The need for an invasion
By 1942, Germany occupied much of North-west Europe and began to fortify the coastline by building the “Atlantic Wall” to deter any attempt by the Allies to retake countries they had occupied.
However, as soon as the United States entered the war, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the Allies created the "Combined Chiefs of Staff" (CCS) to advise President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill on overall strategy. From March 1942, they began working on outline plans for a full-scale invasion to liberate Europe which they initially hoped would take place in 1943. Eventually, it took until May of that year, for the Allied leaders, meeting at the Trident Conference in Washington, to agree on a plan for an invasion in 1944. General Dwight D Eisenhower became the Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), with General Bernard Montgomery commanding the 21st Army Group which was then made up of all allied land-based forces taking part.
However, as soon as the United States entered the war, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the Allies created the "Combined Chiefs of Staff" (CCS) to advise President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill on overall strategy. From March 1942, they began working on outline plans for a full-scale invasion to liberate Europe which they initially hoped would take place in 1943. Eventually, it took until May of that year, for the Allied leaders, meeting at the Trident Conference in Washington, to agree on a plan for an invasion in 1944. General Dwight D Eisenhower became the Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), with General Bernard Montgomery commanding the 21st Army Group which was then made up of all allied land-based forces taking part.
Why Normandy?
The coastline of Normandy was chosen as the location of the landing site, over the closer and more obvious location of the Pas-de-Calais; the stretch of coast directly across the Strait of Dover. Following the disastrous Dieppe Raids, it was obvious an attack on a fortified port would not succeed. The Normandy Coast was still within range of aircraft flying from southern England, offered good ground conditions and its beaches had many exit routes onto a good road network. Moreover, the beach defences there were vulnerable to naval bombardment and the larger ports of Cherbourg and Dieppe were not too far away.
Deception
To mislead the Germans into expecting the invasion to occur elsewhere, and to make them think that any invasion launched in Normandy was merely a diversionary tactic, a huge deception plan Operation Fortitude was launched. Operation Fortitude South focussed on convincing the Germans that the invasion would start at Calais. The fictitious First United States Army Group under General George Patton was created and “deployed” to give the Germans the impression of a build-up of troops and equipment all over the south-east of England. As well as ingeniously designed dummy equipment (like the barges below) , fake radio traffic was transmitted and received by mobile units and information was carefully leaked to double agents, to complete the illusion. As the invasion became more imminent, heavy bombing of Calais was stepped up to further convince Hitler that the invasion would occur there.
Preparations: Planning
Meanwhile, the real preparations were underway. Meticulous planning, preparation and training took place across the World so that by June 1944, the Allies were strategically and logistically best placed to succeed. It would prove a highly complex task of monumental proportions which would require incredibly detailed plans, outlining specific landing areas, exact times and detailed orders for all involved. The overall invasion plan was given the codename "Overlord" with the amphibious phase codenamed "Neptune."
Early plans involved a 25 mile stretch of the Calvados coastline but very soon this was doubled, and an additional stretch of the coast closer to Cherbourg, on the Cotentin Peninsula was added to ensure that this strategic port could be captured more quickly.
Early plans involved a 25 mile stretch of the Calvados coastline but very soon this was doubled, and an additional stretch of the coast closer to Cherbourg, on the Cotentin Peninsula was added to ensure that this strategic port could be captured more quickly.
The targeted coastline was divided into 5 different sectors with the Americans assigned to land at the two most westerly sectors codenamed Utah and Omaha, the British at Sword and Gold, and the Canadians at Juno. Five naval assault divisions were created, one for each Beachhead. The 5 beaches were subdivided into sectors named after the letters in the phonetic alphabet from “Able” in the west of Omaha to “Roger” on the eastern flank of Sword and each sector was further subdivided into green, white and red. Utah beach divided into Tare Green, Uncle Red, and Victor.
With the doubling of the target coastline, many more landing craft were required and the shortage of their supply delayed the original start date, first set as 1st May, by a month (the invasion had to coincide with a full moon) and also led to the postponement of a planned secondary seaborne invasion via the south of France called Operation Dragoon.
This ambitious plan would take complex and detailed planning and a huge amount of personnel and equipment.
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The sheer numbers of personnel involved were enormous.
By June 1944, 2,876,600 soldiers, sailors and airmen (about half of whom had travelled from North America) had gathered in Britain - so many in fact, that they joked that Britain was only being kept afloat by the large number of barrage balloons attached to her. All had undergone rigorous training to prepare them for combat and countless exercises had been carried out as they rehearsed assaults. |
American Soldiers - there are some intriguing facts.... As recruitment ramped up, the US army was recruiting 11,000 men a day. Selection standards fell......
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A huge amount of equipment or “materiel” (a term used for all supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain) was required. British factories increased production and in the first half of 1944. approximately 9 million tonnes of American and Canadian supplies and equipment crossed the Atlantic from North America to Britain - a contribution only made possible by the Allied victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.
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Special technology was developed ; one of the disadvantages of choosing Normandy was the lack of a large port on the landing zone; Cherbourg would be captured too late to resupply the first waves of the assualt. Two ingenious artificial ports called Mulberry Harbours were designed, whose components (such as huge floating concrete blocks) would be built in Britain and towed across the Channel where they would be constructed at Arromanches and St-Laurent-sur-mer.
Specialised equipment was invented, such as Hobart’s Funnies, a range of specially adapted Sherman, Churchill and other tanks equipped with a mine flail, a flame thrower, scaling equipment, bobbins of matting , or demolition guns and one, the Duplex-Drive tank or DD tank was a self-propelled amphibious tank kept afloat using a waterproof canvas screen. |
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Operation Pluto "pipeline underwater transportation of oil" was a complex plan to lay 60-mile-long pipelines under the sea to take valuable fuel for the invasion across the Channel.
