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Les Braves,
Omaha Memorial
Image: Clive Frankham
Field Marshal Montgomery
returned from his successes in
North Africa to head up land
operations in Normandy under
General Eisenhower. Having
selected the Normandy beaches
for a secret landing, tides had to
be reckoned with and 5th June
was chosen. However weather
conditions at the last moment
meant a postponement of
24 hours. The first airborne
landings took place at Ranville
where gliders of the 6th
Airborne Division dropped
silently onto the strip of
land between the River Orne
and the Caen Canal to take
the bridges.
The full seaborne invasion
was along the coastline of
Calvados, from Ouistreham
to half way up the Cherbourg
Peninsular. The beaches were
given names and the US Army
landed at ‘Utah’and ‘Omaha’
while the British took ‘Gold’
and ‘Sword’ with the Canadians
landing at ‘Juno’. By the end
Troops of the U.S. Army's
1st Infantry Division on the
morning of 6th June 1944
(D-Day) at Omaha Beach.
of the day the Allies had landed
some 155,000 men (including
26,000 by air) with more than
1,000 guns and vehicles.
Casualties amounted to 10,000
men, largely at Omaha.
The objective to liberate
Caen within days of landing
was not achieved, due to fierce
resistance, until early July,
causing wide destruction to the
city. Meanwhile, the American
troops were to spread out to cut
off the ports of Cherbourg and
Brest before swinging round
to the south. American forces
liberated the town of St Lô after
a long standoff and, following
considerable casualties, the
Canadians took Le Carpiquet,
the airport south of Caen. This
little town has a fine memorial
to the Canadians and it is typical
of the lasting tributes to be
found in this part of France.
Streets are named after Allied
commanders, even a roundabout
in St Lô and a lorry driving
school called ‘6 Juin’. Visitors to
Omaha Memorial
Normandy will be impressed by
the depth of gratitude evident in
a multitude of tributes.
The logistics to support such
an invasion were massive
and by 9th June a Mulberry
Harbour had been created
at Arromanches. Mulberries
were made from vast, air filled
concrete ‘rafts’ called caissons
which were floated across the
Channel and sunk to create
docks with links to the shore.
It became known as Port
Winston, after Churchill, using
600,000 tons of concrete to
make up 33 jetties and 10 miles
of floating roadways. Remains
of these vast and impressive
structures can still be seen
offshore. Fuel supplies were
augmented on 12th August with
the PipeLine Under The Ocean
(PLUTO) which carried fuel from
the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg.
Image: Anoneditor
Operation Bluecoat
Cherbourg surrendered
on 26th June, the Germans
having completed a
devastating demolition of
the port that took a month
to re-open. The capture of
Caen, supported by heavy
Allied bombing, was
secured by 10th July and
St Lô fell to the Americans
on the 20th. The Americans
pushed out through Brittany
and southwards, sweeping
back up to Falaise while
the British, in Operation
Bluecoat, worked their way
field by field, village by
village through the ‘bocage’
of Normandy.
One of the bloodiest of all
battles in Normandy was
the surrounding of the
Germans, by the Allies, at
Falaise. Hitler contradicted
his commanders in the field,
ordering them to fight to the
last. It is probable that many
of his countrymen did not
know they were all but
encircled and the resultant
slaughter was so severe that
upwards of 10,000 Germans
lost their lives.
Considerably weakened,
the German army was now
in retreat and it was not
long before the Allies
crossed the Seine. With
the French Resistance rising
up in Paris, even though it
was still under the control
of the pragmatic German,
von Choltitz, it was agreed
that the French 2nd
Armoured Division should
roll into the city. Von Choltitz
surrendered Paris on
25th August 1944.
Canadian soldiers on Juno Beach
Image: Clive Frankham
Your route around the
Normandy Landings
This part of France is well
provided with places to
visit with reference to the
Normandy Landings. This list
starts with the first point of
contact by Allied troops
followed by major places
along the coastline and then
those across the Normandy
countryside.
Image: Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie
/ Archives Nationales du Canada
Remains of Mulberry Harbour, Arromanches
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