Operation Overlord

Many years have passed since the famous landing of the Allied forces in Normandy. And the debate still continues to this day: did the Soviet army need this help, since the turning point in the war had already come?

In 1944, when it was already clear that the war would soon come to a victorious end, a decision was made on the participation of allied forces in World War II. Preparations for the operation began back in 1943, after the famous Tehran Conference, at which he finally managed to find a common language with Roosevelt.

While the Soviet army was fighting fiercely, the British and Americans were carefully preparing for the upcoming invasion. As the English military encyclopedias on this topic say: “The allies had sufficient time to prepare the operation with the care and thoughtfulness that its complexity required; they had the initiative and the ability to freely choose the time and place of landing.” Of course, it’s strange for us to read about “enough time” when thousands of soldiers were dying every day in our country...

Operation Overlord was to be carried out both on land and at sea (its naval part was codenamed “Neptune”). Its tasks were as follows: “Land on the coast of Normandy. Concentrate the forces and means necessary for a decisive battle in the area of ​​​​Normandy, Brittany, and break through the enemy’s defenses there. With two army groups, pursue the enemy on a broad front, concentrating the main efforts on the left flank, in order to capture the ports we need, reach the borders of Germany and create a threat to the Ruhr. On the right flank our troops will join forces that will invade France from the south."

One cannot help but be amazed at the caution of Western politicians, who spent a long time choosing the moment for the landing and postponing it day after day. The final decision was made in the summer of 1944. Churchill writes about this in his memoirs: “Thus, we came to an operation that the Western powers could rightfully consider the climax of the war. Although the road ahead might be long and difficult, we had every reason to be confident that we would achieve a decisive victory. Russian armies expelled the German invaders from their country. Everything that Hitler had so quickly won from the Russians three years earlier was lost by him with enormous losses in men and equipment. Crimea was cleared. The Polish borders were reached. Romania and Bulgaria were desperate to avoid revenge from the eastern victors. Any day now a new Russian offensive was supposed to begin, timed to coincide with our landing on the continent”...
That is, the moment was most opportune, and the Soviet troops prepared everything for the successful performance of the allies...

Combat power

The landing was to take place in the northeast of France, on the coast of Normandy. The Allied troops should have stormed the coast and then set off to liberate the land territories. The military headquarters hoped that the operation would be crowned with success, since Hitler and his military leaders believed that landings from the sea were practically impossible in this area - the coastal topography was too complex and the current was strong. Therefore, the area of ​​the Normandy coast was weakly fortified by German troops, which increased the chances of victory.

But at the same time, it was not in vain that Hitler believed that the enemy’s landing on this territory was impossible - the allies had to rack their brains a lot, figuring out how to carry out a landing in such impossible conditions, how to overcome all the difficulties and gain a foothold on an unequipped shore...

By the summer of 1944, significant Allied forces were concentrated in the British Isles - as many as four armies: the 1st and 3rd American, 2nd British and 1st Canadian, which included 39 divisions, 12 separate brigades and 10 detachments of the British and American Marine Corps. The air force was represented by thousands of fighters and bombers. The fleet under the leadership of the English admiral B. Ramsey consisted of thousands of warships and boats, landing and auxiliary vessels.

According to a carefully developed plan, sea and airborne troops were to land in Normandy over an area of ​​about 80 km. It was assumed that 5 infantry, 3 airborne divisions and several detachments of marines would land ashore on the first day. The landing zone was divided into two areas - in one the American troops were to operate, and in the second - the British troops, reinforced by the allies from Canada.

The main burden in this operation fell on the navy, which had to deliver troops, provide cover for the landing and provide fire support for the crossing. Aviation should have covered the landing area from the air, disrupted enemy communications, and suppressed enemy defenses. But the most difficult thing was experienced by the infantry, led by the English General B. Montgomery...

Judgment Day

The landing was scheduled for June 5, but due to bad weather it had to be postponed by a day. On the morning of June 6, 1944, a great battle began...

