The Normandy Invasion was a massive military operation launched on June 6, 1944 by Allied forces. Over 5,000 ships and 11,000 planes were involved in transporting over 150,000 troops across the English Channel to five beaches in Normandy, France. It faced heavy German resistance from fortified defensive positions along the coast. While the invasion resulted in over 9,000 casualties on D-Day alone, it succeeded in securing a beachhead in Normandy and marked a major turning point in World War 2, ultimately leading to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany.

1. Normandy Invasion
SLt Nitin Sharma, 43496 B
SLt Himanshu Sharma, 43493 Y

2. NORMANDY INVASION

3. Topic overview
1. Prologue.
2. The planning phase and build-up.
3. German Defences.
4. D Day, the securing of the beachhead.
5. Casualties.
6. Conclusion.
7. Bibliography.

4. What led to the event?
1. Germany’s control over Europe.
2. Germany’s control over North Africa.
3. The Second Front: Pressure from
Soviets on its allies.
4. Fortress Europe

5. The furthest extent of Hitler’s
empire in 1942

6. The planning phase
1. Preparations for a ‘second front’ against Nazi Germany
date back to 1942.
2. The Allies knew they would have to capture a port to
ensure the success of the invasion of France.
3. A ‘dress-rehearsal’ took place in 1942 when a British-
Canadian raid on the port of Dieppe was carried out.
4. The aim was to capture and hold a French port for a
short period to test German defences.
5. The raid was a total disaster: of the 6,086 men who
made it ashore, 4,384 were killed.

7. American locomotives sent to England being
unloaded from a Liberty Ship.

8. Air raids in preparation for D
Day
• The British and Americans began bombing
targets in occupied France in preparation for D
Day.
• The French railway system came under
continuous attack.
• Raids were concentrated in the Calais region to
mislead the Germans in to believing that was the
intending invasion area.
• The Normandy region was bombed, but less
heavily.

9. Operation Fortitude
• The Allies began a massive deception of operation to
conceal the intended landing zone.
• A massive build-up of fake armies and equipment
was concentrated in Kent to fool the Germans in to
thinking Calais was the intended target.
• Canvas and rubber tanks were assembled to confuse
any German aerial reconnaissance aircraft. (In fact
there were no German spy planes over England in
1944)

10. Hitler expected the
invasion here in the Pas de
Calais
Normandy

11. Surprise
• “… it is more
effective to find out
what the enemy is
predisposed to
believe and to
reinforce those
beliefs while at the
same time altering
your plans to take
advantage of these
reinforced false
beliefs.”
– John Chomeau
• Fictitious army
• Inflatable tanks
• Targets
• Ultra
• Weather

12. Surprise: Fictitious Army
• By spurious radio transmissions,
the Allies created an entire
phantom army, “based” in
southeast England (opposite
Pas-de-Calais) and alleged to be
commanded by Patton.

13. Inflatable Tanks

14. Fortitude – canvas aircraft

15. Surprise: Ultra
• At the same time, through the
top-secret Ultra operation, the
Allies were able to decode
encrypted German
transmissions, thus providing
the Overlord forces with a
clear picture of where the
German counterattack forces
were deployed.

16. Surprise: Targets
• The air campaign was designed not only to disrupt
German anti-invasion preparations but also to serve
as a deception operation.
• Two-thirds of the bombs were dropped outside the
invasion area, in an attempt to persuade the enemy
that the landings would be made northeast of the
Seine, particularly in the Pas de Calais area, rather
than in Normandy.

17. Surprise: Weather
• Germans had a false
sense of security about
the weather
• Rommel was visiting his
wife on D-Day
• “There is not going to be
an invasion. And if there
is, then they won’t even
get off the beaches!”

18. June 1944
• The timing was now favourable for an invasion
• The U boats had been defeated
• The German air force was largely grounded for
lack of fuel.

19. German Defences

20. The Atlantic Wall
• Despite all Allied efforts, the Germans obviously
expected an Allied invasion somewhere in
France.
• Hitler appointed two of his ablest Generals, Gerd
Von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel to take
charge of strengthening the French coast line
from attack.

21. From Norway to the
South of France the
Germans built up a
defensive line against
the expected
invasion.
Tens of thousands of
Russian POWs were
put to work to
construct elaborate
defences.
The line was by no
means complete or
evenly spread by the
time of D Day.

22. German Defenses

23. The Atlantic Wall
• Minefields and antitank
obstacles were planted on
the beaches, and
underwater obstacles and
mines were planted in the
waters just off shore to
destroy incoming craft
• By the time of the invasion,
the Germans had laid almost
6 million mines in northern
France.

24. The Atlantic Wall

25. Weakness of Rommel’s Plan
• Atlantic Wall had
no true depth to
its defenses
• An enemy force
that breached the
thin Atlantic Wall
would face no
further fortified
positions of
significance

26. Despite gaps in the line, the defences were formidable in
some places.

27. Rommel inspects anti-tank defences on a French
beach.

29. Futuristic looking
German
blockhouse on the
island of Jersey.

30. The remains of a German blockhouse today.

31. General Eisenhower
General Montgomery
Admiral Ramsay
Leigh-
Mallory
‘Operation Overlord’ planning meeting.

32. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight
Eisenhower gives a pep talk to American paratroopers
the evening before D Day.

