Operation Overloard

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• "Operation Overloard"
• D-Day

• June 6, 1944

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• D-Day

• D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in
  history and was the turning point in World War
  II.
• Between combined Allied forces nearly 156,000
  troops on or supported by nearly 4,000 ships
  crossed the English Channel landing the troops on
  five beaches in Normandy.
• The beaches were stormed early that morning
  supported by about 23,000 airborne troops that
  had already landed behind enemy lines or getting
  ready to land in support of the beach assault and
  the push to Caen.

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• Time Line

• D-Day -- 0100 The invasion begins. Glider and
  paratroop units begin landing behind the German
  beach defenses.
• British 6th Airborne Division dropped northeast
  of Caen, near the mouth of the Orne River, where
  it anchored the British eastern flank by securing
  bridges over the river and the Caen Canal.
• On the other side of the invasion area, the U.S.
  101st and 82d Airborne Divisions dropped near
  Ste. Mere-Eglise and Carentan to secure road
  junctions and beach exits. 

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• Pegasus Bridge

• Bridge over the Caen canal near the town of
  Ouistreham (aka Benouville Bridge)
• It was a major objective of the British 6th
  Airborne Division
• They used gliders to land near it during the
  Normandy Invasion
• It was given the Pegasus name in honor of the
  attacking British who wore a flying horse on
  their shoulder
• The bridge was taken over to prevent a counter
  attack from the eastern flank

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• Pegasus Bridge

• It was initially carried out by 181 soldiers,
  flour platoons of D and two of B companies.
• Led by Major John Howard.
• The first glider to land was flown by SSgt. Jim
  Wallwork and SSgt John Ainsworth (No. 92)
• They landed at 1216 am pushing through the first
  belt of barbed wire around the bridge. The two
  pilots were catapulted from the glider thus
  becoming the two first soldiers to set foot in
  France on D-Day

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• Pegasus Bridge

• Everyone was unconscious, but when they regained
  their senses a few seconds later, they realized
  their crash did not alert the enemy.
• The enemy thought the noise was a piece of debris
  falling from an allied bomber
• Lt. Den Brotheridge was the first to die by enemy
  actions on D-Day during this battle
• While the two sides fought Royal engineers from
  the 249th Field Company had ignored enemy fire
  directed at them as they climbed over the bridge
  looking for wires to cut and detonation devices
  to remove.

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• Pegasus Bridge

• The Germans had placed the bombs for demolition,
  but because the feared an accidental explosion or
  sabotage by the French Resistance they did not
  place charges.
• The Germans did fight back but they would not be
  able to defeat the British and many fled the
  scene.

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• Gliders

• Because parachute drops left troops dispersed
  over a comparatively broad area, the appeal of
  gliders lay in their ability to deliver larger
  numbers of soldiers into a smaller perimeter as a
  more cohesive fighting force.
• Also, gliders could carry some wheeled vehicles,
  mortars, and light artillery that could not be
  parachuted from World War II cargo transports.
  Essentially, the role of glider troops was to
  make landings ahead of the ground forces and take
  enemy strongholds by surprise

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• Gliders

• Landing in a glider was extremely dangerous and
  was little more than a controlled crash.  Even if
  the pilot had the time and altitude to select a
  good spot to land, conditions on the ground were
  normally hostile.
• The gliders were usually towed behind a C-47 tow
  plane on a 300 foot nylon rope 1" in diameter.
• Gliders and their tow planes were slow, fat
  targets.  They had no armor to protect the men
  inside.

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• Gliders

• Nicknamed "canvas coffins," the flimsy gliders
  had plywood floors and a steel tubing frame
  covered with a canvas skin.
• Life Expectancy of Pilots in Combat
• Bomber Pilots...........1 hour, 46 minutes
• Fighter Pilots.......................19 minutes
• Glider Pilots........................17 seconds

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• Waco CG-4A

• Span 83 ft. 8 in.
• Length 48 ft. 4 In.
• Height 12 ft. 7 in.

• Weight 7,500 lbs. loaded
• ArmamentNone
• Engine None

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• Sainte Mere-Eglise

• At about 0140 mixed unites of the 82nd and 101st
  Airborne Divisions landed directly on and around
  the town of Sainte Mere-Eglise.
• Some buildings in town were on fire that night,
  and they illuminated the sky, making easy targets
  of the descending men. Some were sucked into the
  fire. Many hanging from trees and utility poles
  were shot before they could cut loose. The German
  defenders were alerted.

