D-Day beaches history · History of D-Day beaches
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History of D-Day beaches
History of D-Day beaches
On June 6, 1944 ? now known to as D-Day ? Operation Overlord, the long-awaited invasion of Northwest Europe, began with Allied landings on the coast of Normandy. The task was formidable, for the Germans had turned the coastline into an interlinked series of strongpoints, each with guns, pillboxes, barbed wire, land mines, and beach obstacles. Following an extensive bombardment of the assault areas, the Allies launched a simultaneous landing of U.S., British, Canadian and French forces on five separate beaches code named:
Sword Beach (British)
Juno Beach (Canadian)
Gold Beach (British)
Omaha Beach (American)
Utah Beach (American)
Troops from three airborne divisions descended by parachute and glider on the flanks of the invasion area. The American 82nd and 101st airborne divisions were dropped into a zone at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, and secured their objectives. The British 6th Airborne Division at the eastern end captured key bridges over the Caen Canal and Orne River. When the seaborne units began to land about 6:30 AM on June 6, the allied soldiers stormed the beaches against fierce opposition from German gun positions and mined beach obstacles. The soldiers raced across the wide-open beaches swept with machine gun fire, and stormed the gun positions. In fierce hand-to-hand fighting, they fought their way into the towns and hills and then advanced inland.
By the end of the day the 3rd British Division was within three miles of Caen, the 3rd Canadian Division was well established on its intermediate objectives and the 50th Division was only two miles from Bayeux. In the American zone, the 4th Division had established a 4-mile deep penetration inland and was within reach of Ste-Mere-Eglise, where the 82nd had fought throughout the night. The assault forces at "Omaha" beach had met fierce resistance, incurring significant casualties, but here too, beachheads had been established.
It was a magnificent accomplishment; the formidable Atlantic Wall had been successfully breached. By the end of D-Day, the Allies had landed more than 150,000 troops in France by sea and air, 6,000 vehicles including 900 tanks, 600 guns and about 4,000 tons of supplies and, astonishingly, had achieved complete surprise in doing it. More soldiers and supplies were pouring ashore to continue the advance on D-Day-plus-one. The victory was a turning point in World War II and led to the liberation of Europe and the defeat of Nazi Germany.
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D-Day beaches Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.