The D-Day Landings

History Coursework The D-Day Landings

1) D-Day, the Allies' successful offensive to retake France from the Germans, occurred on June 6, 1944. D-day was needed because Hitler and the German army were pushing themselves further and further into France and d-day was needed to push the German army back into Germany. Airborne landings were needed because at first Britain and America had a problem with the tides, they didn’t know the exact time of them and it was difficult to plan an attack in case the ships carrying their army and weapons were sunk. The original date had already been delayed because of bad conditions. Britain needed the airborne divisions as back up, this would also take the German’s by surprise if they has both airborne divisions and the Navy attacking as Hitler had only left the least amount of troops available to defend Germany. He had taken the rest with him, if the airborne troops were used; the British and American troops would have more of a chance of landing safely on the beaches because of the Germans being attacked from all sides. Although the airborne troops proved helpful in the attack, inexperienced American pilots were flying them, they were problems and the pilots panicked and told their troops to jump on the wrong co-ordinates. This was something that the German’s were also not expected. The aims of the British airborne divisions were to capture the gun batteries further inland, they were sent to safeguard the beaches that the British, American, and Canadian troops were soon to land on. They had to capture the bridges to help prevent any German counter-attack or bringing up any reinforcements. The British parachutists were sent in to Silence the Merville gun battery, this didn’t go quite as planned, as there was thick cloud, so the airborne divisions bombed the wrong town. 192 out of 750 men were killed as they drowned in the sea or the marshes in the town. Only 150 parachutists reached the original target and managed to secure the gun battery. To the west of Normandy the 82nd and 101st American divisions were landing, their aim was to capture both banks of the Merderet to the south and west of St. Mere Eglise. The 101st was to seize the beach exists and bridges over the river Douve. The 101st landed nearest to Utah beach, they landed in an area of meadows that the Germans had flooded. The 82nd division were scattered through St. Mere Eglise and lost most of their equipment. Those who landed in the town were shot as they were coming down. But even so, they managed to achieve the majority of their aims. The American airborne troops had more trouble overall than the British troops. This was because the American army had hired less experienced pilots, so when they were being shot at in the air the pilots began to panic, this lead in one case to drop the parachutists at different co-ordinates for fear of being shot down. Although this helped in their case as the Germans had left this area with very little defence and so they were taken by surprise, the Americans then pushed their way through France to achieve their aim.

2) The landings on the five beaches were all successful in that the beaches were secured by the English, American or Canadian troops fighting on them. Although some of the beaches had more problems then others. The 5 beaches were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Duno, and Sword.

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Utah Beach (American Beach) - it was a late addition to the areas scheduled for invasion. The Utah landing area was about three miles wide. Compared to German defences at Omaha Beach, the defences at Utah, based on fixed infantry positions, were spread out. Immediately behind the landing areas were flooded and the Germans could control the flooding with locks. Because of the flooding, the movement inland was somewhat restricted, especially through the important crossroads town of Saint-Mere-Eglise. The landing plan didn’t start off well, strong currents affected the landing. The main problem was a bit more serious; they had lost some control craft to the mines set up on the beaches. The troops fought up the beach and into the town all day and when they had finally managed to defeat the German’s had push up 4 miles into France. The Utah beach landings had ended very well, and the error that had left them landing 2,000 metres off target had infact worked to their advantage, as this area of the beach was a much less defended section. There were very few casualties and even though they had lost some equipment they had still managed to secure the beach.

Omaha Beach (American Beach) – This was the biggest beach of all of the 5, Omaha was very well defended by the German’s and they had built up strong defences up the shore such as mines, and a long trench. Their weapons were fixed to sweep the beach with gunfire as well as shooting from the cliffs, through all this, the American troops fought hard and reached the top of the beach, this was quite a big problem for the Americans as it was such a long beach but they did it well. Their mission was to capture the villages of Vierville, Saint-Laurent, and Colleville; then it was to push through and cut the Bayeux-Isigny road, and then it was to attack south toward Trévières and west toward the Pointe du Hoc. From the beginning everything went wrong at Omaha, The special D-D tanks that they were counting on suck. 2 out of 29 made it to the beach. Through all of this, the German’s were using guns situated in the cliffs, and shooting up and down the beach, the troops made it to the feet of the cliffs, hiding behind obstacles situated up and down the beach. Exits were opened for them by the troops that had landed further inland and the American’s gained control, leaving behind 2,400 casualties. A lot compared to that of Utah.

