June 6, 1944, is not a day that is marked by an official holiday in the United States, but it holds a place in history like no other day. It is a day that Allied troops had been building up to since the United States entered WWII. It was D-Day, the beginning of the end for Hitler, his Thousand-Year Reich, and Fortress Europe.
Lessons learned during a disastrous and unsuccessful attempted landing at Dieppe by mainly Canadian forces in August of 1942; and in Operation Torch, a British and American operation in North Africa in November of that same year, were absorbed in the planning of the D-Day invasions. Further lessons were learned by the Allies during the invasions of Sicily and Italy.
The plan for the D-Day invasion as a whole was codenamed Operation Overlord. Individual actions included Operation Neptune, the amphibious phase of the assault; Operation Pointblank, the associated air campaign against aircraft production, fuel supplies, and airfields; and the most audacious, Operation Bodyguard.
Operation Bodyguard was a ruse. It included Operation Fortitude, which was further broken down into Operation Fortitude North, an entire operation made up to send out false radio traffic about the coming invasion, in Norway; and Operation Fortitude South, which included an entire Army group commanded by George S. Patton that did not in fact exist. The entire operation went so far as to create fake tanks, fake shoulder patches for fictitious army divisions, and fake radio traffic to make the Germans think that Patton would be invading Calais. This ruse was kept up until a month after the actual invasion to make the Germans think that Calais was the actual target.
On June 5, 1944, 75 years ago this week, Allied airborne troops, the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, took off from airfields in England. The invasion for them would start under the cover of darkness. Troop ships had also begun their journey across the English Channel.
On June 6, Allied troops landed on beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. American troops landed at Utah, Omaha, and at Pointe du Hoc, a promontory located between Utah and Omaha. Utah Beach was under VII Corps, and included the 4th Infantry Division, 90th Infantry Division, 82nd Airborne Division, and 101st Airborne Division. Omaha Beach was under V Corps, and included the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions. Pointe Du Hoc was the responsibility of the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Gold Beach was XXX Corps and the 50th Infantry Division. Juno Beach was the British I Corps and the 3rd Canadian Division. Sword Beach was the British I Corps the 3rd Infantry Division and 6th Airborne Division. The 79th Armoured Division provided armored vehicles for all of the British beach activity; very little armor, British or American, made it onto the beaches in the first wave.
We will likely never see a day like the sixth of June 1944 ever again in human history. By the numbers: 5,000 landing and assault craft; 289 escort vessels; 277 minesweepers; 160,000 men on D-Day alone crossing the Channel; 875,000 men crossing by the end of June. A little more than 4,400 men died on the Allied side that fateful day, with 1,000 German deaths, and civilian casualties estimated at 3,000. The invasion did not meet all of its objectives until July 1944, with the Allied capture of Caen fell.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, had no idea if the operation would even work. The night before the invasion, he said this to departing troops:
Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.
The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
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 oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Eisenhower was also prepared for the invasion to fail. He had prepared this statement, in case things went horribly wrong for the Allies:
"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 upon 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."
Of course, we know that the landings and invasion did not fail. That the invasion did succeed, and that the Third Reich would fall by May of 1945. The hastily scribbled note Eisenhower wrote that day would never be needed, thanks to the careful planning, the logistics, and the bravery of the men who landed on the beaches and parachuted in behind the lines.