Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations - Historic Naval Ships ...

Chapter XIVTHE INVASION OF NORMANDYThe invasion of Normandy was without question the most important battlefought in western Europe in the second world war. The Allies’ success inlanding their troops and securing a beachhead on June 6, 1944, doomed Hitler.The landings at Anzio only a few months earlier had shown that success wasby no means certain. Amphibious landings were inevitably extremely riskyoperations. Years of careful planning — and a certain amount of luck at thelast moment — led to the Allied victory in Normandy.Allied strategists meeting in Washington in May 1943 set the date for the crosschannel invasion of France as May 1, 1944. Due to a shortage of landing craft,however, the invasion date would be postponed from May to June 1944.Planning for the invasion had been going on since 1942. The raid at Dieppehad provided an early and disastrous dress rehearsal. The fighting in NorthAfrica, Sicily, and Italy had taught the Allies valuable lessons. If there was onelesson above all that the Allies had been forced to learn, it was not tounderestimate the abilities of their enemy.The Allies had decided in July 1943 that the Cotentin peninsula of Normandyoffered the best location for the invasion. The Germans, who had 3000 milesof coastline to defend, did not know where the invasion would come. Theyput up their heaviest defenses in the Calais region of the French coast. Nazileaders disagreed on the most likely site for the invasion and on the strategyfor employment of their forces. This lack of unity in the German commandwould prove a great weakness to them.In England the troops who would land on D-day went through endlessrehearsals for the invasion. For veterans of combat in North Africa, Sicily, andItaly, the training seemed like a waste of time. Those who had never seencombat tried to imagine what the real thing would be like. In late May 1944, therehearsals came to an end. Soldiers were confined to their quarters, thenshipped to “concentration areas” near ports and airfields from which theywould depart. For security reasons they were not told their ultimate destination.When they were safely at sea they would finally be told they were headed toNormandy.By the end of the day of June 5, 1944, over 2500 ships carrying the Alliedinvasion force were heading toward the Normandy coast. More than 1000planes and gliders were being readied to carry the airborne troops into battle.Every man who boarded a ship or plane for Europe was given a letter fromEisenhower with his order of the day.“You are about to embark on a great crusade, toward which we have striventhese many months. . . . The tide has turned. The free men of the world aremarching together to victory. . . .”SOURCE: World War II — America at War, Maurice Isserman, 1991• The general unloading period, ifrequired, is primarily logistic-orientedand emphasizes rapid completion of theXIV-2unloading of required personnel andmateriel.JP 3-02