the flanks, while overhead there
were barrage balloons and swarms of night-fighters.

As the convoys neared the coast, each split into two portions 
with ships capable of maintaining a fast pace in one lane and slow
ones in another. By 5:30am, before the ships were even seen from the
shore, the first wave of invaders had already traversed much of the
ship-to-shore distance.
While the British were able to lower their landing craft only seven 
miles from shore, due to the anticipated fire from enemy guns, the
Americans lowered some 11 miles out. This 11-mile distance meant a
three hour ride in alanding craft on choppy seas had to be endured.
Weather conditions prevailing at H-Hour -6:30am on US beaches and
7.30am on the British beaches were a little better than expected
but far from ideal. Allied bombers attacked the beaches before the
infantry waded assure amnd many mines were exploded and at 5.30am,
a huge naval barrage from the offshore armada raked the shore.

At 5.35am German coastal guns in Normandy opened up in reply with
a largely ineffective barrage.The German Luftwaffe was hardly in
evidence. The five invasion beaches were named - Utah and Omaha
for the Americans and Gold,Juno and Sword for the British and
Commonwealth troops (Australians,Canadians and New Zealanders).

The Americans who landed on Utah beach faced great difficulties as
the Germans had 110 guns facing the first battalions ashore.But by
10.00am, the Americans had six infantry battalions ashore on Utah.
Thanks in part to the early actions taken by the airborne divisions
dropped the night before behind German lines, the leading assault 
elements worked their way up the beaches encountering only light
artillery fire.Within an hour they had cleared the beach obstacles,
eliminated a few German field works and begun to move inland supported
by tanks.

At Omaha however the US landing troops ran into very firm opposition
from eight battalions pf the well-trained German 352nd Infantry division.
Many landing craft were swept eastwards of their target positions.
When the landing craft were about 400 yards out, the Germans opened up
with a huge volume of concentrated fire.men from sunken landing craft,
covered by ship to shore fire did their best to reach the shore.Some
made it.Rather than face the machine gun fire when the ramp was dropped,
a number of troops went over the side.Hundreds died on the surf or on
the wide expanse of sand before they could reach the scant cover of the 
shingle or sea wall.Meanewhile a company of US rangers attacked the 
german guns west of Omaha beach and knocked them out.
By the time the Rangers had reached the shore at Pionte du Hoc,the
second wave was landing at Omaha beach. Due to the failure to clear the
beach, men and material from this and the succeding waves piled up.Troops
took cover everywhere, even behind the bodies of their dead comrades.
Officers urged the US troops forward and eventually they moved out and
up to the German positions and were supported now by more naval gunfire
which picked out German strongpoints.By 1.30pm the troops had reached
the bluffs above the beach.

GOLD,JUNO and SWORD BEACHES.
Gold.
The Anglo-Canadian beaches provided a more balanced picture than either
Utah or Omaha. On Gold,the farthest west of them, the 50th Division
faced enfilading fire from German strongpoints at le Hamel and La Riviere.
They did not falter as the Americans did at Omaha.The British got their
tanks ashore and went forward.The 5th Battalion of the East Yorkshire
Regiment captured La Riviere. Le Hammel was a different matter.The self-
propelled artillery firing from landing craft had drifted off target.
Th0ose guns assigned to le Hammel in fact bombarded points further east.
So the 1st Battalion of the Hampshire regt. were attacking without
artillery support and they suffered for it. One company,A, took heavy
causualties crossing the beach and was reduced to platoon strength.
Good fortune however suddenly came to the aid of the 1st Hampshires.
An AVRE in company with some DD Shermans of the Sherwood Rangers
Yeomanry advanced on Le hamel from the east.Le Hamel was cleared
and the 1st pushed on to take Arromanches.
All of 50th Division was ashore by 1pm and throughout the afternoon British
troops were pushing inland.About 4pm, 69 Brigade made contact with a strong 
force of Germans near Bazenville.After a stiff fight, the Germans were
driven across the river Seulles.
As on Utah, the advance inland was slowed by the congestion of
traffic on the beach but by nightfall, 50th Division was just short of 
its D-day objective - the town of Bayeux.

Juno Beach.
The 7 Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division hit the beaches of Juno at
about 7.50am and its neighbour, the 8 Brigade, ten minutes later.
The two brigades had divieded the objectives found on Juno. 7 Brigade
struck at the viillage of Courseulles, while 8 landed opposite a 
strongpoint in the village of Bernieres.
Of all the landings, the Canadians at Juno got closest to their planned
objectives. once the strong points had been eliminated, the Canadians 
moved rapidly inland. 

Sword Beach.
On Sword beach, the British 3rd Infantry Division landed on the 
narrowest front of all the invasion beaches in an attempt to provide
a suffieciently concentrated force to punch through the German 
defences at Caen. The British troops were fortunate that the beach
was narrow as they could get across the short distance to cover. The
germans occupied well fortified positions in a string of pill-boxes.
At La Breche, the fight took 3 hours and cost heavy British
casualties.The East Yorkshiresattacked Ouistreham and the 1st South
Lancashires in the direction of Periers Ridge where they were forced
back.
The 1st Special service Brigade landed at mid-morning,and moved
inland very quickly to relieve the airborne troops holding the Orne
bridges.
The capture of Caen was the mission of 185 Brigade,This was ashore
and formed up by 11am,but traffic jams kept them from advancing
until 12.30pm.them,the 2nd Kings Shropshire Light Infantry went
forward even though their tank support had not turned up.They had
cleared most of Periers Ridge by 2pm and began moving down the road
from hermanville to Caen.
From mid-morning 3rd Division's HQ had received reports of tanks 
assembling to the North and west of Caen.The German response to the 
landing had been delayed by the loacl corps commande who had hoped
to get the 12th SS Panzer Division for a counterattack at well
as the 21st panzer.The german High Command refused to release 12SS
and the 21st Panzer had to be redeployed - as a result it's attack
did not go in until 4.30pm. The German Panzers were beaten back by
Allied anti-tank guns.When gliders passed overhead in the direction
of a landing zone near Ranville, the German armour retreated.


SUMMARY
At nightfall, the commanders of the Allied Expeditionary Forces
could feel relieved. all the 30 landings had succeded in establishing
bridgeheads. At Utah,Gold and Juno, they were deep.
Omaha was the shallowest and weakest whilst Sword faced strong
armoured opposition.The battle to open a second front was far from
over,though.Strong German counterattacks could still destroy the
sperated Allied forces and drive them into the Channel.But the hardest
part of the assault had been accomplished - the Allies had fought
there way ashore......