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D-Day: The Great Crusade of World War II


 

The sea ran red as American soldiers fell before the thick wall of flame pouring out of the mammoth concrete bunkers sitting atop the commanding cliffs and bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach. Stretching in front of the Americans was 6,000 yards of sand studded with barbed wire, mines, steel anti-tank barriers, and other murderous obstacles. As soldiers jumped off their landing craft vehicles and into water that was often higher than a man’s head, they crashed into a swarm of German artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire. “If you (stayed) there you were going to die,” said Lieutenant Colonel Bill Friedman. Weighted down with 68 pounds of equipment, many men simply drowned as they plunged into the water. The average age of the Americans racing into the jaws of death on Omaha was twenty and a half. They would live a lifetime over the harrowing hours that followed. Like their other comrades carrying out and supporting the Allied invasion of northern France along the beaches of Normandy, there could be no turning back on D-Day. No matter how agonizing their fight became, it was up to the Americans on Omaha to dig their feet into the bloody sand and go forward to ensure the success of the “Great Crusade” of World War II.


“The eyes of the world are upon you,” said General Dwight D. Eisenhower in his Order of the Day for June 6, 1944 to the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force. After assembling nearly two million troops from over 12 countries, nearly 7,000 naval vessels, 11,500 aircraft, and millions of tons of supplies in Britain, the Allies were ready to launch Operation Overlord, the largest and most thoroughly planned amphibious invasion in military history. By coordinating a naval, air, and land assault against Nazi-occupied France, the Allies would deliver their heaviest punch of the war. To “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,”Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, exclaimed, “We will accept nothing less than full victory!”

American troops preparing to leave port in Britain to embark upon the invasion of Normandy. (Photo Credit: Imperial War Museum)


Before launching Operation Overlord on June 6, the Allies had orchestrated a brilliant deception campaign to mislead the Germans about where the main invasion force would land. While the Allies intended to strike along the beaches of Normandy, they were able to convince the Germans that their main target was the Pas de Calais, which was the shortest route to France from across the English Channel. The Germans ended up concentrating their forces at the Pas de Calais, which worked to the benefit of the Allies since German reinforcements would be tied down away from Normandy. Additionally, the top German commanders were divided about the most effective way to defend against the invasion. The interference of Germany's dictator, Adolf Hitler, in military strategy also did not help matters. When combined, all of these factors would lead to fatal consequences for the Germans on D-Day.


Despite the exhaustive planning and the incredible strength assembled by the Allies for the invasion of Normandy, the main Allied planners and leaders had no illusions about the magnitude of difficulty awaiting them. As British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, “My dear friend, this is much the greatest thing we have ever attempted.” Even Mother Nature complicated matters for the Allies. With the operation slated to begin on Monday, June 5, General Eisenhower was forced to make the difficult decision of postponing the attack to June 6 because of unfavorable weather in the English Channel.


As the Supreme Allied Commander, perhaps no single person on the Allied side faced greater pressure than Dwight Eisenhower. While Eisenhower’s powerfully written Order of the Day for June 6 has gone down in history, he also took the time to draft another note, assuming full responsibility in the event that the invasion failed. On the evening of June 5, Eisenhower was reenergized after visiting with the men of the 101st Airborne Division and other airborne units preparing to board their planes and deploy for the invasion. “They went crazy,” reported Eisenhower’s driver, Kay Summersby, “yelling and cheering because ‘Ike’ had come to see them off.” The troops made it clear that they were ready to go. “Hell, we ain’t worried, General,” said one sergeant, “It’s the Krauts that ought to be worrying now.”

Eisenhower speaking with paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division at Greenham Common Airfield on the evening of June 5, 1944. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)


Shortly after midnight on June 6, over 18,000 Allied airborne troops parachuted behind enemy lines into drop zones across northern France to seize vital roads and bridges. Their tactical support would be vital to the infantry that was to land on the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy. At 5:50 a.m., Allied vessels unleashed a ferocious bombardment on the German beach fortifications and other positions along the Normandy coast. Around 6:30 a.m., American forces landed on Omaha and Utah beaches. An hour later, British and Canadian troops assaulted Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches.


As historian Andrew Roberts notes, prior to the invasion an estimated two million slave laborers were used by the Germans to build defenses and poured nearly “18 million tons of concrete to create deep bunkers” and other stout fortifications along the French coastline known as the “Atlantic Wall." Placing all kinds of obstacles, including mines in the water and on the beaches, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the man charged with defending France from invasion, recognized that the Allies held air superiority and believed that the key to defeating the invasion was to prevent Allied forces from establishing themselves on shore. When the Allies finally came on June 6, unleashing all of their might against the formidable German defenses, the most intense struggle on the sands of Normandy was faced by the waves of American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach.


