Aaron O'Neill
Research lead for society, economy, and politics: Europe & global
WWII: D-Day - Statistics & Facts
The Normandy Landings, codenamed Operation Neptune and commonly referred to as D-Day, was one of the most significant events of the Second World War. On June 6, 1944, a force of predominantly American, British, and Canadian forces stormed five beaches along the Baie de Seine, Normandy, to begin the liberation of Western Europe after four years of German occupation. The Normandy landings were the largest amphibious invasion in history, and provided the foothold used by the Western Allies as they then pushed through into the Low Countries and Germany, before Germany’s surrender on May 8, 1945.
Hostilities between Britain and Germany continued in the sea and air, but in 1941, Germany’s focus turned to the invasion of the Soviet Union - the largest ground invasion in history. Until this point, the U.S. was militarily uninvolved in the war, but was essential to Allied survival through the supply of arms, food, and other materials. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. then joined the war militarily in both the Pacific and Europe, and began planning for a European invasion. It would take two and a half years after Pearl Harbor before the invasion was launched, during which time Germany was losing its control across the continent through factors such as the Soviet Union’s gradual victory along the Eastern Front, Allied activities in the Mediterranean theater, Italy’s capitulation in 1943, strained manpower and resources, among others. In December 1943, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and tasked with overseeing Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, with Britain’s General Bernard Montgomery in charge of the ground invasion.
This reinforcement was partly due to Operation Bodyguard; a plan of deception that fed false information to Germany via intercepted communicatons or double agents, giving landing targets in Norway, the Balkans, and across France, among others. “Phantom armies” were also created, where decoy barracks, dummy tanks, and exaggerated troop or naval movements were used to trick German reconnaissance into thinking forces were being amassed in Scotland (to invade Norway) and Kent (opposite Calais). Calais was the most obvious choice for an invasion, as it was the closest point to the British mainland, and the Allies exploited this fact to distract from the real invasion 200km to the south. On the night before D-Day, Allied bombers attacked German positions and supply lines around Calais, even dropping mannequin paratroopers (“Ruperts”) to maintain the ruse, and aerial superiority meant German reconnaissance did not see the invading force amass opposite Normandy. The deception was so successful that German command withheld much of its force in Calais for several weeks after D-Day in anticipation of a larger invasion.
Although Germany’s aerial and tank defenses were heavily outmatched, manpower still numbered around 55,000 men across the five beaches, with many in entrenched or fortified positions. The beaches too were filled with large obstacles, such as Belgian Gates, Czech Hedgehogs, ditches, and mines, obstructing vehicles and landing craft. These caused units to bunch up in exposed positions, creating targets for machine gunners and mortar nests on higher ground, as well as long-range artillery further inland. As the day progressed, Allied paratroopers played a key role in eliminating long-range threats, disrupting repositioning defenses, and sabotaging supply lines (particularly ammunition), while engineers or specially designed tanks dismantled the obstacles on the beaches. Weather forecasts for the week had given German High Command a false sense of security; Erwin Rommel, Commander of the Western defenses, returned to Germany for his wife’s birthday; in Berlin, Adolf Hitler slept until 10am on June 6. Many reinforcements, including four heavy Panzer divisions, were not authorized to move without Hitler’s order, but as nobody dared wake him the response was delayed by several hours, allowing the Allies to more easily establish a foothold.
The British landings were relatively smooth, and a beachhead was established within a few hours of landing before the fighting grew fiercer in the villages and towns inland. The Canadians at Juno suffered due to the poor weather, where a large share of the force landed well before armored support could make it to shore, this caused high casualties, which continued inland after the beachhead had been established. For the Americans at Utah, strong currents actually aided the landing by forcing it off-course to a less-defended position, resulting in the lowest casualty rate of the day. However, the Americans at Omaha suffered the heaviest casualties, both in absolute and relative terms. Choppy waters forced many landing craft off course, underwater obstacles caused most of the first waves of armor to become submerged or immobilized, and many had to wade through up to 100m of water before reaching the shore. One of the first units to land suffered a casualty rate of 90 percent. Landings were temporarily halted due to congestion on the beach, with some deliberation of retreat, but several small groups of soldiers were able to scale the bluffs and secure exits from the beach by late afternoon. By the evening of June 6, the Allies had successfully established landing points on all five beaches and several hundred thousand men would disembark there by August.