33. •
Southampton docks

34. Landing Craft

35. Churchill visits Southampton

36. 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

37. Preparations
• Y-Day – June 1st
– Everything had to be ready to go
– No corrections could be made
– Only waiting for Supreme Commander’s word
to go
• First Attempt: June 4, 1944
– Wind and high seas make conditions poor

38. Soldiers in mess line in one of the marshaling
camps in southern England

39. The Morning of the Invasion

40. Note the barbed wire in the foreground.

41. 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

42. 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

44. 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

45. "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.

46. Timeline
• 0000: First airborne troops begin to land.
• 0100: First Navy hands ordered to man battle stations.
Landing craft begin to be lowered into the water;
paratroopers cut phone lines and knock down telephone
poles.
• 0200: First bombers take off to attack targets around the
beachhead.

47. Timeline
• 0300: Gliders begin to reinforce paratroops.
• 0309: German radar detects Allied invasion fleet. Adm.
Krancke orders shore batteries to prepare for invasion.
• 0348: German E-boat flotillas and two armed trawlers get
under way.
• 0430: First P-47s take off.
• 0520: Sunrise. Bombers drop first bombs on German
targets.

48. Timeline
• 0535: German shore batteries open fire; Allied naval forces
return fire.
• 0537: E-boats commanded by Adm. Kranche fire torpedoes
at Allied destroyers.
• 0600: LCT launch their DD tanks.
• 0620: Allied landing craft approach the beach.

49. Timeline
• 0630: H-Hour on Utah, Omaha Beach; LCT 535 lands the
first tanks on Omaha; 116th and 16th Infantry land at
Omaha; Higgins boats near the beach; 8th Infantry
Regiment lands at Utah Beach.
• 0641: USS Corry forced to abandon ship due to heavy
gunfire and mine damage.

50. Timeline
• 0645: Rangers assault Point-du-Hoc; 70th Tank Battalion
begins to land at Utah.
• 0725: H-Hour for Sword Beach; British 3rd Division begins
to land.
• 0735: British UDT and Royal Engineers land at Gold
Beach, followed by Infantry from the 50th Division.

51. Timeline
• 0800: 3rd Canadian Division lands at Juno Beach.
• 0830: LCM, LCT and LSTs land armor at Omaha.
• 0900: 2nd Ranger Battalion soldiers take Point-du-Hoc and
defend it for the rest of the day.
• 0950: Destroyers engage the enemy for at Omaha under
orders of Adm. C.F. Bryant; 18th Infantry goes ashore at
Omaha.
• 1030: 115th Infantry lands at Omaha.

52. Timeline
• 1045: Utah fairly secure, reserve battalions coming ashore.
• 1100: 18th Infantry begins to land at Omaha.
• 1110: 101st and 4th divisions linkup on Utah securing the
first exit from the beach.
• 1300: Troops at Omaha begin to secure the beach.
• 1600: Hitler finally gives approval to release Panzer
divisions.

53. Timeline
• 1800: Elements of the 3rd Canadian Div, North Nova Scotia
Highlanders reach five kilometers inland. 1st Hussar tanks
cross the Caen-Bayeux railway, fifteen kilometers inland.
Canadian Scottish link up with the 50th Division at Creully.
• 1900: 1st Division commander, General Huebner sets up
command post on Omaha.

64. The capture of
Cherbourg was a key
objective. It was not
captured until the end
of June and was
badly damaged.
The Allies could not
risk launching the
invasion without a
useable port.
They constructed an
artificial harbour
which could be towed
across the channel.

65. Sections of a Mulberry Harbour today in Normandy.

66. Towed to France in sections the Mulberry
Harbours allowed the Allies to unload supplies
until Cherbourg was captured.

69. The troops spent up to four hours in the landing craft
and most were violently seasick.

71. American troops on Omaha Beach,
scene of the heaviest fighting and
over 5,000 US deaths on D Day.

73. British troops approaching Sword Beach

74. British troops landing at Sword Beach

77. Secured beachhead area D Day +1
•
156,000 men ashore on day 1

79. German POWs arriving at Southampton

80. French civilians
ponder their
liberation from
Nazi
occupation as
they survey the
ruins of their
homes.

81. Caen was a D-Day objective, but took more than two months to
capture, by which time the town lay in ruins.

82. The capture of the town of Carentan, linking Utah and Omaha
beaches, was crucial to the survival of the Allied beachhead

83. The Mayor of Southampton honours the millionth American
soldier to embark for France. D Day + 1 month.

84. French civilians place flowers at a
US cemetery in Normandy.

85. 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

88. Bibliography
• Wikipedia.org
• Britannica.com
• Militaryhistory.us
• Google images
• Military.com
• Naval-history.net