The liberation of continental Europe was not only a matter of honor for the allied coalition, but the Russians constantly demanded that this be done. It was an open secret that the landing was to take place on the coast of France, but its time, place and method were kept strictly secret.

The ill-fated raid on Dieppe (August 19, 1942) The paratroopers, mostly Canadians, were defeated by the Germans, losing 4,350 people (mostly prisoners), 1 destroyer, 33 landing craft, 106 aircraft and 33 tanks. The Germans lost 46 aircraft and 600 people killed . – Ed.) and the smaller subsequent raids stimulated the Germans to improve their defenses, and also taught the Allies many lessons to teach them and gave them a wealth of important information. The Germans expected that the landing would take place more likely through the Pas de Calais (however, Hitler, with his famous instinct, guessed that the landing would be in Normandy. - Ed.), because here was the shortest distance by sea to the mainland and there were the least difficult sections of terrain. But with possible Allied landings in many places, German troops were scattered along the coast and their defenses lacked depth. Nevertheless, the Atlantic Wall was impressive - with guns of all calibers in equipped firing positions. In some places, the thickness of the reinforced concrete of the pillboxes reached 3 m.

To this must be added areas of flooding, anti-tank ditches, minefields, obstacles to landing, barbed wire coastal barriers, mines above and below the surface of the water, natural obstacles such as rocks were used as much as possible. Miniature remote-controlled Goliaths or Beetles were at the ready. In some areas that were likely sites for airborne landings, the Germans prepared fields of sharp stakes mixed with barbed wire (called "Rommel's asparagus") for the paratroopers.

ALLIED LANDING IN NORMANDY

The Germans in the west had about 60 (38. – Ed.) divisions, but they were scattered. (A total of 179 divisions and 5 German brigades, the most combat-ready ones, operated against the USSR on the Soviet-German front. – Ed.) In Normandy, only a few of these troops were used in coastal defense. The divisions faced by the Allied invasion were second class, with the exception of one. This was the 352nd Division, defending a section of the coast that was listed on Allied operational maps as "Omaha" (the landing site of the US 1st Army. - Ed.). The 716th Division was west of the Orne River, the 91st, 709th, 77th and 243rd Divisions were located on the Cotentin Peninsula. The 21st Panzer Division was positioned southeast of Caen in readiness for a counterattack. The 12th Panzer Division and the Panzer Training Division, part of the I SS Panzer Corps, which was deployed along the Seine east of Paris, could only be activated by direct order from Berlin. There were 17 German divisions along the Pas-de-Calais coast, including several tank divisions, but they also could not move without permission from their superiors.

From radio intercepts of conversations between military police jeeps in England, the Germans knew which units were in England and where they were located. The unexpected cessation of such negotiations meant a period of alarm, which was noted in time by German intelligence, but due attention was not paid to timely notification of the threat of invasion.

Maintaining a beachhead on the mainland after landing would require a huge and sustained effort, and it was essential for the Americans to capture the port here as quickly as possible so that a reliable supply line from the United States could be activated. The port chosen in advance for this was Cherbourg. Having a good port was essential because supplies for the stretched-out troops would quickly become inadequate if routed across an unsuitable coastline.

Allied air force commanders believed that the invasion was unnecessary. They even refused to take part in it, and the Supreme Commander had to threaten them with dismissal. Allied aviation was required to take control of coastal territories and waters, supporting the planned invasion in a coordinated manner. It seemed to Air Force commanders that Germany could be defeated by bombing alone. Continuing the aerial bombardment of Germany, in early 1944 they began bombing cargo transported by rail in France, intensifying them as May approached. The Air Force also disabled many German radar stations, deliberately leaving ten of them operational. The operation of these stations was to be disrupted just before the invasion - with the help of aircraft, ships, barrage balloons and strips of foil dropped from aircraft.

Air and naval units laid mines in the English Channel for three weeks before the invasion to protect the flanks of the landing craft convoys. Twelve flotillas of minesweepers were assigned to ensure that the route was clear for the caravans. But these were only some of the preparations made. The breadth and scale of the plans were enormous.

The troop movements in England were divided into attack forces, follow-up forces, pre-build-up forces (all of which began landing on D-Day), plus regular reinforcements and replenishment centers that would use returning ships to embark new troops. The military equipment was marked with clearly recognizable color codes and numbers. Troops in England gradually moved out from their basing and combat training areas to concentration areas, then formed up and moved to loading areas. American troops departed from the western ports of England, and British troops from the eastern and southern ports of the British coast. The troops' supplies had to be prepared in prefabricated artificial harbors or floating docks called "mulberries", protected by jetties called "gooseberries". The British artificial harbor was to be located (after the success of the landing) at Arromanches, and the American harbor at Saint Laurent. It took one hundred tugboats to drag these gigantic structures across the English Channel. In addition, a pipeline called “Pluto” was to be laid across the English Channel to pump fuel. Even by the end of the first day of the invasion, the plan already called for 1,500 tanks, 5,000 other tracked vehicles, 3,000 guns, and 10,500 wheeled vehicles on the shore.

