The Normandy Battlefields: D-Day and the Bridgehead

INTRODUCTION

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months...In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, address to Allied soldiers on June 6, 1944

The extreme bravery of the troops who attacked on Omaha Beach is today marked by a monument commissioned by the French government to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the landings in 2004. Sculpted by Anilore Banon, the monument is in the surf at the join of Dog Red and Easy Green beaches at St. Laurent. The most heavily contested of the D-Day beaches, total US casualties on Omaha totalled around 2,000.

On May 10, 1940, an unstoppable torrent of German tanks and infantry burst through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes forest on the Franco-Belgian border, and crossed the Meuse at Sedan. Supported by an aerial armada of fighters and dive-bombers, the German Panzer divisions raced westward, and in less than three weeks had the British Expeditionary Force and large elements of the French Army penned against the Channel coast. Over a period of several days up to June 4, 1940, British, French, Dutch, and Belgian vessels managed to evacuate over 338,000 British and French troops in what was termed the miracle of Dunkirk. However, even Winston Churchill himself warned the British people that they should not consider these momentous events to be victory.

It would be four long and arduous years, almost to the day, before the tide was irrevocably turned and Allied troops landed back in France with the strength and power to ensure the ultimate victory. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, over 150,000 British, Canadian, and American troops, supported by soldiers of many other nations, were landed over the Normandy beaches in Operation Overlord—the largest and most complex amphibious landing against organized opposition ever attempted. Such an operation was not put together overnight: its successful outcome was the result of years of meticulous planning, not to mention the arguments and differences in strategy which initially beset the Allied camp.

In the 12 months after Dunkirk Britain stood alone, secure in its island base thanks to the RAF victory in the Battle of Britain, but totally lacking the resources to mount a cross-Channel operation to take the fight back to continental Europe. In May 1941 Hitler turned his attention to the east when he launched Operation Barbarossa to invade the Soviet Union. While this brought Russia into the Allied camp, it was initially of little comfort as the Red Army was thrown back to the gates of Moscow and Britain was forced to divert vital supplies to its hard-pressed new ally.

December 7, 1941, proved to be a decisive turning point in the war as the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and virtually eliminated the US Navy’s battlefleet, declaring war shortly after. Subsequently, Japanese forces ran amok in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia with British and American forces suffering major and embarrassing defeats before the situation could be stabilized. Significantly, Hitler declared war on the United States on December 11.

The invasion of France was accomplished at a remarkable rate. The attack was spearheaded by German armor. Here, a PzKpfw IV ausf D supports a formation of PzKpfw 38 (t) light tanks. Originally designated LT-35 by its Czech manufacturers, the PzKpfw 38 (t) continued to be produced after the occupation for German use.

From the start, Churchill realized that the addition of American manpower and industrial might to the Allied cause meant that ultimate victory was assured. Prior to Pearl Harbor the United States, although nominally neutral, had provided Britain with assistance in the form of Lend-Lease supplies and active escorting of Atlantic convoys. In August 1941 Churchill and President Roosevelt, together with their military advisors, had already met at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, to discuss possible Anglo-American co-operation. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the position had changed and a further summit meeting, the Arcadia Conference, was held in Washington commencing on December 22, 1941, in which basic Allied strategies were discussed and agreed.

The Big Three at the Eureka Teheran conference in December 1943. Stalin was informed of the proposed invasion in summer 1944 and agreed to launch an offensive at the same time. It was at the end of this conference that Eisenhower was confirmed as the commander of Operation Overlord. President Roosevelt told Eisenhower in Tunis on his way back to the United States. The decision was released to the wider world in a radio broadcast by Roosevelt on December 24, 1943.

American forces land at Surcouf, east of Algiers, during Operation Torch, November 8, 1942, the entry of US forces into the Mediterranean theater.

The most important outcome was the policy of Germany First—Allied efforts would prioritize on the defeat of Germany before that of Japan. Already the Russian leader, Josef Stalin, was calling for a second front to relieve pressure on his own forces, and the American generals were eager to do this, calling for a cross-Channel invasion of mainland Europe as early as 1942. Even at this point the Combined Chiefs of Staff considered the Marshall Memorandum, which called for a landing over the Normandy beaches in 1942, codenamed Operation Sledgehammer, to establish a beachhead which would then be reinforced in preparation for a major offensive and push towards the Rhine (Operation Roundup) in 1943. However, it soon became obvious that the necessary resources for such an operation would not be available on that timescale. With great reluctance the Americans eventually agreed to Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. In the event this dovetailed nicely with the British Eighth Army’s defeat of Rommel at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942, and Axis forces were eventually driven out of Africa by May 1943. At least Torch had given the Allies valuable experience of planning and executing a major amphibious landing and had also given the US Army some hard-learned lessons on the realities of fighting against experienced German troops.

