destroy it later on. Other groups involved included the British 8th, 151st and
56th regiments who aided in the push inland and the clearing of the beaches of
mines and obstacles.
Although a lot of the operations planned for Gold Beach went array, a few great
things did occur. A few of which, carried out by CSM Stanley Hollis, were so
extraordinary that they enabled him to be awarded with the only Victoria Cross
to be awarded the entire day of June 6, 1944. Col. Hollis of the 6th company
was ordered to check out some pillboxes(small German machine-gun bunkers). A
few of his officers were sent in to investigate and ?when they were twenty yards
from the pillbox, a machine gun opened fire from the slit and CSM Hollis
instantly rushed straight at the pillbox, recharged his magazine, threw a
grenade in through the door and fired his Sten gun into it, killing two Germans
and making the remainder prisoner. He then cleared several Germans from a
neighbouring trench.? Then when his company was pinned down by heavy machine-
gun fire Hollis managed to destroy the gun using a PIAT (Projector Infantry
Anti-Tank) weapon and retreated his troops. After learning that some of his men
were still cornered in a nearby house Hollis ran at the Germans with his gun
firing allowing the men to escape. By the end of the day most of the D-day
objectives had failed but three brigades were ready to push farther inland at
sunlight. The beach was secured and ready for reinforcements. Unfortunately
Bayeux was not taken but most of the area’s hidden bunkers and trenches were.
Some in fact were found to be manned by unwilling Asiatic conscripts from the
southern Soviet republics who were put there by Germans.
Juno Beach
Juno beach was Canada’s beach with over 21,000 Canadians landing there. Not
unlike other beaches Juno’s H-hour was delayed until 07:45. The reason was that
air reconnaissance had spotted some underwater ?shoals? (rocks/reefs) and they
wanted to wait until the tide had gone in to make it safer for the landing craft.
(Later on the ?shoals? turned out to be masses of floating seaweed). The beach
itself was wide enough to land two brigades side by side, the Canadian 7th at
Courseulles and the 8th at Bernieres. The decision to wait until 07:45 caused
more problems than it solved. The rising tide hid most of the beach obstacles
meaning two things: it was dangerous for the landing craft to come ashore and
the demolition crews couldn’t get at the obstacles to make room for the landing
craft. Thirty percent of all the landing craft at Juno beach on D-day were
disabled in beach obstacle related incidents. One such example was when one
craft started to disembark troops a wave threw the craft onto a mined beach
obstacle.
Like at most of the beaches that day, armoured divisions started to bring their
tanks in on the landing craft but like on all the other beaches this caused
problems. The Regina Rifles, one of the first groups to land, had to wait
twenty minutes on the beach without the aid of any tanks or heavy artillery.
Due to heavy seas and tanks coming in on the landing craft it ?meant that people
who should have been in front were behind.? The Canadians were smarter than
most in the setup of their landing. They chose a position at sea which was only
seven or eight miles out instead of the distance most other beach operations
were using of about eleven miles. This greatly increased the speed and accuracy
of the landings and the first Canadian wave was on the beach by 08:15.
Once on the beach the amount of German defences surprised the allied forces,
once again the air assault on the German gunneries were not as successful as
planned. However, like at Gold beach the Canadians did find out that the
firepower of their tanks were the difference between being able to push inland
and being pinned down at the beach. After the main beach defences of the
Germans were taken the inland push became slower and slower the farther south
they got.
A few of the main objectives were successful. The 3rd division reach the Caen-
Bayeux road and a lot of French towns were liberated. The French residents ?
were very welcoming and greeted us heartily in the midst of the ruins of their
homes.? The one strongpoint that would become a problem for troops at Juno as
well as Sword would be Caen. The Canadians found increased resistance the
closer they got and in that aspect their D-day mission did not succeed.
As night fell the Canadians were still well short of a lot of objectives. They
did get their tanks on the Caen-Bayeux road but that was about it. The British
3rd division from Sword beach was planned to meet up with the Canadians in order
to close the gap between Juno and Sword beaches but they never showed. This
left a two mile gap in the beaches and would be the area of the only German
counterattack of the day. The other linkup between beaches was successful as
Canadians met the 50th division from Gold beach. Overall the Canadians didn’t
get all that far but were in a good position to move inland.
Sword Beach
Sword beach was the easternmost beach in Normandy. Like at Juno Beach H-hour
was again postponed because of ?shoals? until 07:25. The main objective at
Sword beach was to advance and invade the German strongpoint of Caen. Four
whole brigades of the 3rd division were sent to Caen. There were also airborne
divisions that dropped behind lines using large gliders which could carry troops
as well as other armoured vehicles. Those groups not supposed to head toward
Caen were planned to reach the airborne divisions and secure the area’s bridges
from counterattack.
Even as the Canadians moved inland trouble was developing back at the beach.
Although all the DD tanks made it to the beach the tide was turning the already
small beach into one with only ten yards from the seafront to the water’s edge.
