FREE ESSAY ON NORMANDY INVASION

NORMANDY INVASION

Introduction The Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944 is variously known as D-Day,
the Longest Day, Cross-Channel Attack, and probably some others as well. It was the
largest single military operation of World War II. Hence, the Normandy beaches are a must
stop if you get anywhere close to France. The 50th anniversary celebration in 1994
generated a lot of hype. The recent movie Saving Private Ryan rekindled that interest.
However, the landing always held a special niche going back to the event itself. Much
like Gettysburg, the Normandy attack has been studied in great detail -- hour by hour,
person by person, shot by shot. We'll assume a flight landing in Paris and getting a
rental car (a must) at the airport. Then you would drive over to Caen (about a 150 miles)
and spend the night, which would put you at the east end of the beaches the next morning.
This book by Bruce Bilven, Jr., is a historical documentation of D-Day, June 6, 1944. The
book itself contains a lot of dates, names and places, which makes it a tough book to
follow. Bruce Bilven Jr., himself took part in the massive D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach,
as a second Lieutenant in the 29th Division Artillery. Drawing on his own experiances as
a solider in World War II, he wrote two other Landmark Books about the war; From
Casablanca to Berlin and From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa. Since the war he has written The
American Revolution as well as many other books articles, and reviews. He lives with his
wife and co-author, Naomi, and his college-age son in New York City. Summary Strategy
D-Day began with the concept of the Second Front. When Stalin's Russia was invaded in
1941, he immediately demanded that his new allies attack Hitler to take off the pressure.
No matter his past complicity. Churchill and Roosevelt replied with the invasion of North
Africa in November 1942 and Italy in 1943. Chief of staff George C. Marshall considered
these sideshows draining away troops and time. The real war, argued Marshall, was to be a
direct advance on Germany through France. Even as the sideshows proceeded, three other
campaigns were under way -- the war against the German submarines, the US-British
strategic bombing offensive against Germany, and the logistical buildup in Britain. The
submarine conflict was a precondition for the bombing and the buildup. The Allies were
fortunate that Hitler was had no interest in naval warfare. By 1943 the Allies had
mastered the North Atlantic. The bombing offensive established control of the skies,
which was another precondition for the invasion. The actual effect on German industrial
production is still controversial, but there's no doubt that the bombing drained away
German air resources that might have shown up over Normandy beaches in 1944. At the same
time, the bombing forced the Germans to rationalize certain production techniques. The
result, ironically, was the military production increased during the bombing offensive.
British and American officers drew up plans for several contingencies in 1943. Operation
OVERLORD was a large-scale assault against the German Army in France. This plan served as
the basis for a final plan developed early in 1944 after General Eisenhower, designated
as the supreme commander, arrived in Britain and established his command, Supreme
Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, or SHAEF. The overlooked question about D-Day
is why it didn't happen in 1943. The Germans were greatly weakened after defeats at
Stalingrad and North Africa in 1942. The French resistance was at its most effective.
Instead, the British and Americans squabbled about how to proceed, and the delay meant
that, in effect, nothing happened in 1943. It's one of the most interesting What If's of
World War II. The over-all ground commander for the invasion was the former head of the
British Eighth Army, General Montgomery, who also commanded the 21 Army Group, the
controlling headquarters for the two Allied armies scheduled to make the invasion. The
British were to assault on the left; the Americans on the right. This alignment explains
why during the Cold War the weakened Brits defended the North German plain (on the left),
while the much stronger American forces in Germany were deployed behind the Carpathian
mountains (on the right). A requirement that the invasion beaches had to be within easy
range of fighter aircraft based in Britain and close to at least one major port sharply
limited the choice. The state of German defenses imposed further limitations. The final
selection was the base of the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, southeast of Cherbourg. To
facilitate supply until Cherbourg or some other port could be opened, two artificial
harbors were to be towed from Britain and emplaced off the invasion beaches. The
selection of Normandy was as much political as military. The British were still fearful
of the Germans and wanted to land as far away as possible. Left to themselves, the
American probably would have gone in through Pas de Calais -- the most direct route. In
the end, Normandy was a compromise. Eisenhower was keenly aware of the Gallipoli problem.
In World War I, Churchill engineered a landing in Turkey, which became a de factor prison
camp. Normandy could have been easily sealed off. That's one reason why Eisenhower
insisted on a second landing in South France (stripping troops from Italy) to force the
issue. Selecting Normandy was so goofy that at first the Germans believed it was feint.
They fed troops in piecemeal, which worked to the Allies' advantage. When they finally
shifted the 15th Army from Pas de Calais down to Normandy, it was too late. The
destruction of the 15th Army denuded France and set up the Allied drive that only ended
at the German border. In some ways it was indeed the Longest Day, and the Allies were
fortunate in their enemies. Battle Despite a weather forecast of high winds and a rough
sea, Eisenhower made the decision to go ahead with the invasion on June 6. During the
night more than 5,000 ships moved to assigned positions, and at 2 am the operation began.
