• D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in
history and was the turning point in World
War II.
• Between combined Allied forces nearly
156,000 troops on or supported by nearly
4,000 ships crossed the English Channel
landing the troops on five beaches in
Normandy.
• The beaches were stormed early that
morning supported by about 23,000 airborne
troops that had already landed behind enemy
lines or getting ready to land in support of
the beach assault and the push to Caen.
• D-Day -- 0100 The invasion begins. Glider and
paratroop units begin landing behind the
German beach defenses.
• British 6th Airborne Division dropped northeast
of Caen, near the mouth of the Orne River,
where it anchored the British eastern flank by
securing bridges over the river and the Caen
Canal.
• On the other side of the invasion area, the U.S.
101st and 82d Airborne Divisions dropped near
Ste. Mere-Eglise and Carentan to secure road
junctions and beach exits.
• Bridge over the Caen canal near the town of
Ouistreham (aka Benouville Bridge)
• It was a major objective of the British 6th
Airborne Division
• They used gliders to land near it during the
Normandy Invasion
• It was given the Pegasus name in honor of the
attacking British who wore a flying horse on
their shoulder
• The bridge was taken over to prevent a counter
attack from the eastern flank
• It was initially carried out by 181 soldiers, flour
platoons of D and two of B companies.
• Led by Major John Howard.
• The first glider to land was flown by SSgt. Jim
Wallwork and SSgt John Ainsworth (No. 92)
• They landed at 12:16 am pushing through the
first belt of barbed wire around the bridge. The
two pilots were catapulted from the glider thus
becoming the two first soldiers to set foot in
France on D-Day
• Everyone was unconscious, but when they
regained their senses a few seconds later, they
realized their crash did not alert the enemy.
 The enemy thought the noise was a piece of
debris falling from an allied bomber
• Lt. Den Brotheridge was the first to die by enemy
actions on D-Day during this battle
• While the two sides fought Royal engineers from
the 249th Field Company had ignored enemy fire
directed at them as they climbed over the bridge
looking for wires to cut and detonation devices
to remove.
• The Germans had placed the bombs for
demolition, but because the feared an
accidental explosion or sabotage by the
French Resistance they did not place
charges.
• The Germans did fight back but they would
not be able to defeat the British and many
fled the scene.
• Because parachute drops left troops
dispersed over a comparatively broad area,
the appeal of gliders lay in their ability to
deliver larger numbers of soldiers into a
smaller perimeter as a more cohesive fighting
force.
• Also, gliders could carry some wheeled
vehicles, mortars, and light artillery that could
not be parachuted from World War II cargo
transports. Essentially, the role of glider
troops was to make landings ahead of the
ground forces and take enemy strongholds by
surprise
• Landing in a glider was extremely dangerous
and was little more than a controlled
crash. Even if the pilot had the time and
altitude to select a good spot to land,
conditions on the ground were normally
hostile.
• The gliders were usually towed behind a C-47
tow plane on a 300 foot nylon rope 1" in
diameter.
• Gliders and their tow planes were slow, fat
targets. They had no armor to protect the
men inside.
• Nicknamed "canvas coffins," the flimsy
gliders had plywood floors and a steel tubing
frame covered with a canvas skin.
Life Expectancy of Pilots in Combat:
• Bomber Pilots...........1 hour, 46 minutes
• Fighter Pilots.......................19 minutes
• Glider Pilots........................17 seconds
• Span: 83 ft. 8 in.
• Length: 48 ft. 4 In.
• Height: 12 ft. 7 in.
• Weight: 7,500
lbs. loaded
• Armament:
None
• Engine: None
• At about 0140 mixed unites of the 82nd and
101st Airborne Divisions landed directly on
and around the town of Sainte Mere-Eglise.
• Some buildings in town were on fire that
night, and they illuminated the sky, making
easy targets of the descending men. Some
were sucked into the fire. Many hanging
from trees and utility poles were shot before
they could cut loose. The German defenders
were alerted.
• A famous incident involved paratrooper John
Steele, whose parachute caught on the spire
of the town church, and could only observe
the fighting going on below. He was later
captured by a German soldier.
• Later that morning, about 0500, a force led by
Lt. Colonel Edward C. Krause of the 505th PIR
took the town with little resistance.
Apparently the German garrison was
confused and had retired for the rest of the
night, giving it the claim to one of the first
towns liberated in the invasion.
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• Hitler appointed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to
command Army Group B and with it, the
responsibility for the defense of Normandy.
• Upon taking his new post and setting up his
headquarters in France, Rommel set to work
attempting to implement the changes he saw as
essential.
• Von Rundstedt’s, Rommel’s Superior, desire to
prepare for a decisive inland battle, coupled with
Hitler’s demands for heavy fortifications at certain
points along the coast had resulted in a disjointed
series of efforts.
• The first line of defense would consist of four
belts of underwater obstacles, many to be armed
with explosives to blow up landing craft, or built
to tear the bottoms out of the same. In his own
notes, Rommel set out the following plan for the
construction of obstacles in the water:
1. A belt in six feet of water at mean high tide.
2. A belt in six feet of water at half-tide of a
twelve-foot tide.
3. A belt in six feet of water at low tide.
4. A belt in twelve feet of water at low tide.
• Rommel building improvements, laying
minefields on the beaches and beach
approaches and in the English Channel.
• Fortifications were strengthened, fields of fire
were improved, and obstacles of all sorts were
placed in the water at approaches to possible
landing sites.
• In addition, flood plains were flooded and fields
were positioned with poles to prevent their
possible use as landing areas.
• 0558 The twenty mile wide distance between Caen
and Vierville-sur-Mer was filled with an invading
armada of Allied troop transport vessels,
battleships and other warships than began to
make their presence felt as the they began to
pound the German defensive shore positions.
