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Close Combat
U.S. soldiers landing on Omaha Beach
The next morning, following a fierce air and naval bombardment, the
first assault waves from five Allied divisions storm the five Normandy
invasion beaches, code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword.
On the left flank of the invasion force, the British Second Army storms
Gold and Sword beaches, then pushes southeast in an attempt to take
the city of Caen and the airfield nearby at Carentan. At Juno beach, the
Canadians come ashore. On the right flank of the invasion force, Utah,
the westernmost of the Normandy beaches, is captured by the Fourth
Infantry Division of the First Army’s VII Corps. Its plan is to head to
the northwest to cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and capture Cherbourg,
which will give the Allies a major port for bringing in additional
supplies.
Because Hitler is asleep during the morning of the invasion and has
given orders not to be awakened, he does not release the German
Panzer reserves until the afternoon. By then it is too late to stem the
invasion. German resistance on the four landing beaches is relatively
light, and although the Allied troops do not push as far inland as they
had planned, they suffer fewer casualties than they had expected. But it
is a far different story for the Americans who land at the beach code-
named Omaha.
“Everything was confusion.
Units are mixed up, many of
them leaderless, most of them
not being where they were
supposed to be. Shells were
coming in all the time; boats
burning; vehicles with nowhere
to go bogging down, getting hit;
supplies getting wet; boats
trying to come in all the time,
some hitting mines,
exploding...everything jammed
together like a junkyard.”
Sgt. Ralph G. Martin, in
Yank
U.S. soldiers crammed into landing craft