Despite the intensity of the Allied naval and aerial bombardment, the German fortifications on Omaha remained intact. Allied bombers dropped approximately 13,000 bombs against the Germans on Omaha. However, hindered by low clouds and what has been described as “a very strong fog,” the bombs missed their targets and exploded further inland from the beaches. With thick smoke shrouding the coast after the intense night of bombing, Allied naval fire was also inaccurate and failed to cause significant damage to the German positions. American soldiers would pay a bloody price for these setbacks once they stormed out of their landing craft and were shredded by the murderous levels of fire pouring out of the un-cracked German defenses.

American troops fighting their way forward on Omaha Beach. (Photo: DDay-Overlord.com)


The overwhelming sacrifice made by Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division epitomizes the brutality endured by the leading American units on Omaha. As historian Alex Kershaw notes, “102 of these 180 men would die on Omaha Beach in the first wave, the highest casualties of any Allied unit.” Nineteen of those men killed were from the small town of Bedford, Virginia, which had a population of around 3,000 in 1944 and “is recognized as having the most men per capita killed on D-Day,” according to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation. As Kershaw adds, “ no community in the state or in America or indeed in any Allied nation had lost as many sons as Bedford.”


The Americans on Omaha Beach endured “by far the greatest concentration of German fire on the entire invasion front,” according to historian Max Hastings. As one German soldier positioned in a bunker remembered, “I might have killed hundreds that morning.” Twenty-seven of the twenty-nine American DD “floating” tanks and twenty-six artillery pieces never made it to the beach, sinking in the heavy seas, which Roberts explains, denied U.S. troops “the necessary firepower to get off the beach early.”


Naval forces off Omaha watched in horror as American soldiers “were pinned down to the beach,” as Admiral Charles Cooke observed. The situation was a “complete disaster” and something had to be done. Commanding the gunfire support group off Omaha, Admiral C. F. Bryant called all destroyers, shouting over the radio, “Get on them, men! Get on them! They are raising hell with the men on the beach, and we can’t have anymore of that! We must stop it!” As the late historian Stephen E. Ambrose explained, “Every destroyer off Omaha responded, the skippers taking the risk of running aground (several did scrape bottom but got off), firing point-blank at targets of opportunity on the" cliffs and bluffs. In some places, those cliffs and bluffs towered “more than 150 feet above the sea wall at the end of the dunes,” according to Roberts. The actions of the Navy helped to turn the tide on Omaha Beach. As Lieutenant W. L. Wade reported, “Destroyers were almost on the beach themselves, firing away at pillboxes and strong points.” At 1:30 p.m., after U.S. soldiers had been pinned down for seven hours, American General Omar Bradley finally received the signal that American troops were advancing up the heights behind Omaha Beach.

An aerial photo of numerous Allied naval craft off Omaha Beach. (Photo: Imperial War Museum)


After what must have felt like the longest day and the most intense struggle of their lives, the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force had done their duty. By the end of June 6, the five assault beaches – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword had been secured and approximately 154,000 Allied troops (70,500 Americans, 83,115 British and Canadians) were on the ground in France. The Allies suffered around 9,000 casualties on D-Day. As Andrew Roberts writes, “The dead comprised 2,500 Americans, 1,641 Britons, 359 Canadians, thirty-seven Norwegians, nineteen Free French, thirteen Australians, two New Zealanders and one Belgian: 4,572 soldiers in total.” Two thousand Americans gave the last full measure of devotion in the fight for Omaha Beach on D-Day.


Although the war was still far from over after D-Day, the Allies had gained a vital foothold to begin the drive into France and the liberation of the continent. As Roberts adds, “The news of D-Day gave sudden, soaring hope to Occupied Europe.” Deliverance was coming, but Allied forces would face strong German resistance over the ensuing three months, being forced to fight savagely, step by bloody step to advance further inland.

The end of the day at Omaha Beach. As Stephen E. Ambrose describes this photo in his book, D-Day, "American men and equipment coming ashore in staggering numbers. One pilot thought, as he looked down on this scene, that Hitler must have been mad to think he could beat the United States." (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)


“You can’t overstate it,” said Stephen Ambrose about D-Day. “It was the pivot point of the 20th Century. It was the day on which the decision was made as to who was going to rule in this world in the second half of the 20th Century.” On June 6, 1944, American, British, Canadian, Australian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, New Zealand, Norwegian, Rhodesian, and Polish warriors all stood together and accomplished one of the greatest feats in military history. They were the guardians of liberty, the liberators of Europe, and the saviors our world needed.



Sources





Encyclopedia of the Landings and the Battle of Normandy: Omaha Beach.



National D-Day Memorial Foundation: The Last of The Bedford Boys: Allen Huddleston.


PragerU: D-Day.


The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw.


The National WWII Museum: D-Day: The Allies Invade Europe.





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