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• Sainte Mere-Eglise

• A famous incident involved paratrooper John
  Steele, whose parachute caught on the spire of
  the town church, and could only observe the
  fighting going on below. He was later captured by
  a German soldier.
• Later that morning, about 0500, a force led by
  Lt. Colonel Edward C. Krause of the 505th PIR
  took the town with little resistance. Apparently
  the German garrison was confused and had retired
  for the rest of the night, giving it the claim to
  one of the first towns liberated in the invasion.

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• Rommel's Wall

• Hitler appointed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to
  command Army Group B and with it, the
  responsibility for the defense of Normandy.
• Upon taking his new post and setting up his
  headquarters in France, Rommel set to work
  attempting to implement the changes he saw as
  essential.
• Von Rundstedts, Rommels Superior, desire to
  prepare for a decisive inland battle, coupled
  with Hitlers demands for heavy fortifications at
  certain points along the coast had resulted in a
  disjointed series of efforts.

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• Rommel's Wall

• The first line of defense would consist of four
  belts of underwater obstacles, many to be armed
  with explosives to blow up landing craft, or
  built to tear the bottoms out of the same. In his
  own notes, Rommel set out the following plan for
  the construction of obstacles in the water1. A
  belt in six feet of water at mean high tide.2. A
  belt in six feet of water at half-tide of a
  twelve-foot tide.3. A belt in six feet of water
  at low tide.4. A belt in twelve feet of water at
  low tide.

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• Rommel's Wall

• Rommel building improvements, laying minefields
  on the beaches and beach approaches and in the
  English Channel.
• Fortifications were strengthened, fields of fire
  were improved, and obstacles of all sorts were
  placed in the water at approaches to possible
  landing sites.
• In addition, flood plains were flooded and fields
  were positioned with poles to prevent their
  possible use as landing areas.

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• Time Line

• 0558  The twenty mile wide distance between Caen
  and Vierville-sur-Mer was filled with an invading
  armada of Allied troop transport vessels,
  battleships and other warships than began to make
  their presence felt as the they began to pound
  the German defensive shore positions.
• 0630  The assault waves begin to touch down.  The
  situation on Omaha is the worst. 
• 0638  Omaha was there worst at Dog Green,
  directly in front of strongpoints guarding the
  Vierville draw and under heavy flanking fire from
  emplacements to the west. 

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• Time Line

• 0710 The Assault on Point du Hoc was led by Col.
  James Earl Rudder the U. S. Armys 2nd Ranger
  Battalion to victory in one of the greatest feats
  of the Normandy invasion on the German gun
  emplacements at Point du Hoc.
• The site of Point du Hoc is located between Omaha
  and Utah beaches at the tip of a cliff that
  towers more than 100 feet above a narrow, rock
  strewn beach.
• The Germans considered the battery site there to
  be unassailable but, the Rangers scaled the cliff
  and killed or captured the garrison.

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• Time Line

• Ironically, the Rangers found that the artillery
  pieces thought to be in place at Point du Hoc
  were gone.
• A Ranger patrol located these missing guns
  arranged in firing positions in a field some
  distance beyond the site near the village of
  Cricqueville-en-Bessin.
• Thinking quickly the patrol placed thermite
  grenades in the firing mechanisms, effectively
  rendered these guns inoperable and accomplished
  their mission.

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• Time Line

• 0700  As the second wave touched down at Omaha
  the conditions were unbearable. Enemy mortar and
  artillery batteries, unscathed by Allied
  fire0730 - 1200  Inch by inch the troops on
  Omaha moved forward, up through the bluffs and
  onto the flatland above.  In the absence of much
  room to maneuver, their attack had been
  unoriginal, a straightforward frontal attack.