Background
The war in Europe began on September 1, 1939, following the German invasion of Poland, which triggered treaties with Britain and France who then declared war on Germany. Britain and France then mobilized their forces, but no major hostilities occurred until April 1940, when Germany used “Blitzkrieg” tactics to quickly overrun most of Western Europe. In doing this, Germany took control of and began fortifying Europe’s western coastline, from northern Norway to Spain, establishing the roughly 2,700km Atlantic Wall to defend against potential invasions from the Western Allies. German high command had originally planned to continue the invasion into Britain, the only free nation still at war with Germany in 1940, but failure to assert naval or aerial superiority, high costs, and uncertainty of success scuppered these plans.Hostilities between Britain and Germany continued in the sea and air, but in 1941, Germany’s focus turned to the invasion of the Soviet Union - the largest ground invasion in history. Until this point, the U.S. was militarily uninvolved in the war, but was essential to Allied survival through the supply of arms, food, and other materials. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. then joined the war militarily in both the Pacific and Europe, and began planning for a European invasion. It would take two and a half years after Pearl Harbor before the invasion was launched, during which time Germany was losing its control across the continent through factors such as the Soviet Union’s gradual victory along the Eastern Front, Allied activities in the Mediterranean theater, Italy’s capitulation in 1943, strained manpower and resources, among others. In December 1943, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and tasked with overseeing Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, with Britain’s General Bernard Montgomery in charge of the ground invasion.
Preparation and deception
The first American air bases were established in Britain in 1942, and they joined in Britain’s air raids against Germany in January 1943, quickly establishing Allied aerial dominance. The near-defeat of the Axis U-Boat fleet by late-1943 meant the U.S. could start ferrying troops, vehicles, and other supplies across the Atlantic en masse to prepare for the invasion, with some two million troops mobilized in Britain by early 1944. Not only did naval and aerial superiority make the landing possible, it also facilitated the escalation of raids on German industry and supply lines, further weakening its war economy. In anticipation of an invasion, Germany reinforced its Atlantic Wall in spring 1944, particularly at Calais.This reinforcement was partly due to Operation Bodyguard; a plan of deception that fed false information to Germany via intercepted communicatons or double agents, giving landing targets in Norway, the Balkans, and across France, among others. “Phantom armies” were also created, where decoy barracks, dummy tanks, and exaggerated troop or naval movements were used to trick German reconnaissance into thinking forces were being amassed in Scotland (to invade Norway) and Kent (opposite Calais). Calais was the most obvious choice for an invasion, as it was the closest point to the British mainland, and the Allies exploited this fact to distract from the real invasion 200km to the south. On the night before D-Day, Allied bombers attacked German positions and supply lines around Calais, even dropping mannequin paratroopers (“Ruperts”) to maintain the ruse, and aerial superiority meant German reconnaissance did not see the invading force amass opposite Normandy. The deception was so successful that German command withheld much of its force in Calais for several weeks after D-Day in anticipation of a larger invasion.
