WWII Notes 11 World Wars – Hamer May 3, 2011

7: :30

 The Invasion of Normandy was put under the command of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) which was led by General Dwight. D. Eisenhower Ike speaking to the 101st Airborne on June 5, 1944

 England originally wanted to just enter the European Front through Italy  America believed that a cross channel invasion from England to France would be the shortest route to Germany was the only way to go in the long run.  Soviet Union pressed for a Western Front even after the Allied invasion of Italy

 The best choices of landing sites on the continent were: the Pas de Calais and Normandy.  Because the Pas de Calais is the shortest distance from England, closer to Germany, and has the most accessible beaches, it was the most heavily fortified by Germany.  Therefore, the Allies chose Normandy for their invasion. Normandy Pas de Calais

 The Allies had to ensure that the beaches at Normandy would support the weight of troops and tanks.  Beginning on New Years’ Eve 1943, 5 British soldiers set off in a midget submarine to collect samples from what would become Sword Beach.  These samples along with others collected from the rest of the beaches convinced the Allies that the beaches would be supportive enough.

 Exercise Tiger April and May 1944:  American Forces practiced landing for the invasion of Utah beach over 8 days in Southern England.

 Over 700 American servicemen died when the Landing Crafts were surprisingly attacked by German torpedo boats during Operation Tiger. The Americans were practicing on this beach because it was made of the same material as Utah beach (gravel) When Hitler found out that the Allies were practicing an amphibious landing at this particular beach in England, he realized that it had the same makeup as Normandy.

 The final plan had five groups by sea and three by air (more air groups were requested, but there were only enough carrier planes for three)  In total, 47 divisions would be committed to the Battle of Normandy: 19 British, five Canadian and one Polish divisions under overall British command, and 21 American divisions with one Free French division, totaling 140,000 troops landing on the beaches.

 About 6900 ships would be involved.  A total of 12,000 aircraft would support the landings including 1000 transport planes to carry the parachute divisions

24:30 – 28:20

 During the war, the British operated a system known as Double Cross.  Through Double Cross, the British turned German spies and used them as double agents.  Initially Double Cross was used to determine what the Germans were looking for, but later it was used to pass along misinformation, such as before the landing at Normandy. XX Double Cross was run by the Twenty Committee

 In order to persuade the Germans that the main invasion would really be coming to the Pas de Calais, as well as to lead them to expect an invasion of Norway, the Allies prepared a massive deception plan, called Operation Fortitude.  The point of this was to convince Germany that the Allies has many more troops than they actually did

 An entirely fictitious First U.S. Army Group (“FUSAG”), supposedly located in southeastern England, was created in German minds by the use of double agents and fake radio traffic “confirming” the existence and location of FUSAG and the Pas de Calais as the likely main attack point.

 General Patton was placed in command of FUSAG.  This placement of such a famous general strengthened Germany’s belief in the existence of FUSAG. General George Patton “Old Blood and Guts”

Inflatable tank Dummy landing craft German aerial view Dummy tanks, trucks, and landing craft, as well as troop camp facades (constructed from scaffolding and canvas) were placed in ports on the southeastern coasts of Britain to look like the army.

 Operation Skye was mounted from Scotland using radio traffic designed to convince Germany that an invasion would also be mounted into Norway.  Two dozen aging British officers were sent to Northern Scotland where they carried on constant radio conversations for their fake armies.

 The last part of the deception occurred on the night before the invasion: a small group of SAS operators deployed dummy paratroopers (scarecrows with parachutes) over Le Havre and Isigny.  These dummies led the Germans to believe that an additional airborne assault had occurred; this tied up reinforcing troops and kept the true situation unclear.

 The main benefit of all of these deceptive measures was that they convinced the Germans that the Allies had 3 times as many troops and landing gear than they actually did.

 Therefore the Germans believed that a fake attack (a feint) would come before the real attack When the D-Day attack came Germany thought the Normandy invasion was just a diversion to pull their divisions away from Calais.  This worked so well that the Germans kept 18 reserve divisions near Calais even after the invasion of Normandy began as well as keeping some in Norway.

 A complete Mulberry harbor was constructed out of 600,000 tons of concrete between 33 jetties, and had 10 miles (15 km) of floating roadways to land men and vehicles on the beach. By June 9, just 3 days after D-Day, two harbors that were built in England and floated across the Channel, codenamed Mulberry 'A' and 'B', were constructed at Omaha Beach and Arromanches, respectively.