To assist the invasion forces, the French underground was to be raised to commit sabotage on wire communication lines in order to disrupt German communications. The plan for landing the advancing troops was dictated in part by the number of landing craft available, which was limited by the need for them in other theaters of war. The Navy contributed 4,200 landing craft, 1,200 merchant ships and 700 naval ships. In total, there were 9 thousand ships in the fleet, including transport ships and missile-carrying ships (something like Katyushas on ships. - Ed.), landing craft, minesweepers, control ships, buoy installation ships, etc., most of which carried barrage balloons for protection against enemy aircraft. There were also 1,658 airborne landing aircraft, 867 special gliders (for the same purposes), 2,000 heavy bombers and 11,000 medium bombers and fighters. All this and a lot of other equipment had to be organized in such a way that each formation corresponded to its place in the battle order.

The adopted plan assumed that US forces would advance on both sides of the Bay of Grand Veu (at Carentan), capture Cherbourg and link up with the British at Saint-Lo. The British and Canadians were to advance east of the US forces, on Villers-Bocage, Saint-Lo and Caen. On the way of the Americans there were several swampy areas, and the British (including the Canadians) were waiting for many small German strongholds in villages, and then a wooded area with clearings, forest belts in fields, embankments and ditches, unsuitable for maneuvering armored vehicles.

The coast on which the landing took place was divided from west to east as follows.

The flanks were to be protected by landing two airborne divisions on the Cotentin Peninsula and one airborne division east of the landing site. The boundaries of the British area of ​​responsibility on the coast were marked by two mini-subs pulling buoys.

The US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were to land southeast and west of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in two echelons to secure the line along the Douve River. The first echelon consisted mostly of paratroopers (with a few gliders), and the second included gliders in tow from the aircraft. In the second echelon there were several semi-armored jeeps. Each division also had an amphibious echelon with tanks, bulldozers, trucks and heavy weapons. The task of the airborne divisions was to blockade German reserves that would try to reinforce the coastal defense units, and attack the German positions on the coast from the rear.

The British 6th Airborne Division, composed partly of parachute troops and partly of glider troops, was to land north and east of Caen. Like the US airborne forces, the British had a second airborne echelon and an amphibious echelon, but only they had drop-drop tanks and special amphibious armored recovery vehicles for use in the event of a contingency landing operation.

A significant force had to remain in England for three weeks to mislead the Germans - this left open the threat of another landing in the Pas de Calais Strait, which would force troops to remain there. These Allied forces would then land to reinforce the final push into France from a beachhead. To make this deception even more reliable, the troops remaining in England, every day following the invasion, were loaded onto ships, which set sail at dusk, and at nightfall returned to the ports and unloaded.

Basic landing tactics differed between the Americans and the British. The Americans planned to send forward an echelon of DD amphibious tanks, five minutes ahead of the infantry following them, with another echelon at hour "H", and a minute later to land the first echelon of attacking infantry. They were followed in turn by army and naval combat swimmers and sappers at H hour plus three minutes to undermine coastal obstacles and fortifications. Then, starting at H-hour plus thirty minutes and every seven minutes thereafter, another echelon of infantry and support troops landed.

DD tanks were so called because they were equipped with double propellers, hence the name Duplex Drive (double engine. – Ed.). The tanks were covered with a collapsible inflatable canvas pontoon, held together by rubber tubes. This device made the Sherman an amphibious tank; Upon reaching the shore, the canvas pontoon could quickly “deflate”, that is, the air came out of the tubes, and the canvas cover was dropped so that the weapons could be used.

According to the plan, there should have been 400 tanks of all types on the coast within three minutes after the initial landing at H-hour plus three minutes, 1,500 by the evening of D-Day, and 4,200 15 days after D-Day. All vehicles, with the exception of DD tanks, could overcome water obstacles up to 1.8 m deep.

The British planned to use much more armored vehicles relative to infantry (in percentage terms) than the Americans did in the initial phase of the offensive. The Americans were going to use DD tanks, which followed the standard of the Sherman tanks, and tank destroyers M-10 and M-36 (both on the Sherman chassis, the latter with a 90 mm gun), which were landed from landing ships in addition to the bulldozers tanks and unarmed bulldozers. The British, in addition to using DD tanks (as lead tanks in the offensive), planned to rely heavily on the specialized armor of the 79th Panzer Division. It was a force of 1,500 tracked vehicles, the likes of which were unique in the US Army. The Americans were offered the division's special armored vehicles, but were skeptical about their usefulness.

These specialized armored vehicles included “Crabs”, or minesweeper tanks, with a striker trawl for detonating mines, AVRES engineering tanks, i.e. landing craft - “Churchills” with devices for ejecting high-explosive charges, bulldozer tanks, “arks” (“Churchilly” with bridge equipment); AVRES with explosives carried external booms (or were held in the hands of crew members), Churchills with Bullshorn plow mine trawls for digging mines out of soft soil or alumina of the coast, 20-mm and 40-mm anti-tank guns on a tank chassis " Crusader and Centaur, Crocodiles (Churchill flamethrower tanks), Reels (Churchills with bobbins or spools of mild steel or canvas - for making a path in the swamps), Churchills carrying Chespale fascines, memory of the First World War, and, finally, the standard “Cromwells” and “Churchills”. Thus, devices were available for throwing bridges over piers and concrete walls, anti-mine devices, means for filling craters or passing through soft soil, as well as for destroying coastal barriers. Mine-resistant tank rollers were also on standby, but they were later abandoned because casualties among the crew members of striker-trawled tanks required their replacement by trained personnel.