The Allied chiefs in February 1944: L–R, Lt-Gen Omar Bradley, Commander of US Army Ground Forces; Adm Bertram Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander; ACM Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander; Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower. Supreme Commander; Gen Sir Bernard Montgomery, C–i–C British Armies; ACM Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, C–i–C Allied air forces; and Lt-Gen W. Bedell-Smith, Chief of Staff.

Even while fighting in North Africa was still in progress, a further Allied summit conference was held at Casablanca in January 1943. The most significant outcome of this was the adoption a policy whereby the war would only be brought to a conclusion by the unconditional surrender of all Axis nations and their forces. However, beneath the facade of Allied unity there were serious differences about the future strategic direction of the war. Concerned that Britain still lacked the resources to launch a major cross-Channel operation, Churchill persisted with the view that the allies should build on their success in North Africa to attack what he termed the soft underbelly of Europe. The Americans were still eager to mount an operation against northern Europe in 1943: in fact, at one stage the US Navy C-in-C Admiral King proposed that all amphibious assets be transferred to the Pacific if an invasion of France was not going to take place in 1943. In the end Churchill’s view prevailed but with some compromises. Some diversion of resources to Pacific operations was agreed but the Mediterranean strategy would continue with an Anglo-American invasion of Sicily in July 1943 (Operation Husky). The Americans hoped that this would be the last major operation in this theater but, as they feared, it led on to further landings in Italy and a long campaign against German forces which lasted right to the end of European hostilities in May 1945, despite the Italian surrender in September 1943.

It was agreed at Casablanca to set up a Combined Planning Staff to plan a cross-Channel operation and British Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Morgan was designated COSSAC—Chief of Staff to Supreme Allied Commander (Designate). In May 1943 at the Washington Trident Conference it was formally agreed that this operation, now codenamed Overlord, would take place on May 1, 1944, and this date was confirmed at the subsequent Quadrant conference in Quebec, the Americans overruling Churchill’s proposals for an alternative offensive through Italy and the Balkans. Even so preparations proceeded at a desultory pace as Churchill still harbored thoughts of an alternative strategy as late as December 1943.

At that point the die was cast by the choice of the American Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force. He immediately absorbed the COSSAC staff into an organization known as Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary-Force (SHAEF) based at Norfolk House, St James Square, London. At the beginning of 1944 over 1,100 British and American officers and other ranks were working at SHAEF and this number would increase in the months ahead.

Eisenhower and Gen George S. Patton, who commanded the fictitious First US Army Group in southeast England. The deception helped convince the Germans that Calais was the invasion point, fixing their Fifteenth Army there, even after D-Day.

Eisenhower was aged 53 at the time of his appointment as Supreme Commander and as a brigadier-general he had worked on the early plans for Operation Roundup. He was noted for his personal charm and ability to work with allied leaders and commanders, and this made him a natural choice as the C–in–C for the invasion of North Africa. It was he who had the idea to set up a fully integrated Anglo- American staff at all levels and the success of this led to its adoption for all future allied operations including Overlord. With an American as the Supreme Commander, the subsidiary commands went to British officers. ACM Tedder was nominated as Eisenhower’s Deputy Supreme Commander while ACM Leigh-Mallory was C–in–C of the Allied Air Forces. Adm Sir Bertram Ramsay, RN was in command of the naval forces and responsible for the actual cross-Channel naval operation codenamed Operation Neptune. Ramsay was an officer of enormous experience and, indeed, had directed the evacuation at Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) before planning and commanding the landings in North Africa and Sicily. His role in the success of the Normandy landings cannot be overstated, but unfortunately he was killed in an air crash in January 1945. Finally, the Supreme Ground Force Commander was Gen Sir Bernard Montgomery, already famous for his victory at El Alamein; subsequently, he would lead the British 21st Army Group onward from Normandy