Here's how the British Military Encyclopedia talks about it: “Never has any coastline endured what the coast of France had to endure that morning. At the same time, shelling from ships and bombardment from the air were carried out. Along the entire invasion front, the ground was cluttered with debris from explosions; shells from naval guns punched holes in the fortifications, and tons of bombs rained down on them from the sky... Through the clouds of smoke and falling debris, the defenders, gripped by horror at the sight of general destruction, could barely discern hundreds of ships and other vessels inexorably approaching shore."

With a roar and explosions, the landing force began landing on the shore, and by evening, significant Allied forces found themselves in the territory captured by the enemy. But at the same time they had to suffer considerable losses. During the landing, thousands of servicemen from the American, British, and Canadian armies died... Almost every second soldier was killed - such a heavy price had to be paid for the opening of a second front. This is how veterans remember it: “I was 18. And it was very hard for me to watch the guys die. I just prayed to God to let me return home. And many did not return."

“I tried to help at least someone: I quickly gave an injection and wrote on the wounded man’s forehead that I had injected him. And then we collected our fallen comrades. You know, when you are 21 years old, it’s too hard, especially if there are hundreds of them. Some bodies surfaced after several days or weeks. My fingers passed through them”...

Thousands of young lives were cut short on this inhospitable French coast, but the command’s task was completed. On June 11, 1944, Stalin sent a telegram to Churchill: “As can be seen, the mass landing, undertaken on a grandiose scale, was a complete success. My colleagues and I cannot but admit that the history of wars does not know of another similar enterprise in terms of the breadth of its concept, the grandeur of its scale and the skill of its execution.”

The Allied forces continued their victorious offensive, liberating one town after another. By July 25, Normandy was practically cleared of the enemy. The Allies lost 122 thousand people between June 6 and July 23. The losses of German troops amounted to 113 thousand people killed, wounded and prisoners, as well as 2,117 tanks and 345 aircraft. But as a result of the operation, Germany found itself between two fires and was forced to fight a war on two fronts.

Disputes still continue as to whether the participation of the Allies in the war was really necessary. Some are confident that our army itself would have successfully overcome all the difficulties. Many people are irritated by the fact that Western history textbooks very often talk about the fact that the Second World War was actually won by British and American troops, and the bloody sacrifices and battles of Soviet soldiers are not mentioned at all...

Yes, most likely, our troops would have been able to cope with Hitler’s army on their own. Only this would have happened later, and many more of our soldiers would not have returned from the war... Of course, the opening of a second front brought the end of the war closer. It’s just a pity that the Allies took part in hostilities only in 1944, although they could have done this much earlier. And then the terrible victims of the Second World War would have been several times smaller...

I I think that every educated person knows that on June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, and finally, the full opening of the second front. T Only the assessment of this event has different interpretations.
The same beach now:

Why did the Allies wait until 1944? What goals did you pursue? Why was the operation carried out so ineptly and with such significant losses, despite the overwhelming superiority of the Allies?
This topic was raised by many at different times, I will try to talk about the events that took place in the most understandable language possible.
When you watch American films like: "Saving Private Ryan", games " Call of Duty 2" or you read an article on Wikipedia, it seems that the greatest event of all times is described, and it was here that the whole second World War...
Propaganda has always been the most powerful weapon. ..

By 1944, it was clear to all politicians that the war was lost by Germany and its allies, and in 1943, during the Tehran Conference, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill roughly divided the world among themselves. In a little more time, Europe, and most importantly France, could have become communist if they had been liberated by Soviet troops, so the allies were forced to rush in time to share the pie and fulfill their promises to contribute to the common victory.

(I recommend reading “Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with US Presidents and British Prime Ministers during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945,” released in 1957, in response to the memoirs of Winston Churchill.)

