D-Day

The Great, the Wondrous, the D-Day Offensive

World War II is the costliest battle in the history of the world. It affected every country that existed and brought some more into establishment. It was Axis, (strongly made up of: Germany, Japan, and Italy) versus Allies (strongly made up of: United States of America, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the United Kingdom, and China). For a while it looked as if the Axis were headed towards victory, then the Japanese carried out Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 which made the U.S. fully enter the war and change the tide. By this time the Germans had spread through much of Europe was stomping over anyone that got in their way. The Allied effort was focused on Western Europe and North Africa with the exception of the USSR. The U.S. had helped relieve some pressure in Europe, but the USSR was hoping that the U.S. would relieve some of their German pressure. Thus, military advisors met to plan a crossing of the English Channel to stomp on the Germans, and the concept of D-Day was born. D-Day was then executed on 6 June 1944, one day after originally planned and became one of the most gruesome, important offensives of all time (“D-Day Timeline”).

D-day was planned for 5 June 1944; however inclement weather delayed it 24 hours. So, on 6 June 1944 the operation began with the birds claiming their territory. In these air battles U.S. and British paratroopers were dropped to mark out landing zones and routes for the ground troops. They also deployed to the flanks of the Germans to occupy areas of travel that the Germans could use to reinforce. However, the planes themselves were out also to clear the skies for bomber aircraft, “At 03:00 hours Allied bombers launched massive raids against German defensive positions in Normandy. The complete air superiority of the Allies meant that the bombers were almost entirely unchallenged as they chose their targets.” (“D-Day Timeline”). The air superiority let the bombers come in do their work. The beaches were codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The air units were just primers for the rest of the offensive.

The invasion on the ground began on the beaches of Normandy. It began at 06:30 hours with 6,000 landing vessels and 15 cruisers and battleships laying down a bombardment on the defenses two airborne divisions. The U.S. forces assaulted the beaches of Omaha and Utah with three infantry divisions and two airborne divisions (the 1st, 4th, and 29th Infantry Divisions, and the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division) an hour before the British and Canadians. Gold and Sword were the beaches that the British assaulted with their two infantry divisions and one airborne division (Infantry Division: 3rd and 50th, Airborne Division: 6th). The final beach was Juno and it was left to the Canadian’s 3rd Infantry Division (“D-Day”). At first things seemed all wrong because the US ships head for Utah were forced off course because of the tide and weather was still causes some problems. This turned out though to be to their advantage because by luck it moved them to a less fortified area. "At Sword, Gold, and Utah, enemy resistance was relatively light, and the Allied forces had considerable success; on Utah Beach, for example, U.S. soldiers moved rapidly up roadways." (“D-Day” Invasion). These beaches might have had little resistance but the beaches of Juno and Omaha were different stories all together.

The assaults on Juno and Omaha were deadly and difficult. At Juno it was difficult for the landing vessels to get on the shore. “The invading Canadians faced a beach littered with partially submerged obstacles. Landing craft were forced to feel their way in." (“D-Day” Invasion). Once ashore, they found out that the Germans had heavily mined the area, this lead to high casualties. "In the first hour of the invasion at Juno, 50 percent of the Canadian assault team members became casualties." (D-Day Invasion). After that hour though things got better a Juno and they made success forward. The landing at Omaha was an assault with high casualties for the U.S. "All but two of the amphibious tanks sank in the heavy seas, and German resistance was unexpectedly fierce." (D-Day Timeline). The beach was just as bad for the U.S. because it was well fortified and heavily mined The U.S. forces waves of infantry were pinned on the beach by machine gun fire. "Their (Germans) weapons were fixed to cover the beach with spraying fire from three directions. Omaha was designed to be a killing zone." (“D-Day” Invasion). The U.S. forces were trapped for hours on the beach but did finally get the upper hand when small groups made their way up the bluffs and attacked the enemy's rear. The landing finally let up but it wasn’t without cost. "The losses totaled more than 3,000 men, fifteen times more than on Utah Beach." (Omaha Beach). These opening assaults were just the beginning of the D-Day invasion.

Around noon was when British, Canadian, and limited American forces were starting to advance towards their main objectives for the offensive. Around noon, though, Omaha beach was only partially taken by U.S.