With only one road off the beach the overcrowding caused delay’s in most
objective’s for that day. Some of the armoured divisions like the 27th armoured
Brigade abandoned their objectives in order to bail out infantry pinned down on
the crowded beaches.
Those who did make it off the beach in time were quite successful in reaching
their D-day objectives. By late afternoon the leading troops of the brigades
heading for Caen had reached and liberated the towns of Beuville and Bieville
which were only two or so miles short of Caen. Strongpoints like the one at La
Breche were taken as early as 10:00. Those troops that didn’t make it off the
beach in time like the 185th Brigade had to leave all their heavy equipment
behind in order to catch up with the forces already nearing Caen.
The move inland was really looking quite promising until the Germans launched
the only counterattack of the day. The 21st Panzer division was sent out from
Caen, half to take on the southward allies and the other half to head right up
between Juno and Sword beach where that two mile of beach was unoccupied by
allied forces. Fifty German tanks faced the brigades heading for Caen. Luckily
the British were ready with artillery, fighter-bombers and a special ?Firefly?
Sherman tank that was fitted with a seventeen pound anti-tank gun instead of the
normal seventy-five mm. gun. Soon thirteen of the German tanks were destroyed
with only one M-10 tank destroyer damaged. This just went to show that the
British were ?slow in advance but almost unbreakable in defence.? Still the
Germans pressed forward until about 21:00 when the last wave of gliders of the
6th airborne divisions came in. The Germans looked up and saw about two hundred
and fifty gliders fly in and land behind them. The allies now were attacking
from two directions and the only German counterattack ended quickly.
By the end of the day the German resistance at Sword beach was almost
obliterated other than at Caen. A lot of the success was because of the joint
effort of airborne divisions and divisions landing on the beach. Of the 6,250
troops of the 6th airborne that landed there were only 650 casualties.
Unfortunately Caen was not taken but it’s liberation was imminent.
D-Day Air Battle
D-day was not only a day of troops landing on the beaches of Normandy and moving
inland liberating France. Without the aid of the thousands of planes Operation
Overlord could not have gone as planned. As early as the spring of 1944 planes
flew over German ruled France taking photographs of the defences. During the
ten week period before June 6 countless missions were flown with objectives of
taking out German radar installations. There were also hundreds of attacks on
the railways of the area in order to immobilize the forces. Of the 2,000
locomotives that were in the area the year before 1,500 of them were destroyed
or disabled by allied bombings.
By the eve of D-day the allies had 2,800 heavy bombers, 1,500 light bombers and
3,700 fighter planes and fighter-bombers. They also had 56 special night
bombers. When June 6, 1944 came around all the squadrons of planes involved
had their missions just as the landing infantry divisions had their’s. It took
six squadrons of RAF Mosquitoes to patrol the huge armada of ships in the
English Channel that day. Without whom there would have some serious
repercussions on the entire operation. At all times there twenty anti-submarine
planes patrolling the area and protecting the force who would have been sitting
ducks for any German U-boats that would have gotten into the area. To aid the
actual landings of the troops squadrons flew bombing missions on German
pillboxes and other gunnery installations. Flying at three hundred miles per
hour straight in at German machine gun fire in order to clear the way for others
to take the glory is what I call guts. In order to clear the three British
beaches eighteen squadrons flew missions over a nearly continuous eight hour
time period. When bombers weren’t destroying installations they were setting up
smoke screens around the land based naval guns in order to once again protect
the allied armada.
Probably one of the most important things done by the fighters was to fly ?
phantom missions? in order to make the Germans think that the invasion would by
at Pas de Calais. Without the use of air firepower as used on D-day I can say
without a doubt that June 6, 1944 would be remembered as a day of complete
disaster.
Conclusion
By the end of June 6, 1944 one of the most complicated and the most coordinated
invasions had started. On the beach codenamed Utah the American 1st army held a
firm beachhead with several divisions already receiving the supplies they needed
and would soon be ready to move inland. On Omaha the troops there had recovered
from what had looked like an impending disaster in the first hours and started
to break through the German defences. At the British run beaches of Juno, Gold
and Sword the forces had averaged a push inland of six miles. Even with the
amount of landing soldiers numbering about seventy-five thousand, the casualties
between the three beaches were only approximately three thousand.
D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Germans in Europe and the end of the
beginning for the fight for Europe. I’m not saying that everything went
according to plan on D-day and there wasn’t any errors. I am also not saying
that it was a complete disaster. I am saying that D-Day was on paper, with
objectives for each division and a craft for each infantry unit, the greatest
battle of all time.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction pg. 1
II. Preperation for D-Day pg. 2
III. Beachfronts
A. Utah Beach pg. 4,5
B. Omaha Beach pg. 7,8
C. Gold Beach pg. 10, 11
D. Juno Beach pg. 13
E. Sword Beach pg. 15
IV. D-Day Air Battle pg. 17
V. Conclusion pg. 19
VI. Bibliography pg. 20
Bibliography
D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II Stephen E. Ambrose,
Simon &