Now let’s try to figure out what really happened and how. First of all, I decided to go and look at the terrain with my own eyes, and assess exactly what difficulties the troops landing under fire had to overcome. The landing zone takes about 80 km, but this does not mean that throughout these 80 km, paratroopers landed on every meter; in fact, it was concentrated in several places: "Sword", "Juno", "Gold", "Omaha Beach" and "Pointe d'oc".
I walked along this territory on foot along the sea, studying the fortifications that have survived to this day, visited two local museums, sifted through a lot of different literature about these events and talked with residents in Bayeux, Caen, Sommur, Fecamp, Rouen, etc.
It is very difficult to imagine a more mediocre landing operation, with the complete connivance of the enemy. Yes, critics will say that the scale of the landing is unprecedented, but the mess is the same. Even according to official sources, non-combat losses! were 35%!!! from total losses!
We read Wiki, wow, how many Germans resisted, how many German units, tanks, guns! By what miracle did the landing succeed???
The German troops on the Western Front were spread thinly over the territory of France and these units performed mainly security functions, and many could only be called combat ones. What is the division, nicknamed the “White Bread Division” worth? An eyewitness, English author M. Shulman, says: “After the invasion of France, the Germans decided to replace it with o. Walcheren was an ordinary infantry division, a division whose personnel suffered from stomach diseases. Bunkers on the island Walcheren was now occupied by soldiers who had chronic ulcers, acute ulcers, wounded stomachs, nervous stomachs, sensitive stomachs, inflamed stomachs - in general, all known gastritis. The soldiers vowed to stand until the end. Here, in the richest part of Holland, where white bread, fresh vegetables, eggs and milk were in abundance, the soldiers of the 70th Division, nicknamed the "White Bread Division", awaited the imminent Allied offensive and were nervous, for their attention was equally divided between the problematic threat and side of the enemy and real stomach disorders. This disabled division was led into battle by the elderly, good-natured Lieutenant General Wilhelm Deiser... Horrific losses among senior officers in Russia and North Africa were the reason that he was returned from retirement in February 1944 and appointed commander of a stationary division in Holland. His active service ended in 1941 when he was discharged due to heart attacks. Now, being 60 years old, he was not enthusiastic and did not have the ability to turn the defense of Fr. Walcheren in the heroic epic of German weapons."
In the German "troops" on the Western Front there were disabled and crippled people; to perform security functions in good old France, you do not need to have two eyes, two arms or legs. Yes, there were full-fledged parts. And there were also collected from various rabble, like the Vlasovites and the like, who only dreamed of surrendering.
On the one hand, the Allies assembled a monstrously powerful group, on the other hand, the Germans still had the opportunity to inflict unacceptable damage on their opponents, but...
Personally, I got the impression that the command of the German troops simply did not prevent the Allies from landing. But at the same time, he could not order the troops to raise their hands or go home.
Why do I think this? Let me remind you that this is the time when a conspiracy of the generals against Hitler is being prepared, secret negotiations are underway between the German elite on a separate peace, behind the back of the USSR. Allegedly, due to bad weather, aerial reconnaissance was stopped, torpedo boats curtailed reconnaissance operations,
(Most recently before this, the Germans sank 2 landing ships, damaged one during exercises in preparation for the landing and another was killed by “friendly fire”),
the command flies to Berlin. And this is at a time when the same Rommel knows very well from intelligence data about the impending invasion. Yes, he might not have known about the exact time and place, but it was impossible not to notice the gathering of thousands of ships!!!, preparation, mountains of equipment, training of paratroopers! What more than two people know, so does a pig - this old saying clearly reflects the essence of the impossibility of hiding preparations for such a large-scale operation as an invasion across the English Channel.
