D Day “Operation Overlord”

Casablanca Conference FDR and Winston Churchill met and decided they would only accept unconditional surrender from the Germans. They also agreed to delay plans for the Allied invasion across the English Channel until 1944.

Tehran Conference Churchill, FDR, and Stalin meet for the first time to discuss plans for an Allied invasion, “Operation Overlord.” Russia agrees to enter the war against Japan once Germany is defeated.

370 th Infantry Regiment in Prado, Italy

Operation Overlord “D-Day” The Allies under Gen. Eisenhower had been planning an invasion of France for a year. The Germans had built the Atlantic Wall, a system of fortifications along the French Coast. The Germans thought the invasion would be at Calais, where the channel was narrowest, but it was really planned for Normandy.

D Day st and 82 nd Airborne were parachuted inland behind enemy lines and ordered to do as much damage to the coastal defenses as they could before the D-Day landing on the beaches.

Although most of the paratroopers missed their mark it worked to their advantage. The Germans were confused by the widespread reports of landings and suspected a larger invasion force. This delayed their reaction to the invasion.

The French Resistance worked to sabotage the Germans behind their own lines. They received coded messages over the radio to alert them that the invasion was underway. They then proceeded to attack rail lines, phone and electric lines, roads, etc…

The planned invasion needed a full moon to light their way. June 5 th was the planned launch date but bad weather delayed it until June 6 th. Even then, it was overcast which limited the air bombardment and the seas were rough.

General Eisenhower speaks to paratroopers June 5th

June 6, 1944, 6000 ships prepared to land on 5 beaches on the coast of France. 150,000 troops landed followed by another 2 million over the next few weeks.

At Utah Beach, American forces landed. Very quickly, the beach was captured. At the end of the day 1,700 vehicles and nearly American soldiers had landed. They lost 197 killed and 60 disappeared.

On Omaha Beach, they faced a much tougher task. Bad weather and heavy bombardment from the Germans hampered their landing. Once on shore they had to scale the cliffs to attack the gun emplacements of the Germans.

Pointe du Hoc was located on the coast to the west of the Omaha beach landings and was the position of six 155mm cannons with a range of 25,000 yards. The rangers were eventually successful in taking the guns at Point du Hoc after scaling the cliffs but they lost about 60% of their men in the process.

Omaha Beach D Day +1

British forces landed at Gold and Sword Beaches, Canadian forces at Juno Beach.

US Army DUKW (“Duck”) amphibious vehicle at the Utah Beach Museum

These simultaneous landings were meant to take the Germans by surprise and disable the Atlantic Wall to enable more troops to follow the initial invasion into France. The Allies would push the Germans back and eventually invade Germany.