D-Day
D-Day was originally set for June 5, but poor weather caused its postponement by one day, and conditions were still not ideal. The night before the landings, Allied minesweepers set sail to clear paths to the beaches, while an aircraft fleet set off to bomb German defenses and drop over 20,000 paratroopers and glider infantry behind enemy lines. Simultaneously, over 156,000 troops set sail from England to make footfall on the beaches of Normandy, accompanied by hundreds of warships that lay siege to the German beach defenses, albeit to limited effect. The first soldiers began landing on all five beaches between 6:30am and 7:30am. Over 75,000 British and Canadian troops took the eastern beaches codenamed Sword, Juno, and Gold, while over 55,000 Americans stormed the western beaches of Omaha and Utah, with support from some smaller regiments from 10 other countries including France and Poland. Almost 1,500 tanks and armored vehicles accompanied the landings.Although Germany’s aerial and tank defenses were heavily outmatched, manpower still numbered around 55,000 men across the five beaches, with many in entrenched or fortified positions. The beaches too were filled with large obstacles, such as Belgian Gates, Czech Hedgehogs, ditches, and mines, obstructing vehicles and landing craft. These caused units to bunch up in exposed positions, creating targets for machine gunners and mortar nests on higher ground, as well as long-range artillery further inland. As the day progressed, Allied paratroopers played a key role in eliminating long-range threats, disrupting repositioning defenses, and sabotaging supply lines (particularly ammunition), while engineers or specially designed tanks dismantled the obstacles on the beaches. Weather forecasts for the week had given German High Command a false sense of security; Erwin Rommel, Commander of the Western defenses, returned to Germany for his wife’s birthday; in Berlin, Adolf Hitler slept until 10am on June 6. Many reinforcements, including four heavy Panzer divisions, were not authorized to move without Hitler’s order, but as nobody dared wake him the response was delayed by several hours, allowing the Allies to more easily establish a foothold.
The British landings were relatively smooth, and a beachhead was established within a few hours of landing before the fighting grew fiercer in the villages and towns inland. The Canadians at Juno suffered due to the poor weather, where a large share of the force landed well before armored support could make it to shore, this caused high casualties, which continued inland after the beachhead had been established. For the Americans at Utah, strong currents actually aided the landing by forcing it off-course to a less-defended position, resulting in the lowest casualty rate of the day. However, the Americans at Omaha suffered the heaviest casualties, both in absolute and relative terms. Choppy waters forced many landing craft off course, underwater obstacles caused most of the first waves of armor to become submerged or immobilized, and many had to wade through up to 100m of water before reaching the shore. One of the first units to land suffered a casualty rate of 90 percent. Landings were temporarily halted due to congestion on the beach, with some deliberation of retreat, but several small groups of soldiers were able to scale the bluffs and secure exits from the beach by late afternoon. By the evening of June 6, the Allies had successfully established landing points on all five beaches and several hundred thousand men would disembark there by August.
The invasion of Normandy & aftermath
The original objectives on D-Day were for the Allies to have a connected beachfront stretching from Sword to Omaha, a continuous frontline roughly 10 to 16km from the shore, and control of large towns such as Bayeux, Caen, and Carentan. By the evening of June 6, none of these objectives were achieved, and the controlled territory beyond the beachheads was much smaller than hoped for. It took a week before the beaches were connected, but the reorganization of German forces meant that the invasion of Normandy was much slower than anticipated. German troops used the terrain and hedgerows to ambush the Allies as they moved through Normandy, notably with tanks and 88mm anti-aircraft guns causing considerable damage to Allied armor, while the urban fighting was fierce and the daily casualty rate was higher than that of the Somme offensive in WWI. The Battle for Caen became a focal point for both the attackers and defenders, and saw heavy fighting both on the ground and from above. The Allies began taking ground faster following victory at Caen on July 21, and with the aid of the French resistance and the arrival of Allied troops in the south, most of France was under Allied control by September, and the Allies then moved north into Belgium. Despite France’s liberation, the civilian population (especially in Normandy) was not entirely welcoming of the Allied forces, as tens of thousands were killed by Allied air raids and urban warfare, while a large share of the population was also left homeless. Today, D-Day's legacy has made Normandy a popular destination for visitors and tourists, with many museums and memorials dedicated to the war, while tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides are buried in military graveyards across the region.