• 0630 The assault waves begin to touch
down. The situation on Omaha is the worst.
• 0638 Omaha was there worst at Dog Green,
directly in front of strongpoints guarding the
Vierville draw and under heavy flanking fire from
emplacements to the west.
• 0710 The Assault on Point du Hoc was led by Col.
James Earl Rudder the U. S. Army’s 2nd Ranger
Battalion to victory in one of the greatest feats of
the Normandy invasion on the German gun
emplacements at Point du Hoc.
• The site of Point du Hoc is located between
Omaha and Utah beaches at the tip of a cliff that
towers more than 100 feet above a narrow, rock
strewn beach.
• The Germans considered the battery site there to
be unassailable but, the Rangers scaled the cliff
and killed or captured the garrison.
• Ironically, the Rangers found that the artillery
pieces thought to be in place at Point du Hoc
were gone.
• A Ranger patrol located these missing guns
arranged in firing positions in a field some
distance beyond the site near the village of
Cricqueville-en-Bessin.
• Thinking quickly the patrol placed thermite
grenades in the firing mechanisms, effectively
rendered these guns inoperable and
accomplished their mission.
• 0700 As the second wave touched down at
Omaha the conditions were unbearable. Enemy
mortar and artillery batteries, unscathed by
Allied fire
0730 - 1200 Inch by inch the troops on Omaha
moved forward, up through the bluffs and onto
the flatland above. In the absence of much
room to maneuver, their attack had been
unoriginal, a straightforward frontal attack.
DzlC135.mpg
• The largest of the D-Day assault areas,
Omaha Beach stretched over 10 km (6 miles)
between the fishing port of Port-en-Bessin on
the east and the mouth of the Vire River on
the west.
• The western third of the beach was backed by
a seawall 3 metres (10 feet) high, and the
whole beach was overlooked by cliffs 30
metres high.
• The American forces 34,250 troops on Omaha
Beach and of those about 2,000 were willed,
injured or were missing in action (MIA)
• The Utah landing area was approximately 5
km (3 miles) wide and was located northwest
of the Carentan estuary on sandy, duned
beaches.
• The American forces landed numbered
23,250 at Utah Beach and the casualties were
relatively light: 137 dead and 60 MIA. About
one-tenth the about of the casualties at
Omaha.
• German reaction to the landings was slow
and confused.
• Though reports of airborne and seaborne
attacks had been pouring into German
headquarters since early morning, it was
believed that these were only diversions and
the real weight of the invasion would come
near Calais.
• The problem was compounded by the
German command structure which had been
deliberately set up by Hitler to ensure that he
himself was the only person who could
deploy several key Panzer divisions.
• Because he always slept late and no-one
dared wake him, on the morning of the
invasion it was some time before Hitler was
informed.
• by the time these divisions were released, it
was too late – the allies were firmly ashore
and the opportunity to drive them back into
the sea had gone.
• Only the 21st Panzer Division attempted a
major counter-attack on D-Day, and this
fizzled out due to a lack of infantry support.
• Gold beach was in the center
• The sector called ‘gold’ was five miles wide
• Commander of the invasion force for Gold:
Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey.
• Main assault Unit: British 50th Infantry
Division, part of the British 2nd Army
• Main regiments used: Dorsetshire,
Hampshire, East Yorkshire and Devonshire
• German force: 716th Division and units of the
352nd Division
• Many of the defenders were in exposed
positions and were vulnerable to Allied naval
and aerial gunfire.
• The time for landing at Gold Beach was set
for 07.25
• They however had problems because the sea
water raised and covered the anti tank
creations or marines.
• This made it so engineers could not go in
and disarm them
• The first twenty armored cars were damaged
because of this.
• However, the naval and aerial bombardment
neutralized the German defenders
By midday the beach was in control of the
British.
• Only 400 casualties while taking the beach.
• Juno beach was the location of their first
landing
– 14,000 troops stormed the beach on that
day
– Once on shore, faced German strongholds
• Machine gun fire
– 11 heavy batteries of 155mm guns and 9
medium batteries of 75 mm guns
• Beaches laced with mines
• 340 Canadian lives were taken
• 574 severely wounded
• Toronto’s Queen’s Own Rifles received the worse
beating/loss of all the Canadian units
• Once the beach had been taken them and the
allies moved inland through the towns of
• The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division had penetrated
further into France then any other Allied force had,
despite strong resistance at the water’s edge, and
later counter-attacks on the beachhead by
Germans.
• Furthest East of the five beaches
• About 9 miles to the NE of Caen and
less then 10 miles from Gold Beach and
4 from the start of Juno Beach
• Sword Beach was about five miles
across the town of Ouistreham.
• Sword Beach was lightly defended
compared to other places.
• They met little resistance at Sword and
the troops went inland to meet with
paratroopers.
• Although it took very little time for the
fighting on Sword Beach many
casualties happened because of arial
attacks, and a few Panzer Divisions
from the Germans.
• In all there were 630 casualties.
• What you have just hear about and seen
were some of the major conflicts and
highlights of the D-Day assault.
• This by no means won the war; however, this
did sway the power from the Axis to the
Allies in Europe.
• The years of tedious planning and
preparation had proved to be important to
the outcome of the war.
• In a time when everyone in American Culture
current can talk about the effects of war in
either first hand knowledge or in having felt the
pain of separation of a friend or loved one
deployed to a combat zone, it is important to
understand the nature of war.
• Do not let us speak of darker days; let us rather
speak of sterner days. These are not dark days:
these are great days--the greatest days our
country has ever lived.
-- Winston Churchill (1874-1965), From a
speech, October 29, 1941.