On 6 June 1944, the Battle of Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord, was fought in Northern France between the Allies under Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery and the Germans under Gerd von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel during the Second World War.
Why did it happen?
Following the Battle of France in 1940, the Allied powers realised that Germany could not be defeated unless they entered mainland Europe. When the United States entered the Second World War in 1941, it was agreed that an invasion of Europe from across the English Channel should be conducted and subsequently US forces were stationed in Britain for this purpose. The operation was originally planned to take place in 1943, but Britain wanted to secure both North Africa and Italy first, so it was postponed until Spring 1944. After intelligence gathering by the British on Europe’s northwest coasts was conducted, it was decided that the Caen area of Normandy offered the best possibilities of an amphibious landing and assault. To stop the Germans from sending reinforcements to Normandy and contain the Allied landings, elaborate deception plans were put in place, the foremost being to make the Germans believe that the main assault would take place in the Pas de Calais. The D-Day landings, as they became known, were originally scheduled for 5 June 1944, but due to stormy weather, the Allied commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower postponed the invasion to 6 June 1944.
Who was involved?
The Allied force at Normandy numbered 154,000 infantry, 1,500 tanks, 6,500 warships and 13,000 aircraft, making it the largest amphibious landing in history. The Normandy landings were to be conducted along five beaches – one for each of the assault divisions. They were codenamed UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO, and SWORD. Two of the beaches (OMAHA and UTAH) were to land US troops; Two more beaches (SWORD and GOLD) were to land British troops, while the final beach (JUNO) was to land Canadian troops. To prepare Allied troops for the assault, Allied aircraft dropped bombs on German coastal batteries while Allied warships subjected them to intense naval bombardment. The German force at Normandy numbered 57,000 infantry, 300 tanks and 815 aircraft. The Germans protected a set of coastal defences known as the “Atlantic Wall”, which were still poorly developed. Nevertheless, the beaches were covered in an assortment of anti-landing obstacles and concrete bunkers along the coastline. The German plan at Normandy was simply to hold the defences long enough to enable them to detect the main Allied war effort, with which they could then attack them with armoured reserves.
What happened?
During the night of 5/6 June, the US and British paratroopers landed behind enemy lines near UTAH and SWORD beaches. The invasion itself commenced at 6:30 am on 6 June when the US 4th Division landed at UTAH beach and encountered only light German resistance and advanced to meet up with the US paratroopers. At 7 am, the US 1st Division landed at OMAHA beach where they suffered heavy casualties from German defences. At 7:25 am, the British 5th Division landed at GOLD beach where after heavy fighting British forces advanced towards the town of Bayeux. At 7:30 am, the British 3rd Division landed on SWORD beach before advancing towards the town of Caen. The final landing took place at 7:55 am on JUNO beach where the Canadian 3rd Division landed and advanced towards the west of Caen. During the afternoon at 4:30 pm, a division of German Panzer tanks launched a counterattack against the Allies between JUNO and SWORD beaches which were repulsed and forced to withdraw to Caen. During the one-and-a-half hours in which the landings took place, the Allies lost 4,300 killed and 3,795 wounded, while the Germans suffered 9,000 casualties.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of Normandy was a decisive victory for the Allies. Although a further three weeks of fighting was required to break out of the Normandy beachheads, German forces in Normandy had been all but wiped out and those that remained retreated from Northern France, leaving just a couple of isolated garrisons to hold on to ports. On 1 July, Rundstedt and Rommel met with Hitler at his Alpine retreat and appealed for more soldiers and permission to withdraw from Normandy. Hitler refused, and Rundstedt was replaced by Gunther von Kluge. By 25 July, Allied forces in Northern France numbered 2 million troops and 54,000 vehicles. Combined with the Russian advance on the Eastern Front, the tide of the war had turned against Germany.
Bibliography
Grant, R.G. 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. London, Cassell Illustrated, 2011.
Grant, R.G. Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Holmes: Richard. World War II: The Definitive Visual Guide. New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2015.
Montgomery, Bernard. A History of Warfare. London, Collins, 1968.