Both armies used rescue armored vehicles, but only the British brought with them special amphibious armored recovery vehicles BARV (Beach Armored Recover Vehicles) based on the American Sherman tank to solve the problems of rescuing vehicles in an amphibious operation. The Shermans had their turrets removed and a superstructure with scuppers added.

Shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, paratroop signalmen were dropped ahead of the first echelons of airborne troops to mark the boundaries of the landing areas of parachute and other assault forces with special signs. Through no fault of their own, the signalmen failed to complete their tasks in the US landing zone. The flights of the landing aircraft were coordinated with the flights of their own bombers and fighters. Since many amphibious aircraft and gliders were used, this was extremely important given the congestion of the airspace. American planes flew over the sea to the west of the Cotentin Peninsula, then sharply turned east to the landing site and, having dropped people, gliders and cargo, headed south to gain altitude, and after that - back to the north, already east of the peninsula. The British flew south of Caen, moved in a circle to the east and, having dropped their paratroopers, returned. Most of the glider troops were sent out after daylight. Much military equipment was lost and many gliders crashed, especially those landing at night. The American troops were scattered over a large area. After the initial landing, the landing of the second echelon began.

Fifty special detachments of the fifth column were also dropped from the air, and the French underground was alerted. Teams of submariners-explosives or combat swimmers were used for the first time, but they did not begin to operate until hour "H" plus three minutes. These operations were not well coordinated because there was little interest in them before the invasion. As a result, losses among combat swimmers were high, and during their joint actions with the troops, the landing infantry had to be warned against operating in the areas of disruptive operations of combat swimmers.

At about the same time as the airdrops were being carried out, British Bomber Command began bombing the invasion area in and behind it. This task continued to be carried out by the US Army Air Forces after dawn, but the overcast conditions at Omaha required instrument bombing. The medium bombers flew lower, but some bombs were not dropped, others were dropped into the sea, and some three miles inland. This was due to the fact that the Air Force changed the plan, which involved bombing parallel to the coast. Instead, the planes bombed in the direction of the landing from the sea. As a result, such area bombing proved to be of little use in support of the landings. Deep in French territory, heavy bombers bombed bridges over the Seine (east of the landing site) and across the Loire (south of the landing site), forcing German reinforcements to detour. This is despite the fact that the Germans did not have local commanders (the commander of the 7th Army, which defended this area, was on exercises in Brittany; the commander of the troops on the English Channel coast, Rommel left for Germany the day before the invasion, for his wife’s birthday in the city of Ulm , and on the morning of June 6th he was going to visit Hitler - because he knew that the sea would be rough. Ed.), and the commander of the troops on the Western Front, Rundstedt, had to obtain approval from Berlin for any movement of troops. All this made it possible to create a bridgehead, but for some time it was associated with great risk.

Due to a failure with paratroop signalmen, the US 101st Airborne Division landed in a wide area of ​​25 x 40 km instead of the planned limited area northwest of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. One regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division hit close enough to the intended location, but other units of the division were scattered and all lost large amounts of equipment. However, there was one advantage to this misunderstanding. It caused general confusion among the Germans, especially when added to the release of hundreds of doll paratroopers with fireworks attached to them. And besides, the US airborne landings took place in the area where only one German division was deployed, which was not warned that an invasion was imminent. One of the reasons for the wide dispersion of the American landing force was that there were too many inexperienced pilots in the second echelon of gliders. Intense anti-aircraft fire forced them, like the pilots of towing aircraft, to choose evasive tactics and go off course.

The British 6th Airborne Division was dropped into a much more compact area to take the River Orne. This division was the only one to use tanks. Its tanks were light Mk VII "Tetrarch" (weight 7.62 tons. Crew 3 people. Armament - 40 mm cannon and machine gun. Armor thickness: 16 mm front, 14 mm side, 4-16 mm turret, speed up to 64 km /h), eight of these tanks carried Hamilcar gliders, flying in the second echelon. The tanks' engines were started while they were still being transported by air. One tank failed, breaking the nose of the glider, over the English Channel. The rest landed on land. One glider landed nose-first and caught fire, but the tank driver managed to break through the fire and get out alive. Most of the grounded tanks were immobilized as they drove through the fields, freed from their parachutes, which became entangled in gears and tracks. Another eight Tetrarchs were delivered with the amphibious echelon and were used as dug-in or mobile strong points. The Tetrarchs were later replaced by twelve Cromwells delivered by sea.

News reports that air-dropped US M-22 tanks were used in the invasion were untrue, although they had previously been provided to the British for this purpose. However, the Tetrarchs' weapons were better suited as anti-tank weapons than the M-22's weapons.

While the airborne landings were being carried out, the fleet was delivering amphibious assault forces to the coast. The invasion was originally scheduled for June 1, delayed until June 5, and again delayed by one day. The fleet turned back, reassembled on the morning of June 5 and sailed again. Mine sweepers were ahead, removing mines and marking ten passages of the sea route. On a moonlit night, the fleet sailed undetected under a huge air “umbrella” of cover. 170 fighter squadrons were committed to the invasion, and 10 squadrons were constantly maintained to fly over the coast.

