Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II.

1. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944

2. SITUATION
OPERATION OVERLORD

3. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PRE INVASION
A pre-invasion memorandum circulated in the U.S.
Chiefs of Staffs office noted that the British were
concerned about possible huge casualties.
According to British thinking:
• Allied forces should only engage Germans on
absolutely favorable conditions.
• Wherever Germans fought British or Americans
in equal strength, Germans won.
• German equipment was superior in all but
artillery and transportation categories.

4. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
The British military didn’t think that the Americans were ready to face the Germans. British General Alexander
wrote:
“They simply do not know their job as soldiers…Perhaps the weakest link of all is the junior leader who just
doesn’t lead, with the result that their men don’t really fight.”
PRE INVASION

5. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
In Africa, the Allied Forces fought regular line
units. In Europe, they would be facing elite SS
Panzer units widely considered by many to be the
most battle effective force of the WWII.
One such unit was 2nd SS Panzer Division Das
Reich, an elite division during WWII. Over its
entire combat history, this unit had:
• Most number of high award-winners in its
ranks than any other Waffen SS division.
• Destroyed 1,730 tanks and assault guns for the
loss of 500 panzers.
• Overall, destroyed more than 3,000 enemy
tanks. More than any other German field
division.
PRE INVASION

6. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PRE INVASION
Some limiting factors included:
• Radius of air cover – the range of a
Spitfire, 150 miles.
• The limits of beach capacity – not
enough space to unload large numbers
of troops.
• The length of the sea crossing.
• The strength of the German defenses:
1,670 miles of fortified gun positions,
observation towers, bunkers that
stretched from Denmark all the way to
the Spanish frontier.

7. PLANNING
OPERATION OVERLORD

8. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
• Eisenhower arrived to England on 15 January
1944.
• Held his first staff meeting on 21 January
1944.
• British General Montgomery proposed to land
Americans on the Western flank as they could
get reserves and supplies directly from the
United States.
• The British and Canadian forces would land
on the Eastern flank to fight the main German
forces coming from the East and South-East.
• The initial goal was to seize main road
communications and push armored divisions
through them to prevent the enemy from
getting reinforcements.
PLANNING

9. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PLANNING
Operation Overlord would have three
phases:
• Airborne attack.
• Air bombardment.
• Amphibious landing.

10. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PLANNING
Phase One - Airborne
attack:
• Confuse the enemy.
• Seize main
communication
hubs/roads.

11. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Two - Bombing:
• Destroy/soften up
defense positions.
• Create craters for
soldiers to take
cover during
assault.
PLANNING

12. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Three – Landing:
• 40 mile coast stretch.
• General Bradley
oversaw American
landings.
• General Montgomery,
oversaw British and
Canadian landings.
PLANNING

13. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
In order to prepare for the amphibious operation and to get the American forces to Britain,
the Allies had to create and manage a massive supply chain:
• Landing craft.
• Devising fire plans.
• Air support schemes.
• Engineering inventories
• Naval escort arrangements
PLANNING

14. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
The logistical considerations:
• Each armored division required 386,000
ship tons ~ 40 ships.
• Each infantry division required 270,000
ship tons .
• 6,250 pounds of sweets, 12,500 pounds of
biscuits and 100,000 packets of gums.
• Each American soldier would receive 6.25
pounds of rations a day, but only 4 pounds
per soldier was actually consumed.
• Each German would receive 3.3 pounds of
rations a day. But a German rifle company
had 56,000 rounds of small-arms
ammunition versus 21,000 equivalent
American rounds.
PLANNING

15. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
By the spring of 1944, all of southern England
was one big military camp:
• 20 American divisions.
• 14 British divisions.
• 3 Canadian divisions.
• 1 French division.
• 1 Polish division.
• Hundred thousands of special forces, corps
troops, headquarters units.
PLANNING

16. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PLANNING
Although the overall mission for the Allied air
forces was finalized just before the D-Day, the
airmen played a significant role in the operation:
• Long range P-51 Mustang fighter inflicted
heavy damage on Luftwaffe.
• The Germans lost 1,311 aircraft in January,
2014; 2,121 in February and 2,115 in March.
• Attacking German synthetic oil plants reduced
oil production from 927,000 tons in March,
1944 to 472,000 tons in June.
• On D-Day, the Germans flew just 319 missions.

17. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PLANNING
Although highly disciplined, experienced and
trained, the German army could barely fight on
multiple fronts in late 1943 and early 1944:
• The German Army was retreating on the
Eastern front.
• Their total manpower went from 3 million plus
soldiers in July 1943 to 2.6 million soldiers in
December of the same year.
• If successful against the Allied forces attack on
the Western front, the German military could
shift as many as 59 divisions to the Eastern
front.

18. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PLANNING
German intelligence service failed to collect
information, while Allied intelligence networks
managed to spread disinformation and gather
relevant intelligence on the German defenses:
• The Germans had no idea about a possible
landing zone.
• Although Hitler suspected that Allies might
land in Normandy, he didn’t take steps to
concentrate defense positions over there.
• While German intelligence thought that Allies
would land 35 divisions, Hitler’s stuff was
studying a possibility of up 90 divisions.

19. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
PLANNING
Allied deceptive tactics helped keep Germans
uncertain about the future landing zone:
• Impersonating Allied commanders touring
Mediterranean.
• Creating fake Army in Scotland.
• Using a wide array of dummy equipment to
confuse German spy networks.

20. REHEARSALS
OPERATION OVERLORD

21. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
REHEARSALS
Rehearsing and training:
• A succession of 12 day courses for
Allied supply officers – 70 officers at
a time.
• 25 square miles of West Devon
between Appledore and Woolacombe
were evacuated from the entire
civilian population to let American
forces to rehearse with live rounds.
• Tank battalions practiced escaping
submerged amphibious tanks. Tank
crews had just 20 seconds to escape to
safety.

22. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
• Some rehearsals resulted in casualties.
In one case, British animosity towards
French-Canadians who played an
opposing forces role, resulted in
casualties on both sides.
• In Operation Tiger, a large scale
rehearsal resulted in friendly fire
casualties when troops landed
simultaneously with navy bombarding
the beach.
• German e-boat torpedoed training
U.S. convoy resulting in the death of
965 Americans.
REHEARSALS

23. EMBARKATION
OPERATION OVERLORD

24. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
• In the last days of May and June, men
started moving into assembly areas
and embarking on ships.
• Soldiers were issued seasickness pills,
ammunition, grenades and other gear.
EMBARKATION

25. MOVEMENT
OPERATION OVERLORD

26. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
MOVEMENT
Phase One – Airborne:
• Late evening on
June 5th, 24,000
paratroopers
boarded the planes.

27. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
MOVEMENT
Phase Two – Air
bombardment:
• Early in the
morning on June 6,
1944, pilots were
briefed and started
preparing for the
mission.

28. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Two – Air
bombardment:
• At 04:30 June 6,
bombers started
taking off for France
as a part of 11,000
war planes.
MOVEMENT

29. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
MOVEMENT
Phase Three –
Amphibious landing:
• Ships sailed to the
sea on June 5.
• Ahead of them was
a fleet of 255
minesweepers that
cleared 5 channels.

30. ATTACK
OPERATION OVERLORD

31. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
ATTACK
Phase One – Airborne:
• At 0130 June 6, 1,000 planes starting
dropping paratroopers behind the
enemy lines.
• Their job is to prevent German
reserves from pushing landing forces
back to the sea.

32. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
ATTACK
Phase One – Airborne:
• British and Canadian
paratroopers didn’t have
major issues landing and
seizing objectives.

33. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase One – Airborne:
• On the Western flank, American
paratroopers from 101st and 82nd
airborne divisions were in a
completely different situation.
• Low clouds obscured landing zones
and pilots missed many of them.
• Some paratroopers were dropped in
the sea.
• Others were dropped too low and
didn’t have time to deploy their
parachutes.
ATTACK

34. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
ATTACK
Phase One – Airborne:
• Paratroopers from 101st airborne were
scattered over a 25 mile long and by
15 mile wide area.
• 24 hours after a drop, a half of
surviving force was unaccounted for.
• 82nd airborne was dropped right
behind Utah beach.
• Paratroopers from both divisions
didn’t have heavy weapons but had to
find against heavily armed German
units.
• They struggled to hold off Germans
while waiting for landing forces to
reinforce them.

35. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Two – Air bombardment:
• Shortly before the landing, Allied
bombers and fighter-bombers began
bombing German positions.
• Bombers could not go inland too far
because nobody knew the exact
location of paratroopers.
ATTACK

36. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• Over 5000 ships: battleships, tug
boats, cruisers, barges, freighters,
hospital ships were on the move in
the early morning.
• Fleet of 2000 landing craft.
ATTACK

37. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• At 0630 amphibious landing began.
• Utah beach came first.
• Currents and poor visibility
brought landing crafts more than
2,000 yards from intended landing
zone in a lightly defended area.
• Yet all other landing aspects went
close to planning timetables.
• 28 out 32 amphibious DD tanks
reached the beach.
• Three regimental combat teams of
4th Division came ashore under
light fire and took the beach in less
than an hour.
• 23,000 men landed; 197 casualties.
ATTACK

38. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
ATTACK
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• British troops took Gold and Sword
beaches almost as fast.
• But Germans prevented them from
capturing city of Caen.

39. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• Canadian troops took Juno beach just as fast, but
suffered heavier casualties.
• Despite losses managed to move 7 miles inland
by nightfall.
ATTACK

40. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
ATTACK
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• Omaha beach was the most difficult landing site.
• 1st and 29th infantry divisions participated in
landing. 2/3 of American force was concentrated
there.
• Omaha was the broadest and the deepest of the
five beaches.
• Dunes, barbed wire, thick undergrowth and land
mines created obstacles.
• 2,000 German troops defended that stretch of the
beach.

41. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• Most American bombs were dropped inland, so
the troops didn’t have bomb crates to take cover.
• Naval bombardment wasn’t enough to inflict
heavy damage on German defense positions.
• Rough weather caused major shifts in planning
timetables.
ATTACK

42. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• Men boarded landing crafts 12 miles from shore
rather than 7 miles as it was planned.
• 1o knot north-westerly wind swamped many
landing crafts drowning many soldiers.
• All 26 artillery guns were lost.
• 32 amphibious DD tanks were dropped by
mistake 6,000 yards from the shore. All but 5
sank. Most crews were trapped inside.
• Just five DD tanks reach shore and were behind
the infantry.
• 40% of combat engineers were killed or
wounded; most obstacles were intact.
• Of 16 bulldozers, only 6 came ashore and three
were destroyed right away.
• There was chaos on the beach and among staff
officers aboard the cruiser Augusta.
ATTACK

43. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• The Germans opened fire when the ramps went
down.
• Early in the morning, a single German company
could push them off the beach.
• At some point, General Bradley considered
retreating from Omaha rather than sending in a
new wave of soldiers.
• But then soldiers and sailors began to improvise.
• Navy ships moved extremely close to the shore
to provide much needed fire support to knockout
pillboxes.
• Many officers and NCO began rallying
remaining troops to move off the beach.
• Eventually American troops were able to flank
and capture high ground.
ATTACK

44. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
ATTACK
Phase Three – Amphibious landing:
• By 1300 German resistance had began to
weaken.
• By late afternoon combat engineers cleared a
path for vehicles; the beach was captured.
• D-day was the bloodiest day in American history
since the Civil war.
• 2,500 American soldiers were killed.
• In less that 24 hours, Allied forces breached
Hitler’s defense lines in multiple locations.

45. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
SOURCES
• “The Americans at D-Day: The American Experience at the
Normandy Invasion.” John C. McManus
• “Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy.” Max
Hastings.
• “The War: a Ken Burns Film. Pride of Our Nation: June
1944 – August 1944”

46. D-DAY
JUNE 6, 1944
CONTACT
Sergey Ulitenok
sulitenok@gmail.com
Amphibious Warfare
SUNY Maritime Spring 2015