D-Day

By Hank Molski

*Font intended for this PowerPoint is “Batik Regular”

General Information

• “D-Day” was the first part of the Allied Invasion of Normandy

• Took place on June 6, 1944• 195,700 Allied naval and merchant

navy personnel were involved on “D-Day”

• It was a two-part invasion: a naval assault and an air assault

The Plans

• Commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied forces decided to invade Normandy, since their only other option, Pas De Calais, was highly secured

Weather

• Many do not realize how important weather was to “D-Day”

• Key decisions by meteorologist, J.M. Stagg, and Eisenhower's Chief of Staff General, Walter Bedell Smith (right) led to a successful invasion

• Because of weather beforehand, the Germans thought it was safe to let their guard down a little bit

Plans of Attack

Importance of the Air

• Naval attackers were extremely vulnerable to attacks at the beaches

• To make sure that they would succeed, the air units would have to be successful in several missions

• The air units also were able to get some of the German forces from the beach to fall back to the airborne attackers

Airborne Missions

• Seize key objectives, such as bridges, road crossings, and terrain features, particularly on the eastern and western flanks of the landing areas

• Ease the egress of the amphibious forces off the beaches

• Neutralize German coastal defense batteries

The Initial Attack

• Just after midnight on June 6th, 23,500 American and British paratroopers landed on the behind German lines

• 1,200 transport planes and 700 gliders were used

An airborne landing with Allied paratroopers landing in France

The work of an Allied force that came in via air

Amphibious Landings

• The amphibious landings are the best known parts of the D-Day invasion

• The Allies invaded five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Omaha was the toughest of them all. Two American divisions were sent to Omaha, giving it the highest number of casualties out of all five,about 2,400 casualties at Omaha on June 6.

Naval Details

• The Invasion Fleet came from eight different navies

• 6,939 vessels• 1,213 warships• 4,126 transport vessels• 736 ancillary craft• 864 merchant vessels

Omaha Beach

• Omaha consisted of 8 concrete bunkers, 35 pillboxes, 4 artillery batteries, 18 anti-tank guns, 35 rocket launching sites, no less than 85 machine gun nests, and countless Germans with small arms.

The Atlantic Wall

• The Atlantic Wall was simply a line of defense that the Germans had built up all along the European border to prevent from an Allied invasion

• On the next slide, there is a very good display of the wall

With the massive influx of attacking ships, this is what the coast of France may have looked like at the time of the attack

War Memorials

• There are several vast cemeteries across the French seaside

• The American cemetery, in Colleville-sur-Mer, contains row upon row of identical white crosses and Stars of David, immaculately kept, commemorating the American dead

La Cambe

• The largest cemetery in Normandy is the La Cambe German war cemetery, which features granite stones almost flush with the ground and groups of low-set crosses

A Bizzare Account

• One of the defending Germans was MG42 gunner Lance Corporal Heinrich Severloh who was in a well emplaced bunker; "Widerstandsnest 62" with good fields of fire. Severloh was instructed to target the US troops while they were still wading towards the beach. He engaged the landing Americans for 9 hours, firing 12,000 rounds before his ammunition ran out and according to some historical analysts, Severloh may have been responsible for up to 3,000 of the casualties taken by the American forces. Severloh was nicknamed the "Beast of Omaha" by US survivors of the landing.

• It is speculated that he was responsible for up to 90% of the American casualties at Omaha Beach

“D-Day”

• The term “D-Day” has long been debated on how it came into existence but one very likely possibility could be like a term used back in World War I. In WWI they would speak of attack dates and hours as the H-Hours or D-Days and this simply could have carried over into World War II.

• Others let it stand for "disembarkation" or "departed."

Pictures

THE END