The wind was 15–20 knots (1 knot = 1.87 km/h) and the waves were 1.5 to 2.1 m high. This put small ships in a very difficult situation, and thousands of soldiers became seasick. On the Utah section of the coast, the wind decreased somewhat and the waves became less high. LCVP landing craft, each carrying thirty soldiers, carried the troops, while LCT tank landing ships with armored vehicles were at sea, about 20 km away from the larger ships. The shelling of the coast from naval guns began at 5.21 - from 6 (seven. - Ed.) battleships, 2 monitors, 22 (24. – Ed.) cruisers and 93 destroyers (74. – Ed.). At 5.35 German coastal batteries opened fire, and at 5.50 the naval guns switched to firing smoke shells, followed by the bombing of the future bridgehead by 9 thousand aircraft, most of whose bombs, as already mentioned, were wasted. The destroyers provided close fire support for the landing force, and as the forward echelon approached, missile-armed ships carrying two hundred 5-inch (127 mm) rocket-propelled mortars provided even more effective close fire support. Self-propelled artillery units supported the paratroopers with dagger fire while still on their landing ships.

The actual landing on the Utah and Omaha coasts (American 1st Army) began at 6.30, and between 7.30 and 8.00 on the Gold, Juneau and Sword coasts (British 2nd Army) . On part of the coast of British responsibility, the landing was delayed until later due to fluctuations in the tides.

On the coast of the Utah sector, the 4th Division was organized into a column of regiments of two battalions along the front (a front of 2000 m). It was to occupy the coast and move west to link up with the 82nd Airborne Division. Each landing ship delivered an assault team of thirty people to a distance of about 100 m from the shore, and the soldiers waded the remaining section of shallow water. The DD tanks were supposed to be launched 6.5 km from the coast, but were delivered to a distance of just over 3 kilometers because the coastline provided some protection from the wind. Two companies of the 70th Tank Battalion with DD tanks were launched to the left, but instead of arriving ahead of the infantry at H hour minus five minutes, most of the surviving vehicles arrived fifteen minutes late, although some tanks landed with the first echelon of infantry and helped the infantrymen overcome about 500 m of open space on the coast. Four tanks that did not reach the shore were blown up along the way in an underwater minefield.

At Varreville, two companies of DD tanks from the 743rd Tank Battalion were landed on the right, eight of them arrived on time, the rest with the first echelon. The marshy sections of the coast did not stop the tanks, which were moving inland along the ruts, etc. 32 M4A1 Sherman tanks from the two remaining companies of the two tank battalions were delivered to the shore shortly after the landing of the first echelon.

It was necessary to continue moving inland to make room for subsequent echelons. On the Utah section of the coast this was not a big deal. Although the landing was made 1.5 km south of the intended location (due to the underwater current, as well as smoke and dust covering the shore marks), the landing force did not have any particular difficulties in advancing through the swampy areas, and it did not suffer large losses.

Things were different at the Omaha landing site. There the German defense was impressive. Preliminary Allied gunfire was not very effective, although some of the German mines were blown up. However, after H-hour the artillery provided good support in suppressing German fire and in disrupting German counterattacks. The 2nd Ranger Battalion landed at Pont d'Uy. The strike groups of the 1st and 29th divisions attacked the sloping sandy and rocky shores between Verville and Port-en-Bessin, and their landing was hindered by waves, and then high steep coastal cliffs.Two companies of DD tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion, which were supposed to land ahead of the infantry at H hour minus five minutes, were lowered by the irresponsible commander of the LCT tank landing ship into the open sea, almost 6 km from the shore. minutes twenty-seven of the thirty-two tanks sank, and only two reached the shore. Three other tanks were unable to escape from their LCT due to the fact that the ramp was jammed, and they were brought ashore in the same way as the others. On the shore The tanks had difficulty getting their tracks to grip on unsteady surfaces.

Thirty-two M4A1 tanks of the 741st Battalion, which were also supposed to land in front of the 29th Infantry Division, were prevented by high waves and were driven ashore along with the M4A1 with bulldozer equipment belonging to the third company. Two of the sixteen bulldozer tanks sank along with their LCT.

The first echelon was followed by combat swimmers and sappers, then subsequent echelons of infantry and armored vehicles. The DUKWs, or amphibious trucks, that were delivering the artillery sank and the troops were deprived of their planned artillery support. Because the troops were pinned down by deadly German fire, they did not advance further into the territory, and the subsequent wave of landings caused complete chaos.

There were other problems along the Omaha section of the coast. The eastward drift was not as severe as it was off the Utah coast, but here it had more serious consequences. Each individual soldier's load was too great, and many soldiers wading to the shore drowned, as did many wounded on the beach at high tide. A failed attempt to destroy the coastal defenses with a preliminary bombardment slowed the advance of the first echelon - despite the fact that more and more troops accumulated behind the pier as subsequent echelons arrived ashore. In addition, the craters that were expected to appear as a result of carpet bombing were not found along the way. Many officers died and control of the troops was lost. The LCTs circled near the shore, realizing that the schedule had been disrupted, and were unsure whether to attempt further landings. The Germans tried to use their Goliaths to blow up landing ships that were approaching the shore. They were not very successful, but other German weapons inflicted heavy losses on the Allies. By 9.30 the situation became critical. Nevertheless, little by little, during the day, commanders somehow appeared on their own and small combat groups were formed, which began to seep into the interior of the country.