Gold Beach (British Beach) – Gold Beach was the assignment of the Brittish 50th Northumbrian Division and the 8th Armoured Brigade, accompanied by the Royal Marine Commando unit, whose job was to swing west and take the near by town of Arromanches as a base for the Brittish mulberry harbour. The seaside towns of this beach could be seen from where the British landed, and the German gunmen were placed in these towns making it difficult for the British navy to attack. Something else against the British was the steep cliff and on top a post which carried a gun which also covered the whole of the beach. 20 of the British navy machines were damaged severely due to the mines placed up and down the beach. Fortunately, there was no German armour on the beaches, which helped them a lot. This was a very successful landing, only 400 men were killed and they had managed to land 25,000 men and push 6 miles inland. The specialist armour landed before the infantry and the amphibious tanks landed behind contributed a lot to the victory.

Juno Beach (Canadian Beach) – It was to be assaulted by the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, the 7th Brigade landing at Courseulles in Mike sector and the 8th Brigade landing at Bernières in Nan sector.

The initial hazards for Juno beach weren’t the German obstacles but the offshore reefs or shoals. This slowed them down and affected their landing time. They were 3 hours late in landing. About 30% of the landing craft at Juno beach were destroyed by the mines, as the beach obstacles were already partly submerged so the tanks had to feel their way in. The German guns were not a problem at first but the further up the beach they got the more they got hit. One company had only 1 officer and 25 men. The further up the beach they got, they had a 1 in 2 chance of getting hit, 1 out of every 18 men died that day but the landing was still successful. They managed to secure the beach.

Sword Beach (British Beach) - Sword Beach was assaulted by the Brittish 3rd Infantry and its supporting units, including some French Commandos serving with the Scottish 1st Commando Brigade. The Commandos were to clear the way through the town of Ouistreham, and then meet the members of the British 6th Airborne. Sword Beach was the site of the heaviest bombardment of any of the Beaches, after this bombardment the DD tanks were launched. In spite of the treacherous seas, most of them reached the shore. Closely following them was the LCTs loaded with specialist armoured vehicles. Right behind them was the Infantry. At Ouistreham, a solid line of enemy-held villas faced the assaulting troops, even a casino that the Germans had converted into a fortress. The troops made short work out of taking out the villas one by one then the casino. Then they set forth towards the Bridge at Orne, they fought there way through light opposition by eventually they became entangled in the battle between the British 6th and the 21st Panzer Division. There were 630 casualties out of the landing of 29,000 men. This was also very successful.

The capture of all 5 beaches went well in the outcome, although there was a few problems on the way. The British captures went better than the American ones although all of the aims were achieved.

3) In some ways the D-Day landings and the following events owed their success to the technology and tactics of the allies. I think without some of their inventions like D-D tanks and their defensive system of minefields, fortifications, machine-gun nests, mortar batteries and mined obstacles it would have been a lot harder to accomplish. They used their tanks to get further up the beach. On the beach there were lots of obstacles to prevent them from getting into France. To deal with this they had “Hobart’s Funnies”. This was the name they had given to the various armoured vehicles. This included bulldozer tanks which could clear the beaches with impunity. There were a lot of machines used on D-Day, and maybe it wouldn’t have been quite as successful if they weren’t around. Technology and tactics played an important part, because without tactics, there wouldn’t have been a plan, so no-one would have had a specific job. If the airborne division hadn’t had a specific job then they would have landed anywhere. The pilots needed to no where they were going, they needed to have an aim so they could make sure they were hitting the Germans hard in the right places, to weaken their defence. The troops landing on the beaches needed a specific aim, they needed a job to do, something to work for then they might have a chance at winning the war. Tactics meant that all the troops were mostly spread out, a good idea to attack from all angles so they could stop the Germans shooting at them and pushing them back into Germany. Technology was very important to the allies for instance to find the bombs hidden in the beach using the machinery they had developed including a ‘’Bobbin’’ tank, a ‘’Crab’’ tank, or a ‘’Flying Dustbin’’ tank. All having specific jobs to make way for the troops on the beaches to work their way up the beach, the Germans had guns and big weapons, this would make the job very easy to kill soldiers running up the beach. The Germans were stationary and had more of a chance from the start, but as the troops landing on the beaches weren’t they needed technology to create machinery to help them.