 A large storm on June 19 destroyed the American harbor at Omaha, leaving only the British harbor which came to be known as Port Winston.  In the 100 days after D- Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies providing much needed reinforcements in France. Omaha Harbor after the storm of June 19, 1944

 Operation Pluto built oil pipelines from England to the French coast to transport much needed fuel in a faster and safer way to the continent.  By VE Day, over 781 million liters of oil had been pumped to the continent.

 Higgins Boat – LCVP: Boat with a wide ramp on the front and a shallow draw allowed the Allies to land their troops at Normandy.  Troops climbed down rope nets from their ships onto the Higgins Boats to go to shore. They could also carry small vehicles. LCVP at Omaha Beach

 "Andrew Higgins... is the man who won the war for us.... If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different." — General Dwight Eisenhower

 Many other landing craft were also used to land people and equipment  The LST - Landing Ship Tank – could carry tanks for an amphibious landing – used at Sicily and Normandy Canadian LST at Sicily, 1943

 Hobart’s Funnies were specially designed British tanks used to accomplish specific tasks: Churchill AVRE with bobbin – had a 10 foot wide canvas cloth that was reinforced with steel poles to roll in front of it and make roads so itself and following vehicles would not sink into the soft sand on the beaches

 ARK – armored ramp carrier – Would lay down ramps for other tanks to climb over obstacles  Armored bulldozer – used to clear obstacles on the D-Day beaches

 Crab- Modified Sherman Tank with a mine flail (rotating chains) in front to clear land mines  AVRE with fascine – carried a large bundle of sticks and pipes to throw into a ditch to use as steps for following tanks.

 The DD had a flotation device that went around them and could be deflated at shore. This allowed tanks to land at Normandy without using landing crafts for them, they were deployed 2 miles from the beach and swam to shore.  Worked fairly well except at Omaha where 27 of the 29 were lost in high swells  DD Tanks – Duplex Drive medium tanks (Shermans) that used propellers in the water and treads on land.

28:20 – end

 In preparation for the anticipated Allied re- invasion of Europe, Hitler ordered the construction of fortifications around Germany’s occupied areas in March These fortifications were known as the Atlantic Wall  Rommel was put in charge of improving the Atlantic Wall in early 1944

 The original landing was planned for June 5 th Both a spring tide and full moon were needed to make the landings successful Bad weather on the 4 th required the troops to wait a day in their ships until the new D- day of June 6, 1944 Convoy of large LCI in the English Channel

 The first phase of D-Day was an air assault landing of 24,000 American, British, Canadian and Free French airborne troops shortly after midnight on D-Day British 6 th airborne division was supposed to take control of bridges east of the landing to prevent German reinforcements – they were successful

 The 13,000 troops of the American 82 nd and 101 st airborne divisions were dropped in a widely scattered pattern so 45% of units were unable to gather  Even with this chaos, the Germans were unable to successfully break through to the beaches from the West.  The main goal of this attack was to capture Cherbourg – it was not taken until June 30, 1944

 Bombers and Destroyers were supposed to bomb and shell the German seawall in preparation for the landing  Sadly many of these overshot their targets, especially at the American beaches

Higgins Landing Crafts German Prisoners Normandy Landing (June 6, 1944 ) Normandy Landing (June 6, 1944 )

 One of the American beaches, Omaha, turned out to be some of the most deadly landing sites Ineffective pre-landing shelling STEEP cliffs Sinking tanks  Juno – The Canadian beach suffered the second highest casualty rate, but they were off the beach within a few hours

 Utah – the second American beach had the lightest casualties and had landed at the wrong place  Pointe du Hoc – 2 nd Army Ranger Battalion: goal was to take out large artillery positioned there – successful but with a 50% casualty rate

Note that while the size of the pre- invasion bombs were huge – they most often missed their targets

Top: Emplacement for the guns of Pointe du Hoc Right: Cliffs the Army Rangers had to scale

 175,000 Total Allied troops would land on D-Day US Army Normandy Clip – 8min

German counter-attack to initial invasion were delayed because of internal arguments among the German high- command. The Fuhrer system required that all major decisions had to go through Hitler Fortitude South had been so successful in deceiving the German’s that they were convinced the main invasion of France was still to come from the Pas-De-Calais.

10,000 Allied casualties with 4,500 Allied and American troops dead 4,000-9,000 German casualties

Invasion of Normandy was the decisive Allied victory that turned the tide of World War II. Success of the invasion was necessary for the Allies to launch an attack to liberate France. Allies moved permanently to the offensive as the armies marched through Europe to liberate the other conquered nations.

De Gaulle in Triumph! T he Liberation of Paris: August 25, 1944 The Liberation of Paris: August 25, 1944 BBC Overlord Map

U. S. Troops in Paris, 1944 U. S. Troops in Paris, 1944 History Channel Overlord Clip 3min