The British landing sites Gold, Juno and Sword fared slightly better. As with all airborne landings, the armored vehicles were to lead the way, but instead of DD tanks, the plan was to lead with squads of special armored vehicles. They were supposed to punch holes in the defenses that would allow infantry and other armored vehicles to break through. However, rough seas forced some changes.

Le Hamel on the Gold Coast was part of the area of ​​responsibility of the Marine commando commando units. One of these units was a tank support group. This unit was armed with eighty Centaur tanks equipped with 95 mm howitzers and twenty Sherman tanks. The Centaurs were secured by slings to the LCT at sea, and the Shermans came ashore as forward artillery observers to direct the fire from the Centaurs. Later, Centaurs were also landed and used to provide fire support several kilometers inland when the infantry advanced.

The 50th Division was landing to the left of the commandos. Ahead were special tank detachments. One landing craft was hit and the leading AVRE sank, cutting off the others until the tide went out. One passage made was blocked by an exploded Crab tank, and others were blocked by exploded AVREs. In some cases, the Crabs were the only tanks with guns on the shore. Several AVREs were used in the offensive either to fill craters or to clear some of the interfering vehicles out of the way. A few hours after the first landings, a regiment of thirty-six DD tanks of the 8th Tank Brigade was landed dry from the beached LCTs (because the waves did not allow the tanks to be launched immediately). Eleven tanks were lost on the beach, mostly due to mines.

The stormy sea also slowed down the landing of the armored vehicles following. At La Riviere, a bridge-laying tank built one bridge, which was used by DD tanks when moving deeper into the territory. Here ten DD tanks were destroyed by German fire.

On the Juneau beach, the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, which was supposed to land at 7:55 a.m., reached the shore thirty-five minutes later. The current carried the advancing echelons east of the intended landing sites. DD tanks of the 2nd Canadian Armored Division were launched into the water 800 m from the shore. Two tanks were lost along the way. Ten others arrived in time to get ahead of the troops and covered their landing. Twelve DD tanks of the 8th Canadian Armored Division were late. They were launched into the water 800 m from the shore, and four tanks were lost. Another group of DD tanks arrived an hour late and landed dry, losing three tanks already on the shore. At Saint-Aubin, on the eastern edge of the Canadian zone of responsibility, a tightly closed tank was trying to reach cover, running over the wounded and dead. The British Commando captain tried to get the crew's attention. When he failed, he enragedly blew up the tank's track with a hand grenade. But overall, the landing of the Canadians was quite successful. By 0100 hours a breakthrough had been made at La Riviere and the Canadian tank regiment advanced almost to Caen, but was withdrawn.

Ouistreham was stubbornly held by the Germans in the Sword coastal sector, but it was eventually taken with the help of AVRES tanks, after which a connection took place with the British 6th Airborne Division. The DD tanks were not launched because it was decided that the waves were too high, and they were beached directly from the landing craft along with the infantry. Crabs were originally used to create mine-free passages for infantry advances. On some banks with soft soil, the same task was performed by Bullshorn plow mine trawls, and it was in these places that bridgelayers and “reels” were used, but the coating made by the latter quickly became unusable as equipment moved along it. AVRES tanks and bulldozer tanks were used to level the surface of the territory and blow up piers.

The 41st Marine Commando Unit formed a link with the Juneau coastal site. The British 3rd Division, supported by the 27th Tank Brigade with DD tanks, was followed by eight teams of "coils", bridge tanks and other tanks. Many "Crabs" were hit, or their tracks were torn apart by mines. One part of thirty-four DD tanks was launched 5 km from the shore, and two tanks sank when the bow of the tank landing ship covering the ramp was deployed (due to the ship's poor position in relation to the waves). Many would have sunk if not for several shots from a British missile-armed ship, which attracted attention and forced the LCT to hastily change course. Five DD tanks hit mines as they reached the shore. One infantry battalion was supposed to be carried deep into the territory on these tanks, but since the tanks were late, the infantry advanced without them, and the tanks joined them later.

By nightfall in the Utah sector, troops had moved inland and along the coast to the north, linking up with the 101st Airborne Division west of Sainte-Marie-du-Maur, but linking up had not yet occurred with the division's units north of Carentan and with several groups of the 82nd Airborne Division in the Sainte-Mère-Eglise area. At Landing Omaha, small groups penetrated into several areas between St. Laurent and Colleville and south of Verville. Bayeux was taken on the Gold shoreline. At the Sword and Juneau landing sites, Allied troops penetrated 5 km into the territory.

The German 21st Panzer Division had occupied both banks of the Orne River outside Caen since midnight, but had received no orders. The commander, on his own initiative, sent a tank group forward at 6.30, and then a few hours later received the order to attack. The division went on the attack at 15.00. Eleven of her tanks were knocked out by British fire, but the rest reached the coast. As they approached, gliders from the second echelon of the British 6th Airborne Division began landing, throwing the Germans into confusion. They retreated some distance and dug in, remaining in place for several weeks. (The author, to put it mildly, is disingenuous. The Germans fought as hard as they could, but when they reached the shore, they came under fire from the 381-mm guns of the battleships and were forced to retreat, continuously repelling the enemy’s advance from the shore and being subjected to constant air raids from the sea, from the rear. O on the actions of the 21st German Panzer Division in Normandy, see, for example, the memoirs of Hans Luck “At the Edge of the Tank Wedge,” pp. 273–323. – Ed.)

