D-Day: The Invasion at Normandy Beach

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D-Day The Invasion at Normandy Beach
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The English Channel
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Southern England

• 1 million Americans transported by Queen
  Elizabeth and Queen Mary
• American Soldiers had little trouble getting
  along with locals
• Frequently gave chewing gum/Hershey bars to
  British children who were not use to such
  luxuries
• 8 villages entirely evacuated by 9/20/43, after
  which civilians were barred from re-entry
• Area A North of Portsmouth
• 43 mile parking area for Tanks
• 17 barbed wired encircled camps

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Preparations

• Code named Operation Overlord
• Enormous invasion force had been gathering in
  England for 2 years
• 3 million soldiers
• greatest array of naval vessels/armaments ever
  assembled in 1 place
• Germans expected the invasion to be at the
  narrowest part of English Channel
• Invasion came along 60 miles of the Cotentin
  Peninsula on the coast of Normandy

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Preparations

• Y-Day June 1st
• Everything had to be ready to go
• No corrections could be made
• Only waiting for Supreme Commanders word to go
• First Attempt June 4, 1944
• Wind and high seas make conditions poor

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Soldiers in mess line in one of the marshaling
camps in southern England
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The Morning of the Invasion
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Eisenhower visiting with members of the 101st
Airborne before they parachuted into France on
D-Day.
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Note the barbed wire in the foreground.
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Before the Beach Invasion

• Needed to rid the area of Nazi defenses
• VERY Early June 6, 1944
• Airplanes, battleships bombarded the Nazi
  defenses
• Paratroopers dropped behind German lines night
  before to seize critical roads and bridges for
  the push inland

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A paratrooper boards an airplane that will drop
him over the coast of Normandy for the Allied
Invasion of Europe, D-Day, June 6, 1944. Soldiers
of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions
parachuted behind enemy lines during the night,
while fellow Soldiers assaulted Normandy beaches
at dawn
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The Invasion

• 5 major beaches in Normandy
• Utah and Omaha US
• Gold and Sword British
• Juno Canadian
• 5,300 ships and 11,000 planes had crossed the
  English Channel and landed on the beaches of
  Normandy
• 156,000 troops crossed English Channel

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• "You have no idea how miserable the Germans made
  that beach ... we could see rows upon rows of
  jagged obstructions lining the beach ... When our
  ramp went down and the soldiers started to charge
  ashore, the Germans ... let loose with streams
  of hot lead which pinged all around us. Why they
  didn't kill everyone in our boat, I will never
  know.
• -A Coast Guard coxswain describes his first trip
  to Omaha Beach.

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After Securing Normandy

• Allied losses had been high
• U.S. AIRBORNE - 2,499
• U.S. / UTAH - 197
• U.S. / OMAHA - 2,000
• U.K. / GOLD - 413
• CAN. / JUNO - 1,204
• U.K. / SWORD - 630
• U.K. AIRBORNE - 1,500
• TOTAL -9,000 casualties, approx. 3,000
  fatalities
• Fighting fierce, but superior manpower and
  equipment forced German troops off coast of
  Normandy in a week
• Allied forces went on to liberate Paris August
  25, 1944
• Force most of German troops out of Belgium and
  France by September

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