Overlord: The Landings of 1944

Earlier this year I was asked to write a piece for a magazine about the D-Day Landings in Normandy 1944.  This year was the 70th Anniversary and the magazine thought it would be a nice idea to include a piece that combined both my photographic ability (in a series of staged portraits) and written word.

Sadly, the magazine ceased production before the final drafts were due, so I have decided to share my third draft with you.  The piece was never really finished – I was working on the final one when I was told about the magazine no longer running.  It was due for release on June 1st.

Wider World: The World at War

Overlord The Landings of 1944

June the 6th, 1944. Seventy years ago. A day to remember in the pages of history. The day the course of a war changed. The day that sparked the beginning of the end for Fascist rule in Europe, and the start of the European invasion by Allied Troops.

Overlord Overview

Operation Overlord, the battle for Normandy, began it’s course with Operation Neptune, the landings of US, Canadian and British troops on the beaches of Normandy. Known as D-Day because the actual date of the invasion was unknown until the last moment, a combination of the perfect weather conditions (high tides, a full moon and a break in a nasty storm) and a comprehensive deception plan named Operation Bodyguard gave the Western Allies the element of surprise in what is the largest amphibious assault in world history. More than 160,000 soldiers took part in the invasion, with a further 195,700 naval and merchant naval personnel across 5,000 ships and landing craft, plus 50,000 vehicles and 11,000 planes.

A Drop from Above

Operation Neptune began with the establishment of a secure lodgement from which to expand the beachhead to allow the build-up of a well-supplied force. With amphibious assault forces vulnerable to enemy counter-attack before a sufficient force could be established to push forward, it was imperative that the enemy forces’ ability to organize and launch such measures were sufficiently slowed or eliminated. For this purpose, shortly after midnight on the 6th of June, airbourne forces were dropped into Normandy to capture or destroy key strategic points, such as bridges, road crossings and terrain features.

This part of the operation, despite being a success, ran far from smoothly. Thick cloud made it difficult for planes to fly in close formation, and obscured the view of the drop zones. Pathfinders, dropped too far east of their intended targets due to winds, set up the radar beacons and lights that were to be used as navigation aids in the wrong place. Many paratroopers were blown off course, landing far from their designated zones, and it took hours, sometimes days, for them to reach their battalions. Ultimately, Commanders proceeded with their missions in spite these problems, and a foothold was established.

A New Meaning to “A Day at the Beach”

Armoured divisions began their amphibious assault at 06:30 British Double Summer Time (BST+2), at beaches named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The landings at Utah and Omaha were completed by American Troops, with British and Canadian forces landing at Gold, Juno and Sword.

Omaha was considered the most heavily defended of the beaches by enemy forces, and during the invasion, the landings were heavily delayed by troops washed off course and beach defences remaining intact. 2,000 men, more than the other beaches combined, were lost at Omaha, and only five of the thirty-two DD tanks reached shore. At around 08:30, the beachmaster called a halt to further landings and a group of destroyers arrived to give support fire. Beach exit was via five heavily defended gulleys and by late morning, only 600 men had managed to fight their way to higher ground. By noontime, the artillery fire began to take its toll and the enemy ammunition supplies were running low, allowing a tenuous beachhead to be established, with the objectives finally secured three days later (D+3).

Strong currents at Utah beach saw members of the 8th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division pushed 1.8km south of their intended landing zone. This site turned out to be better than the intended one, as there was only one strongpoint rather than two, and the bombers of this area had dropped lower than their prescribed altitude, meaning that considerable damage had been dealt. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. decided to make the stand right there, and ordered further landings rerouted. The initial assault battalions were followed by 28 DD tanks, engineers and demolition teams, who worked to clear the area behind the beach of obstacles and mines, as well as blowing holes in the sea wall to allow quicker troop and tank access. At approximately 09:00, Combat Troops began exiting the beaches to take the main strongpoint and another 1.2km south. Some infantry chose to wade through the flooded fields, rather than stick to the single, narrow track, and the strongpoints were disable by around noon. The D-Day objectives at Utah were not fully met, partly due to the landings happening too far south, but the Allies saw only 197 casualties out of 21,000 troops landed at this beach.

Gold beach saw 25,000 men landed, under the command of Lt.-General Miles Dempsey, Commander of the British 2nd Army, and casualties were fairly high, numbering around 400. This was attributed in part to bad weather delaying the swimming Sherman DD tanks, and also to the Germans having heavily fortified a village on the beach. The 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division overcame the troubles and had advanced almost to the outskirts of Bayeux by the end of the day, with no other Division, aside from the Canadians at Juno beach, coming closer to their objectives. Gold beach was also the landing place of the No. 47 (RM) Commando, the last of the British Commando units to land. Their task was to capture Port en Bessin, a coastal harbour, by an attack from the rear to allow Allied supplies to be brought into Normandy. This port was a prime early-access point for Allied supply lines.

