TRUCKS FULLY LOADED with men and supplies leaving a Rhino ferry and being helped ashore by a bulldozer (top). A ¾-ton weapons carrier rolling through the surf toward the beach under its own power (bottom). All the vehicles which made these landings through the surf had been waterproofed before leaving England. Since they were able to travel only a short distance on land under their own power when waterproofed, the waterproofing material was removed soon after the vehicles landed.
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TRUCKS AND AMPHIBIAN TRUCKS (each is a 2½-ton truck) on a beach in Normandy. In spite of the damage caused by the storm, by 26 June Omaha Beach was discharging 122 percent of its planned cargo capacity. By this time 268,718 men, 40,191 vehicles, and 125,812 tons of cargo had been discharged over Omaha Beach alone. By 1 July the Allied commanders were not as much worried about a German counterattack that would threaten the beachhead as about the possibility that the enemy might bring in sufficient reserves to create a stalemate in Normandy. More room was needed by the Allies to bring in men and supplies to support a sustained drive toward the Seine.
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UNIT ADVANCING TOWARD CHERBOURG stops to inspect a German multipurpose gun (8.8-cm. Flak). When the enemy retreated from the vicinity of Montebourg he destroyed the gun by splaying the barrel. This multipurpose weapon emerged as the most publicized artillery piece of the German Army during the North African campaign. It was primarily an antiaircraft gun adaptable to antitank and general artillery use. In its role as an antitank gun it was fitted with a shield. In its mobile form it was towed on four wheels, usually with an 8-ton half-tracked tractor.
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