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• Higgins Boat

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• Omaha Beach

• The largest of the D-Day assault areas, Omaha
  Beach stretched over 10 km (6 miles) between the
  fishing port of Port-en-Bessin on the east and
  the mouth of the Vire River on the west.
• The western third of the beach was backed by a
  seawall 3 metres (10 feet) high, and the whole
  beach was overlooked by cliffs 30 metres high.
• The American forces 34,250 troops on Omaha Beach
  and of those about 2,000 were willed, injured or
  were missing in action (MIA)

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• Utah Beach

• The Utah landing area was approximately 5 km (3
  miles) wide and was located northwest of the
  Carentan estuary on sandy, duned beaches.
• The American forces landed numbered 23,250 at
  Utah Beach and the casualties were relatively
  light 137 dead and 60 MIA. About one-tenth the
  about of the casualties at Omaha.

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• German Reactions

• German reaction to the landings was slow and
  confused.
• Though reports of airborne and seaborne attacks
  had been pouring into German headquarters since
  early morning, it was believed that these were
  only diversions and the real weight of the
  invasion would come near Calais.
• The problem was compounded by the German command
  structure which had been deliberately set up by
  Hitler to ensure that he himself was the only
  person who could deploy several key Panzer
  divisions.

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• German Reactions

• Because he always slept late and no-one dared
  wake him, on the morning of the invasion it was
  some time before Hitler was informed.
• by the time these divisions were released, it was
  too late the allies were firmly ashore and the
  opportunity to drive them back into the sea had
  gone.
• Only the 21st Panzer Division attempted a major
  counter-attack on D-Day, and this fizzled out due
  to a lack of infantry support.

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• Gold Beach

• Gold beach was in the center
• The sector called gold was five miles wide
• Commander of the invasion force for Gold
  Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey.
• Main assault Unit British 50th Infantry
  Division, part of the British 2nd Army
• Main regiments used Dorsetshire, Hampshire, East
  Yorkshire and Devonshire
• German force 716th Division and units of the
  352nd Division

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• Gold Beach

• Many of the defenders were in exposed positions
  and were vulnerable to Allied naval and aerial
  gunfire.
• The time for landing at Gold Beach was set for
  07.25
• They however had problems because the sea water
  raised and covered the anti tank creations or
  marines.
• This made it so engineers could not go in and
  disarm them

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• Gold Beach

• The first twenty armored cars were damaged
  because of this.
• However, the naval and aerial bombardment
  neutralized the German defendersBy midday the
  beach was in control of the British.
• Only 400 casualties while taking the beach.

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• Juno Beach

• Juno beach was the location of their first
  landing
• 14,000 troops stormed the beach on that day
• Once on shore, faced German strongholds
• Machine gun fire
• 11 heavy batteries of 155mm guns and 9 medium
  batteries of 75 mm guns
• Beaches laced with mines

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• Juno Beach

• 340 Canadian lives were taken
• 574 severely wounded
• Torontos Queens Own Rifles received the worse
  beating/loss of all the Canadian units
• Once the beach had been taken them and the allies
  moved inland through the towns of
• The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division had penetrated
  further into France then any other Allied force
  had, despite strong resistance at the waters
  edge, and later counter-attacks on the beachhead
  by Germans.

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• Sword Beach

• Furthest East of the five beaches
• About 9 miles to the NE of Caen and less then 10
  miles from Gold Beach and 4 from the start of
  Juno Beach
• Sword Beach was about five miles across the town
  of Ouistreham.
• Sword Beach was lightly defended compared to
  other places.

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• Sword Beach

• They met little resistance at Sword and the
  troops went inland to meet with paratroopers.
• Although it took very little time for the
  fighting on Sword Beach many casualties happened
  because of arial attacks, and a few Panzer
  Divisions from the Germans.
• In all there were 630 casualties.

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• Summary

• What you have just hear about and seen were some
  of the major conflicts and highlights of the
  D-Day assault.
• This by no means won the war however, this did
  sway the power from the Axis to the Allies in
  Europe.
• The years of tedious planning and preparation had
  proved to be important to the outcome of the war.

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• Conclusion

• In a time when everyone in American Culture
  current can talk about the effects of war in
  either first hand knowledge or in having felt the
  pain of separation of a friend or loved one
  deployed to a combat zone, it is important to
  understand the nature of war.
• Do not let us speak of darker days let us rather
  speak of sterner days. These are not dark days
  these are great days--the greatest days our
  country has ever lived.-- Winston Churchill
  (1874-1965), From a speech, October 29, 1941.