June 6, 1944

 

Operation Overlord – the second battle on the western front to liberate Europe.

Omaha Beach landing, June 6, 1944

It was and remains the largest amphibious assault in the history of warfare.  The Allied invasion of Normandy began today, 63 years ago.  Over the next three months almost 3 million men would cross the English Channel and fight the Nazis for a foothold that, if successful, would break Germany’s hold on Europe.

 

Allied invasion force and German positions

Success was by no means assured.  Even Hitler recognized that they could afford defeats and setbacks on the Eastern Front, but if the Allies gained a foothold in the west, and held it, Germany was defeated.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel inspecting defensive positions on the Atlantic Wall in 1944

The breadth and scope of this attack so vast, it seems almost incomprehensible.  Planning, coordination and execution on a scale never attempted.  When failures occurred, and they did, the battle plan had to allow for them and still achieve success, and victory.

A soldier from the 16^th Infantry Regiment crawls ashore at Easy Red sector on Omaha Beach

The Allies employed deception and trickery to draw the Germans into traps and inadequate response.  An entire Army group, the FUSAG (First US Army Group) was invented with fake radio traffic, double agents who dutifully reported the activities of FUSAG, inflatable tanks, vehicles, false camps and landing craft for German reconnaissance planes to photograph, and a commander who the Germans respected and feared, Lt. General George Patton.

 

 

The Allies convinced the Germans they would attack at Pas de Calais, the shortest distance across the Channel, rather than Normandy.  The Germans believed it.

 

Five beaches, Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah.  5 sectors divided between US, English and Canadian forces, not because of nationality, but to use units that trained together in combat together.  A million and a half Allied soldiers against almost four hundred thousand Germans.  In fifty days of fighting, forty five thousand Allies killed, and thirty thousand Germans.

 

Estimated battle casualties

 

Listen to a veteran of the attack, Donald Nelson, Company E, 5^th Ranger Battalion, who landed at Omaha Beach.

 

“I was the fourth man off that beach, I mean off the boat on the beach, and the third man, was uh, was the radio man, well he got hit right at the edge of the water, we stepped over him”.

 

I am always touched by the photographs of General Eisenhower meeting with airborne troops before the attack.  These men would lead the assault, flying and parachuting behind enemy lines to secure positions, mark targets, to take and hold critical positions.  If the attacks on the beach failed, these men would die or they would be captured.  But they would not come home.

 

I wonder what it was like, what it is like, to send men into a fight, knowing some will die, others will be wounded.  To think you might lose them all.  What is it like to do that, not knowing whether the effort will succeed or fail?

 

Eisenhower speaking with troops of the 502d Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101^st Airborne Division, on the evening of June 5^th, 1944

 

This is the text of Eisenhower’s “second speech”, the one not given.  The one that explains the attack had failed, and that the blame was his alone.  It was found in the pocket of his uniform by an aide.

 

Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.

My decision. 

 

Try to imagine not thinking about that message while you are talking to this soldier on the eve of battle.

 

 

 

Here is a very good resource for learning more about this titanic struggle.

 

Update: Slublog (thanks for the link) tipped me to this, from the Eisenhower library.  It’s the handwritten note of the second speech. 

 

Mistakenly dated July 5 instead of June 5.

 

Update 2: Bryan at HotAir remembers too.