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Exercises were carried out to prepare the soldiers, sailors and airmen. Some ended in disaster, such as OPERATION TIGER, carried out at Slapton Sands which was chosen because the ground conditions were so similar to those in Normandy. 2 German U Boats created havoc and 700 men died. But gradually, a state of readiness was acheived.
Members of the SAS were dropped behind enemy lines all over France to work with the Resistance,
Members of the SAS were dropped behind enemy lines all over France to work with the Resistance,
There were many additional factors which contributed to preparations during this time; Allied control of the Atlantic was a pre-requisite to success and hard won mastery of the skies gave air superiority enabled vital intelligence to be gathered by aerial reconnaissance. The Germans were forced to deploy valuable resources away from the western front, by the campaigns in Italy and along the Eastern Front and Allied strategic bombing campaigns weakened German industry.
Marshalling
In May, troops began to head to Marshalling Camps or Concentration Areas in the south pf England to be nearer the ports they would ultimately sail from, although no details of locations, destinations or dates were known. Huge convoys of vehicles headed south along congested roads, and averaged 25 miles every two hours. Every two hours, on the even hour, there would be a 10 minute rest. Journeys were long and hot, with many waterproofed vehicles struggling in the hot spring weather. Troops slept along the roads, in hedgerows, under vehicles and wherever billets could be secured. Whenever they stopped, vehicles would be comouflaged by nets pinned out to disguise their shape so that the Germans would remain unaware of the huge accummulation of men.
Once at Marshalling Areas, security was intense. No contact with the outside world was permitted and the public were kept away from perimeter fences. The wait was long but preparations continued. Soldiers dressed as Germans would walk around to give the waiting troops an idea of what the enemy looked like.
Once at Marshalling Areas, security was intense. No contact with the outside world was permitted and the public were kept away from perimeter fences. The wait was long but preparations continued. Soldiers dressed as Germans would walk around to give the waiting troops an idea of what the enemy looked like.
Thought provoking Logistic Statistics....
The British alone used 1 million square yards of camo net to conceal troops and their vehicles as they travelled to and congregated in marshalling areas.
SHAEF estimated each soldier would need 41.2981lbs of supplies - including food, bullets, chewing gum etc.
Each US Major General was given 100 silver stars and 300 purple hearts to award as required.
Overlord was allocated 8,000 doctors, 600,000 doses of penicillin, 50 tonnes sulfur, 800,000 pints of blood - enough to last for 2 weeks.
The British alone used 1 million square yards of camo net to conceal troops and their vehicles as they travelled to and congregated in marshalling areas.
SHAEF estimated each soldier would need 41.2981lbs of supplies - including food, bullets, chewing gum etc.
Each US Major General was given 100 silver stars and 300 purple hearts to award as required.
Overlord was allocated 8,000 doctors, 600,000 doses of penicillin, 50 tonnes sulfur, 800,000 pints of blood - enough to last for 2 weeks.
Loading
Loading of the huge flotilla that would cross the Channel, had began on May 4th in every one of the 22 large ports from Felixstowe to Milford Haven and in ports further north like Hull, Glasgow, Liverpool and Belfast. Day after day and night after night the loading continued.
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More Logistic Statistics.... The Americans loaded 301,000 vehicles, 1,800 locomotives 20,000 railcars, 2.6 million small arms, 2,700 artillery pieces, 300, 000 telephone poles, 60 million K rations (enough for a month) and 7 million tonnes of fuel. 3000 tonnes of maps for DDay were loaded - the first of a further 210 million that would be used before the end of the war |
D-Day Objectives
On May 5th 1944, the allied leaders met in the "Model Room" at St Paul's School in London (the HQ of the 21st Army Group) , to rehearse the invasion. Top secret maps, plans and models were presented to outline how the invasion would proceed and the specific objectives of D-day itself were shared.
The final plan for D-Day, was ambitious… naval and air bombardment and the deployment of airborne troops on the flanks, would precede the beach landings of the Naval phase - Codenamed Operation Neptune and after the 5 assault forces had secured their respective beachheads, they would press on quickly inland to capture Carentan, Saint-Lô, Caen, and Bayeux on the first day, with all the beaches except Utah, linked up to form a frontline 10 miles inland from the coast.
The plan was extensive - the US First Army plan for Operation Overload alone contained more words than "Gone with the Wind".
The final plan for D-Day, was ambitious… naval and air bombardment and the deployment of airborne troops on the flanks, would precede the beach landings of the Naval phase - Codenamed Operation Neptune and after the 5 assault forces had secured their respective beachheads, they would press on quickly inland to capture Carentan, Saint-Lô, Caen, and Bayeux on the first day, with all the beaches except Utah, linked up to form a frontline 10 miles inland from the coast.
The plan was extensive - the US First Army plan for Operation Overload alone contained more words than "Gone with the Wind".
Finally, the date was set - 5th June would be D-Day.
Last minute preparations
In the final month leading up to D-Day, some hastily organised "enhancements" to the plans were put in place at the last minute, leading to long forgotten logistical emergencies...........
- A late decision to waterproof all vehicles to 54" of water was made, requiring vehicles to be covered in grease, asbestos and sulfur. It took 300 man hours to get a Sherman tank ready.
- The English company contracted to produce 10,000 metal crosses to be taken to France to mark graves, missed their target and so wooden crosses were hastily made.
- A decision to paint 3 white stripes on the wings of every allied aircraft required 300,000 brushes to be found and so much white paint that the British paint industry was thrown into turmoil.
Eventually, June 5th arrived. The hour of liberation had almost come.