One British and two U.S. airborne divisions (the 82d and 101st) dropped behind the
beaches to secure routes of egress for the seaborne forces. Following preliminary aerial
and naval bombardment, the first waves of infantry and tanks began to touch down at 6:30,
just after sunrise. A heavy surf made the landings difficult but, as in Sicily, put the
defenders off their guard. The assault went well on British beaches, where one Canadian
and two British divisions landed, and also at UTAH, westernmost of the U.S. beaches,
where the 4th Division came ashore. The story was different at OMAHA Beach; there an
elite German division occupying high bluffs laced with pillboxes put the landings in
jeopardy. Allied intelligence had detected the presence of the enemy division too late to
alter the landing plan. Only through improvisation and personal courage were the men of
two regiments of the 1st Division and one of the 28th at last able to work their way up
the bluffs and move slowly inland. Some 50,000 U.S. troops nevertheless made their way
ashore on the two beaches before the day was out. American casualties were approximately
6,500, British and Canadian, 4,000 in both cases lighter than expected. Commanded by
Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the Germans nevertheless defended tenaciously in
terrain ideally suited to the defense. This was hedgerow country, where through the
centuries French farmers had erected high banks of earth around every small field to
fence livestock and protect crops from coastal winds. These banks were thick with the
roots of shrubs and trees, and in many places sunken roads screened by a canopy of tree
branches ran between two hedgerows. Tunneling into the hedgerows and using the sunken
roads for lines of communication, the Germans turned each field into a small fortress.
For all the slow advance and lack of ports (a gale on June 19 demolished one of the
artificial harbors and damaged the other), the Allied build-up was swift. By the end of
June close to a million men had come ashore, along with some 586,000 tons of supplies and
177,000 vehicles. General Bradley's First Army included four corps with 2 armored and 11
infantry divisions. British strength was about the same. Seeking to end the battle of the
hedgerows, the British attempted to break into more open country near Caen, only to be
thwarted by concentrations of German armor. General Bradley then tried a breakout on the
right near St. Lo. Behind an intensive aerial bombardment that utilized both tactical
aircraft and heavy bombers, the First Army attacked on July 25. By the second day
American troops had opened a big breach in German positions, whereupon armored divisions
drove rapidly southward twenty-five miles to Avranches at the base of the Cotentin
peninsula. While the First Army turned southeastward, the Third U.S. Army under General
Patton entered the line to swing through Avranches into Brittany in quest of ports. The
arrival of the Third Army signaled a major change in command. General Bradley moved up to
command the 12th Army Group, composed of the First and Third Armies, while his former
deputy, Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges, assumed command of the First Army. Montgomery's 21
Army Group consisted of the British Second Army and a newcomer to the front, the First
Canadian Army under Lt. Gen. Henry D. G. Crerar. General Montgomery continued to function
as overall ground commander, an arrangement that was to prevail for another five weeks
until General Eisenhower moved his headquarters to the Continent and assumed direct
command of the armies in the field. In terms of the preinvasion plan, General Eisenhower
intended establishing a solid lodgment area in France extending as far east as the Seine
River to provide room for air and supply bases. Having built up strength in this area, he
planned then to advance into Germany on a broad front. Under Montgomery's 21 Army Group,
he would concentrate his greatest resources north of the Ardennes region of Belgium along
the most direct route to the Ruhr industrial region, Germany's largest complex of mines
and industry. Bradley's 12th Army Group, meanwhile, was to make a subsidiary thrust south
of the Ardennes to seize the Saar industrial region along the Franco-German frontier. A
third force invading southern France in August was to provide protection on Bradley's
right. The First Army's breakout from the hedgerows changed that plan, for it opened the
German armies in France to crushing defeat. When the Germans counterattacked toward
Avranches to try to cut off leading columns of the First and Third Armies, other men of
the First Army held firm, setting up an opportunity for exploiting the principle of
maneuver to the fullest. While the First Canadian Army attacked toward Falaise, General
Bradley directed mobile columns of both the First and Third Armies on a wide encircling
maneuver in the direction of Argentan, not far from Falaise. This caught the enemy's
counterattacking force in a giant pocket. Although a 15-mile gap between Falaise and
Argentan was closed only after many of the Germans escaped, more than 60,000 were killed
or captured in the pocket. Great masses of German guns, tanks, and equipment fell into
Allied hands. While the First Army finished the business at Argentan, Patton's Third Army
dashed off again toward the Seine River, with two objects: eliminating the Seine as a
likely new line of German defense and making a second, wider envelopment to trap those
German troops that had escaped from the first pocket. Both Patton accomplished. In the
two pockets the enemy lost large segments of two field armies. Even as General
Eisenhower's armies secured the lodgement at Normandy, the Allies on August 15 staged
another invasion of southern France (Operation DRAGOON) to provide a supplementary line
of communications through the French Mediterranean ports and to prevent the Germans in
the south from moving against the main Allied armies in the north. Lack of landing craft
had precluded launching this invasion at the same time as OVERLORD. The D-Day invasion
plan called for landings at five beach locations on the Cotentin Peninsula. Dwight David
Eisenhower by Nicodemus David Hufford (1915- ). Oil on canvas, 38 x 30, 1973. Hufford
painted Dwight Eisenhower's portrait for the Army some four years after the death of the
former chief of staff and 34th president of the United States. Thus it was necessary for
him to work from photographic likenesses. Eisenhower gives the order of the Day. Full
victory - nothing else to paratroopers in England, just before they board their airplanes
to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. Some of
the men with Eisenhower are presumed to be: Pfc. William Boyle, Cpl. Hans Sannes, Pfc.
Ralph Pombano, Pfc. SW Jackson, ; Sgt. Delbert Williams, Cpl. William E Hayes, Pfc. Henry
Fuller, Pfc. Michael Babich and Pfc. W William Noll. All are members of Co E, 502d. The
other men shown on the photo are not identified.