MEN AND EQUIPMENT BEING LOADED INTO LST’S (top) and LCVP’s (bottom) during the first days of June 1944 at one of the “hards” (paved strips running to the water’s edge) in southern England for the invasion of Normandy. The training given the assault forces during the amphibious exercises was so thorough that the final loadings for the invasion were accomplished with a minimum of delay and confusion and resembled another exercise more than the real thing. Two and one-half years after the first U. S. troops sailed for the United Kingdom, the training and preparation was completed and the large invasion force of U. S. and Allied troops was to receive its real test in battle against the enemy.
NORMANDY CAMPAIGN
NORMANDY
The American and British Invasion Beaches and the Allied Advance during the Normandy Campaign 6 June 1944 to 24 July 1944
SECTION II
Normandy Campaign
On 6 June 1944 the Allied military forces invaded northern France. After long study of the German strength, including coastal defenses and the disposition of enemy troops, the Allied commanders selected the beaches along the Bay of the Seine for the assault landings. The two beaches to be used by troops of the First U. S. Army were given the names of Utah and Omaha. Those on which the British and Canadians of the British Second Army were to land were named Gold, Sword, and Juno. The assault began at 0200 on 6 June when airborne troops were dropped behind the beaches with the mission of securing exits from the beaches. Planes of the Allied air force bombed the coastal defenses and shortly after sunrise the Navy began shelling the beach defenses. At 0630 the first troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. The sea was rough and the assault forces met varying degrees of enemy opposition, but the beachheads were secured and the assault and follow-up troops moved on to accomplish their missions. The U. S. forces landing on Utah Beach moved northwest to clear the northern portion of the Cotentin Peninsula and capture the port of Cherbourg. Those landing on Omaha Beach advanced southward toward Saint-Lô. The troops of the British Second Army were to advance in a southeast direction from Caen.
The enormous build-up of men and material began immediately after the assault. This operation was made most difficult because of the lack of port facilities, but before the invasion plans had been made for the construction of artificial harbors. The plans were quickly put into effect and the harbors were almost completed when a summer gale struck the Channel coast destroying most of the construction work. By using amphibian trucks and Rhino ferries, and by drying out LST’s, the build-up over open beaches progressed much faster than was anticipated and men and supplies were poured into France in ever increasing numbers.
While the beachheads were expanded and the build-up continued, the infantry and armored units fought their way through the hedgerow country toward their objectives. The fighting was slow and costly as enemy opposition stiffened in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Allied advance. With the capture of Cherbourg and Saint-Lô the initial missions of the U. S. forces were completed and the forces were then assembled in preparation for the drives south and west from the beachhead toward Avranches and the Brittany Peninsula. The British forces were to push southward from Caen exploiting in the direction of Paris and the Seine Basin. These attacks were scheduled to begin on 19 July 1944 but because of bad weather the supporting aerial assault was delayed and the breakout of Normandy did not get under way until 25 July.