US losses amounted to 33,326 people, and only 197 of them died on the Utah shore. Canadian casualties were 18,514, while British casualties were 15,595. 12 of 50 Crabs and 22 of 120 AVRES were disabled. (According to C. Ryan. The Longest Day Juneb, 1944, New York, 1959, p. 303, American losses on the first day of the operation amounted to 6603 people, including 1465 killed and 3184 wounded; the British and Canadians had about 4 thousand people killed, wounded and missing. – Ed.) British losses in other armored vehicles did not exceed fifty units. The US lost no more than 75 tanks. German losses are unknown, except that the 21st German Panzer Division lost 11 tanks. (Unknown to the author, German losses, primarily from air strikes and artillery shelling, were heavy. – Ed.)

It appears that the greater losses suffered by the Americans were due to their relative failure to employ armored vehicles in large numbers, as well as their ignorance of the opportunities offered to them by the specialized armored vehicles that the British had provided them with from their 79th Armored Division. It is quite difficult to understand the American position on this matter. Part of this is probably due to overconfidence. Part of this may have been due to American reluctance to accept British advice, even though it was based on the experience of Dieppe and other raids on German coastal defense positions in recent years. But despite these technical differences, there were not many shortcomings in the Allied planning of operations, and, of course, they were able to use the element of surprise.

The unified command of the allied coalition performed quite well in this first big test. The only major failure was the unilateral decision of the Army Air Forces to change the bombing plan, which reduced its effectiveness and led to unnecessary casualties among the troops landing on the coast.

On the other hand, the main weakness of the Germans was in the area of ​​unified command and in the interpretation of intelligence data. The commander of the German forces in Normandy (Rommel) was absent when the Allied invasion began. This certainly played a role, as did the fact that Hitler personally controlled the forces that could be used for a counterattack and prevented the adoption of measures that would have made the task of creating and holding a beachhead for the Allies much more difficult. (The total Allied losses in people from June 6 to July 24 were about 122 thousand, including 73 thousand Americans and 49 thousand British and Canadians. The Germans lost about 113 thousand people. - Ed.)

Both the escape from the European continent () and the landing in Normandy ("Overlode") are very different from their mythological interpretation...

Original taken from jeteraconte in Allied landing in Normandy... Myths and reality.

I I think that every educated person knows that on June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, and finally, the full opening of the second front. T Only the assessment of this event has different interpretations.
The same beach now:

Why did the Allies wait until 1944? What goals did you pursue? Why was the operation carried out so ineptly and with such significant losses, despite the overwhelming superiority of the Allies?
This topic was raised by many at different times, I will try to talk about the events that took place in the most understandable language possible.
When you watch American films like: "Saving Private Ryan", games " Call of Duty 2" or you read an article on Wikipedia, it seems that the greatest event of all times is described, and it was here that the entire Second World War was decided...
Propaganda has always been the most powerful weapon. ..

By 1944, it was clear to all politicians that the war was lost by Germany and its allies, and in 1943, during the Tehran Conference, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill roughly divided the world among themselves. In a little more time, Europe, and most importantly France, could have become communist if they had been liberated by Soviet troops, so the allies were forced to rush in time to share the pie and fulfill their promises to contribute to the common victory.

(I recommend reading “Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with US Presidents and British Prime Ministers during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945,” released in 1957, in response to the memoirs of Winston Churchill.)