Heavy and medium batteries of 155mm and 75mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, concrete fortifications and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha met the Canadians at Juno beach, with the first wave seeing a casualty rate of 50%. This was the second highest of the five D-Day beaches, but Juno saw a successful use of armour not prominent at the other beaches, where it actually landed ahead of the infantry and helped to clear a path as originally intended in some instances. The Canadian forces were off the beach and beginning their advance inland within hours, with a single troop of four tanks actually managing to outrun its infantry support to reach the final objective phase line. The tanks were forced into a hasty retreat without their infantry, with two fortified positions remaining in German hands for several days afterwards and no link with Sword beach established. By the end of the day, 30,000 Canadians had been successfully landed in Normandy, with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division penetrating further into France than any other Allied force.

21 of the 25 DD tanks bound for Sword beach managed to make it safely ashore. These tanks provided cover for the infantry who began disembarking at 07:30. Sword was heavily mined and covered in obstacles. This made the work of the beach-clearing teams incredibly difficult and dangerous, with the windy conditions making the manoeuvring of armour difficult due to the tide coming in more quickly than expected, causing the beach to become congested. Brigadier Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, and his 1st Special Service Brigade (a now inactive Commando unit) arrived in the second wave, piped ashore by Lovat’s personal piper, Private Bill Millin. Members of Lovat’s No. 4 Commando moved through Ouistreham in order to attack a German gun battery on the shore from the rear, though a concrete observation and control tower at this emplacement had to be bypassed and was not captured for several days. French forces, under the command of Commander Phillippe Keiffer, attacked and cleared the heavily fortified strongpoint at the casino at Riva Bella, with the aid of one of the DD tanks. These were the first French soldiers to arrive in Normandy. Caen was a primary objective for the first day of the attacks on Sword, but it was not completely captured until 21st July. At 16:00, a counter-attack was mounted by the German 21st Panzer Division between Sword and Juno beaches, which almost succeeded in breaking through to the Channel, but they met with stiff resistance from the British 3rd Mechanised Division and were soon recalled to assist in the defense of the area between Caen and Bayeux. The estimated number of casualties on Sword is somewhere in the region of 1,000.

The Resulting Collapse

The success of the D-Day landings marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany and Hitler. The German forces could not support a war on two fronts, the Red Army in the East and the Western Allies in the West. Over the coming months Hitler was caught in an hourglass of pressure and the war effort collapsed. Less than a year later, on the 30th of April 1945, Adolf Hitler commited suicide in this bunker, and the Germans surrendered unconditionally eight days later. After six years of the worst fighting the world had ever known, the war was over.

70 Years On

This year, people across the world will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of that fateful day; remembering the sacrifices made and giving thanks for those who survived in the name of Democracy. There will be speeches, reflections, prayers and ceremonies.

In France, Veterans will revisit the site of the landings, and people from across the globe will be able to take part in a calendar of events throughout the month of June. The British Ministry of Defense has confirmed that personnel from all three services will be providing logistical and ceremonial support at a variety of events taking place on the 5th and 6th of June. The commemorations, which are known as “Normandy 70”, will be supported by the armed forces. The work is led by the Force Troops Command, and the 3rd (UK) Division of the British Army (the division that led the assault onto Sword 70 years ago). Events taking place in Normandy itself include ceremonies on June the 5th to mark the liberation of Ranville by the British 13th Parachute Battalion, the first village to be liberated on D-Day, and members of 16 Air Assault Brigade will mount a mass parachute drop which will then be followed by a memorial service, located at the statue of Field Marshall Montgomery in Colleville-Montgomery.

On June the 6th, a joint UK-French service of remembrance will take place at Bayeux Cathedral, followed by a special event at the Bayeux Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetary. IWM Duxford (UK) held an air show in remembrance of the occasion on the 24th and 25th of May, while at the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth (UK), visitors will be able to take part in celebrations running from the 3rd to the 8th of June, including meeting and greeting Veterans not visiting Normandy.

In the US, the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, will be holding a comprehensive calendar of events across the 6th to the 8th of June, including a commemorative service, a movie night, a parade and an orchestral event. As well as this, Whiskey 7, the WWII warplane currently housed at the National Warplane Museum in New York, will make a return journey to Normandy as part of the Return to Normandy Project. At the invitation of the French Government, the Douglas C-47 will fly for the festivities and will once again drop troops into Normandy, though this time, as a celebration.

And those are just a few of the big ones.

I have struggled for many weeks to find the words to truly express what the Normandy Landings mean to the world. Ingenious military strategy, the strength of the character of mankind, a desperate bid for freedom… Hope? Perhaps the landings are all of these. Perhaps, in some ways, they are none. After all, soldiers from the opposing side had to die too. But there is little doubt in my mind that the victory of the Western Allies on that day helped to shape the world into what it is now. That probably isn’t saying much, because Humans are still squabbling over things such as race, religion and land. But no matter what is going on in the world, I do not believe that those men died in vain. Without them, without the success of the landings, things would have been very different. And that, is worth remembering.

INTERESTING OBSCURE FACT

Pt. Bill Millin, Lord Lovat’s piper, was the only man during the landings who wore a kilt (the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn during WW1), and German snipers claimed that the reason they did not shoot him was because they thought he was crazy. Millin went into the landings carrying only his bagpipes and his Sgian Dubh (a small knife kept inside his kilt-hose on the right side).