On 6 June 1944, D-Day, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France. After airborne troops had landed during the night, American divisions came ashore at Utah and Omaha beaches early in the morning, and British and Canadian divisions at Gold, Juno and Sword about an hour later. Omaha was the costliest beach. The Allies suffered at least 10,000 casualties that day and took none of the main towns they had aimed for, but about 160,000 troops were ashore by nightfall, and the campaign to liberate France had begun.
Why Normandy
The Allies chose Normandy although the Pas de Calais offered a shorter crossing: its beaches were good, it was less heavily fortified, and it lay within range of fighter cover from England. To keep German reserves away, the deception plan known as Fortitude persuaded the German command that the main blow would fall on the Pas de Calais, with a fictitious army group in eastern England under General George S. Patton.1
The invasion had been set for 5 June and was delayed a day by bad weather; the decision and the night drop of the airborne divisions are on our 5 June page. Paratroopers began landing after midnight, followed by a massive naval and air bombardment of the coast.2
Five beaches
The National Army Museum puts the fleet at more than 5,000 ships and landing craft. The US Army landed in the west, on Utah and Omaha; the British 50th Division landed on Gold, the 3rd Canadian Division on Juno and the British 3rd Division on Sword. The Americans came first, and the British and Canadians about an hour later.3
Utah, added to the plan late, was meant to put the US VII Corps within reach of the port of Cherbourg. The US Army's history notes that its main obstacles were flooded, rough ground inland rather than the beach defenses, and that between Utah and Omaha three companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion fought an isolated action on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.4
Omaha was the most heavily defended beach, overlooked by bluffs, and the Americans suffered high casualties there. The US Army's account adds that Allied intelligence had failed to identify the German 352nd Infantry Division directly behind the beach. On Gold and Sword the British met relatively weak defenses, helped by the specialized armor of the 79th Armoured Division, and reached the paratroopers dropped in the night. At Juno, strong defenses and rough seas cost the Canadians heavily, yet by the US Army's reckoning they made the deepest advance inland of any force that day.5
A foothold, not a victory
The National Army Museum describes the German reaction as slow and poorly coordinated, partly because the generals could not move their armored reserves without Hitler's approval. It counts at least 10,000 Allied casualties on 6 June and notes that many objectives were missed, among them all the key towns; Caen, the British target for the first day, was secured only on 20 July.6
Even so, more than 160,000 Allied troops and 6,000 vehicles crossed the Channel that day and established a foothold in France. American troops took Cherbourg by 27 June, and the breakout began with Operation Cobra near Saint-Lô on 24 and 25 July. The full story of the day is told in D-Day, 1944: the longest day on the Normandy beaches.7
