D-Day: The Invasion at

Normandy Beach

The English Channel
Southern England
1 million Americans transported by Queen Elizabeth and
Queen Mary

American Soldiers had little trouble getting along with
locals
Frequently gave chewing gum/Hershey bars to British children
who were not use to such luxuries

8 villages entirely evacuated by 9/20/43, after which
civilians were barred from re-entry

Area A North of Portsmouth
43 mile parking area for Tanks
17 barbed wired encircled camps

Preparations
Code named Operation Overlord

Enormous invasion force had been gathering in England
for 2 years
3 million soldiers
greatest array of naval vessels/armaments ever assembled in 1
place

Germans expected the invasion to be at the narrowest
part of English Channel

Invasion came along 60 miles of the Cotentin Peninsula
on the coast of Normandy

Preparations
Y-Day June 1
st
Everything had to be ready to go
No corrections could be made
Only waiting for Supreme Commanders word
to go

First Attempt: June 4, 1944
Wind and high seas make conditions poor


Soldiers in mess line in one of the marshaling
camps in southern England
The Morning of the Invasion
Eisenhower visiting with members
of the 101st Airborne before they
parachuted into France on D-Day.
Note the barbed wire in the foreground.
Before the Beach Invasion
Needed to rid the area of Nazi defenses

VERY Early June 6, 1944
Airplanes, battleships bombarded the Nazi
defenses
Paratroopers dropped behind German lines
night before to seize critical roads and bridges
for the push inland

A paratrooper boards an
airplane that will drop him
over the coast of
Normandy for the Allied
Invasion of Europe, D-
Day, June 6, 1944.
Soldiers of the 82nd and
101st Airborne Divisions
parachuted behind enemy
lines during the night,
while fellow Soldiers
assaulted Normandy
beaches at dawn
The Invasion
5 major beaches in
Normandy
Utah and Omaha US
Gold and Sword British
Juno Canadian

5,300 ships and 11,000
planes had crossed the
English Channel and
landed on the beaches of
Normandy

156,000 troops crossed
English Channel

"You have no idea how miserable the Germans
made that beach ... we could see rows upon
rows of jagged obstructions lining the beach
... When our ramp went down and the
soldiers started to charge ashore, the
[Germans] ... let loose with streams of hot
lead which pinged all around us. Why they
didn't kill everyone in our boat, I will never
know.

-A Coast Guard coxswain describes his first
trip to Omaha Beach.
After Securing Normandy
Allied losses had been high:
U.S. AIRBORNE - 2,499
U.S. / UTAH - 197
U.S. / OMAHA - 2,000
U.K. / GOLD - 413
CAN. / JUNO - 1,204
U.K. / SWORD - 630
U.K. AIRBORNE - 1,500
TOTAL -9,000 casualties, approx. 3,000 fatalities

Fighting fierce, but superior manpower and equipment
forced German troops off coast of Normandy in a week

Allied forces went on to liberate Paris August 25, 1944

Force most of German troops out of Belgium and France
by September