Now let’s try to figure out what really happened and how. First of all, I decided to go and look at the terrain with my own eyes, and assess exactly what difficulties the troops landing under fire had to overcome. The landing zone takes about 80 km, but this does not mean that throughout these 80 km, paratroopers landed on every meter; in fact, it was concentrated in several places: "Sword", "Juno", "Gold", "Omaha Beach" and "Pointe d'oc".
I walked along this territory on foot along the sea, studying the fortifications that have survived to this day, visited two local museums, sifted through a lot of different literature about these events and talked with residents in Bayeux, Caen, Sommur, Fecamp, Rouen, etc.
It is very difficult to imagine a more mediocre landing operation, with the complete connivance of the enemy. Yes, critics will say that the scale of the landing is unprecedented, but the mess is the same. Even according to official sources, non-combat losses! were 35%!!! from total losses!
We read Wiki, wow, how many Germans resisted, how many German units, tanks, guns! By what miracle did the landing succeed???
The German troops on the Western Front were spread thinly over the territory of France and these units performed mainly security functions, and many could only be called combat ones. What is the division, nicknamed the “White Bread Division” worth? An eyewitness, English author M. Shulman, says: “After the invasion of France, the Germans decided to replace it with o. Walcheren was an ordinary infantry division, a division whose personnel suffered from stomach diseases. Bunkers on the island Walcheren was now occupied by soldiers who had chronic ulcers, acute ulcers, wounded stomachs, nervous stomachs, sensitive stomachs, inflamed stomachs - in general, all known gastritis. The soldiers vowed to stand until the end. Here, in the richest part of Holland, where white bread, fresh vegetables, eggs and milk were in abundance, the soldiers of the 70th Division, nicknamed the "White Bread Division", awaited the imminent Allied offensive and were nervous, for their attention was equally divided between the problematic threat and side of the enemy and real stomach disorders. This disabled division was led into battle by the elderly, good-natured Lieutenant General Wilhelm Deiser... Horrific losses among senior officers in Russia and North Africa were the reason that he was returned from retirement in February 1944 and appointed commander of a stationary division in Holland. His active service ended in 1941 when he was discharged due to heart attacks. Now, being 60 years old, he was not enthusiastic and did not have the ability to turn the defense of Fr. Walcheren in the heroic epic of German weapons."
In the German "troops" on the Western Front there were disabled and crippled people; to perform security functions in good old France, you do not need to have two eyes, two arms or legs. Yes, there were full-fledged parts. And there were also collected from various rabble, like the Vlasovites and the like, who only dreamed of surrendering.
On the one hand, the Allies assembled a monstrously powerful group, on the other hand, the Germans still had the opportunity to inflict unacceptable damage on their opponents, but...
Personally, I got the impression that the command of the German troops simply did not prevent the Allies from landing. But at the same time, he could not order the troops to raise their hands or go home.
Why do I think this? Let me remind you that this is the time when a conspiracy of the generals against Hitler is being prepared, secret negotiations are underway between the German elite on a separate peace, behind the back of the USSR. Allegedly, due to bad weather, aerial reconnaissance was stopped, torpedo boats curtailed reconnaissance operations,
(Most recently before this, the Germans sank 2 landing ships, damaged one during exercises in preparation for the landing and another was killed by “friendly fire”),
the command flies to Berlin. And this is at a time when the same Rommel knows very well from intelligence data about the impending invasion. Yes, he might not have known about the exact time and place, but it was impossible not to notice the gathering of thousands of ships!!!, preparation, mountains of equipment, training of paratroopers! What more than two people know, so does a pig - this old saying clearly reflects the essence of the impossibility of hiding preparations for such a large-scale operation as an invasion across the English Channel.
I'll tell you a few interesting points. Zone landings Pointe du Hoc. It is very famous; a new German coastal battery was supposed to be located here, but they installed old French 155 mm cannons, manufactured in 1917. In this very small area, bombs were dropped, 250 356 mm shells were fired from the American battleship Texas, as well as a lot of shells of smaller calibers. Two destroyers supported the landing with continuous fire. And then a group of Rangers on landing barges approached the shore and climbed the steep cliffs under the command of Colonel James E. Rudder, captured the battery and fortifications on the shore. True, the battery turned out to be made of wood, and the sounds of shots were imitated with explosive packages! The real one was moved when one of the guns was destroyed during a successful air raid a few days ago, and it is its photograph that can be seen on websites under the guise of the gun destroyed by the Rangers. There is a statement that the rangers did find this relocated battery and ammunition depot, oddly enough not guarded! Then they blew it up.
If you ever find yourself on Pointe du Hoc , you will see what used to be a “lunar” landscape.
Roskill (Roskill S. Fleet and War. M.: Voenizdat, 1974. T. 3. P. 348) wrote:
“Over 5,000 tons of bombs were dropped, and although there were few direct hits on the gun casemates, we managed to seriously disrupt enemy communications and undermine their morale. With the onset of dawn, the defensive positions were attacked by 1630 “liberators”, “flying fortresses” and medium bombers of the 8th and 9th air forces of the US Air Force... Finally, in the last 20 minutes before the approach of the assault waves, fighter-bombers and medium The bombers carried out a bomb attack directly on the defensive fortifications on the shore...
Shortly after 0530, the naval artillery unleashed a hail of shells along the entire 50-mile front of the coast; Such a powerful artillery strike from the sea had never been delivered before. Then the light guns of the advanced landing ships came into action, and finally, just before hour “H”, tank landing ships armed with missile launchers moved towards the shore; firing intensely with 127 mm rockets into the depths of the defense. The enemy practically did not respond to the approach of the assault waves. There was no aviation, and the coastal batteries did not cause any damage, although they fired several salvos at transports.”
A total of 10 kilotons of TNT equivalent, this is equivalent in power to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima!
Yes, the guys who landed under fire, at night on wet rocks and pebbles, who climbed a steep cliff, are heroes, but... The big question is how many Germans survived who were able to resist them after such air and artillery treatment? The rangers advancing in the first wave are 225 people... Losses in killed and wounded are 135 people. Data on German losses: more than 120 killed and 70 prisoners. Hmm... Great battle?
From 18 to 20 guns with a caliber of more than 120 mm were fired against the landing allies from the German side... In total!
With absolute Allied air supremacy! Supported by 6 battleships, 23 cruisers, 135 destroyers and destroyers, 508 other warships. 4,798 ships took part in the attack. In total, the Allied fleet included: 6,939 ships for various purposes (1,213 - combat, 4,126 - transport, 736 - auxiliary and 864 - merchant ships (some were in reserve)). Can you imagine the salvo of this armada along the coast over an area of ​​80 km?
Here's a quote:

In all sectors, the Allies suffered relatively small losses, except...
Omaha Beach, American landing zone. Here the losses were catastrophic. Many drowned paratroopers. When they hang 25-30 kg of equipment on a person, and then force him to parachute into the water, where the bottom is 2.5-3 meters, for fear of getting closer to the shore, then instead of a fighter, you get a corpse. At best, a demoralized person without weapons... The commanders of the barges carrying amphibious tanks forced them to land at depth, afraid to come close to the coast. In total, out of 32 tanks, 2 floated ashore, plus 3, which, the only captain who did not chicken out, landed directly on the shore. The rest drowned due to rough seas and the cowardice of individual commanders. There was complete chaos on the shore and in the water, the soldiers were rushing confusedly along the beach. The officers lost control of their subordinates. But still there were those who were able to organize the survivors and begin to successfully resist the Nazis.
It was here that Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt, fell heroically, who, like the deceased Yakov, Stalin’s son, did not want to hide in headquarters in the capital...
The casualties in this area are estimated at 2,500 Americans. The German corporal machine gunner Heinrich Severlo, later nicknamed the “Omaha Monster,” contributed his talents to this. He uses his heavy machine gun, as well as two rifles, while in a strong pointWiderstantnest62 killed and wounded more than 2,000 Americans! Such data makes you wonder if he had not run out of ammunition, would he have shot everyone there??? Despite huge losses, the Americans captured the empty casemates and continued the offensive. There is evidence that certain areas of the defense were surrendered to them without a fight, and the number of prisoners captured at all landing sites was surprisingly large. Why is it surprising though? The war was coming to an end and only the most fanatical adherents of Hitler did not want to admit it...

Mini museum between landing zones:

View of Pont d'Oc from above, craters, remains of fortifications, casemates.

View of the sea and rocks there:

Omaha Beach view of the sea and landing zone:

Many events claim to be the main battle of World War II, but in Europe there is no doubt that it was the Normandy landing operation and the events that followed it. Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Lavrov, in a conversation with RT, said that Western historians hush up the role of the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, focusing on the decisive role of the Western allies.

Vladimir Lavrov is confident that Germany would have been defeated even without the Allied landing in Normandy.

“The opening of the second front by the Americans and the British in 1944 was not the most important event, not a turning point, as is usually written in Western textbooks,” the historian believes. “This is a major operation for the West, they opened a second front, but they promised to open it much earlier.”

“The Americans enter the war, start dividing the pie, when they already need to get benefits, but without large losses, neither the Americans nor the British are used to fighting with large losses. We could have won without them,” Lavrov added.

The head of the German Agency for Global Communications, Professor Lorenz Haag, also believes that the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944 “are an important event, but the Second World War was won on the Eastern Front by the Red Army.”

“It was on the Eastern Front that the Wehrmacht lost 90% of its personnel,” he recalled. “Therefore, we should not overestimate the significance of this operation. If it had not taken place, World War II could have been completely won by the USSR.”

According to the expert, “the Allied landing in Normandy was of enormous military and political significance, primarily for the United States and Great Britain.” “The leaders of these countries understood that Nazi Germany would soon be defeated, and its only winner would be the USSR. The leaders of the USA and Great Britain took into account that delay in opening a second front would harm their interests in Europe after the end of the war,” said Lorenz Haag, ITAR-TASS reports.

“Given the contradictions between the USSR and Western countries, their hostility towards each other, solving this problem was previously not easy,” the historian believes. “The Allies’ promise to open a Second Front was not fulfilled either in 1942 or 1943,” the agency’s interlocutor recalled. “They waited and hoped that after a grueling war, the Soviet Union would be weakened and lose its significance as a great power. And the deployment of military operations in Western Europe would lead to the diversion of part of the German troops from the Eastern Front and, consequently, to the preservation of the forces of the Red Army.”

The professor believes that the war in Europe could have ended in 1943. “And if this did not happen, then the reason for this is the desire of the United States and especially England to outplay the USSR not in the fight against Nazi Germany, but in building the post-war world order. The costs were of little concern to London and Washington,” he said.

The famous British historian of the Second World War, James Holland, also believes that the landing of Allied forces in Normandy, contrary to the popular point of view, was not an exclusively American military operation.

“By the Normandy landings, many people only mean the fierce fighting of American and German troops in the Omaha area and the American parachute landing,” Holland notes in an article posted June 5 on the CNN website on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Operation Overlord. . According to him, such ideas were largely influenced by popular culture, including the famous film “Saving Private Ryan” and the television series “Band of Brothers.”

“The Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 were an allied operation in which Great Britain rather played the leading role. Yes, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe was the American General Dwight Eisenhower, but his deputy was the British Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Arthur Tedder. Three commanders of the armed forces were also British,” writes the researcher.

According to Holland, the plan for Operation Overlord was largely developed by British General Bernard Montgomery, the commander-in-chief of Allied ground forces in Europe, and the main responsibility for executing the landing fell on the British Navy.

Holland notes that as a result of the landing operation, the United States and Great Britain lost approximately equal numbers of people. The historian emphasizes that he does not diminish the merits of the American side, but strives to show the public a broader view of this important historical event.

According to information from open sources, the Normandy operation, or Operation Overlord, was the Allied strategic landing of troops in Normandy, which began in the early morning of June 6, 1944 and ended on August 31, 1944, after which the Allies crossed the Seine River, liberated Paris and continued their offensive. to the French-German border.

The operation opened the Western Front in Europe in World War II. More than 3 million people took part in the landing operation in Normandy, who crossed the English Channel from England to Normandy.