I'll tell you a few interesting points. Zone landings Pointe du Hoc. It is very famous; a new German coastal battery was supposed to be located here, but they installed old French 155 mm cannons, manufactured in 1917. In this very small area, bombs were dropped, 250 356 mm shells were fired from the American battleship Texas, as well as a lot of shells of smaller calibers. Two destroyers supported the landing with continuous fire. And then a group of Rangers on landing barges approached the shore and climbed the steep cliffs under the command of Colonel James E. Rudder, captured the battery and fortifications on the shore. True, the battery turned out to be made of wood, and the sounds of shots were imitated with explosive packages! The real one was moved when one of the guns was destroyed during a successful air raid a few days ago, and it is its photograph that can be seen on websites under the guise of the gun destroyed by the Rangers. There is a statement that the rangers did find this relocated battery and ammunition depot, which, oddly enough, was not guarded! Then they blew it up.
If you ever find yourself on Pointe du Hoc , you will see what used to be a “lunar” landscape.
Roskill (Roskill S. Fleet and War. M.: Voenizdat, 1974. T. 3. P. 348) wrote:
“Over 5,000 tons of bombs were dropped, and although there were few direct hits on the gun casemates, we managed to seriously disrupt enemy communications and undermine their morale. With the onset of dawn, the defensive positions were attacked by 1630 “liberators”, “flying fortresses” and medium bombers of the 8th and 9th air forces of the US Air Force... Finally, in the last 20 minutes before the approach of the assault waves, fighter-bombers and medium The bombers carried out a bomb attack directly on the defensive fortifications on the shore...
Shortly after 0530, the naval artillery unleashed a hail of shells along the entire 50-mile front of the coast; Such a powerful artillery strike from the sea had never been delivered before. Then the light guns of the advanced landing ships came into action, and finally, just before hour “H”, tank landing ships armed with missile launchers moved towards the shore; firing intensely with 127 mm rockets into the depths of the defense. The enemy practically did not respond to the approach of the assault waves. There was no aviation, and the coastal batteries did not cause any damage, although they fired several salvos at transports.”
A total of 10 kilotons of TNT equivalent, this is equivalent in power to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima!
Yes, the guys who landed under fire, at night on wet rocks and pebbles, who climbed a steep cliff, are heroes, but... The big question is how many Germans survived who were able to resist them after such air and artillery treatment? The rangers advancing in the first wave are 225 people...Losses in killed and wounded are 135 people. Data on German losses: more than 120 killed and 70 prisoners. Hmm... Great battle?
From 18 to 20 guns with a caliber of more than 120 mm were fired against the landing allies from the German side... In total!
With absolute Allied air supremacy! With the support of 6 battleships, 23 cruisers, 135 destroyers and destroyers, 508 other warships. 4,798 ships took part in the attack. In total, the Allied fleet included: 6,939 ships for various purposes (1,213 - combat, 4,126 - transport, 736 - auxiliary and 864 - merchant ships (some were in reserve)). Can you imagine the salvo of this armada along the coast over an area of ​​80 km?
Here's a quote:

In all sectors, the Allies suffered relatively small losses, except...
Omaha Beach, American landing zone. Here the losses were catastrophic. Many drowned paratroopers. When they hang 25-30 kg of equipment on a person, and then force him to parachute into the water, where the bottom is 2.5-3 meters, for fear of getting closer to the shore, then instead of a fighter, you get a corpse. At best, a demoralized person without weapons... The commanders of the barges carrying amphibious tanks forced them to land at depth, afraid to come close to the coast. In total, out of 32 tanks, 2 floated ashore, plus 3, which, the only captain who did not chicken out, landed directly on the shore. The rest drowned due to rough seas and the cowardice of individual commanders. There was complete chaos on the shore and in the water, the soldiers were rushing confusedly along the beach. The officers lost control of their subordinates. But still there were those who were able to organize the survivors and begin to successfully resist the Nazis.
It was here that Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt, fought heroically, who, like the deceased Yakov, Stalin’s son, did not want to hide in headquarters in the capital...(Theodore Roosevelt Jr.measures a month later from a heart attack).
The casualties in this area are estimated at 2,500 Americans. The German corporal machine gunner Heinrich Severlo, later nicknamed the “Omaha Monster,” contributed his talents to this. He uses his heavy machine gun, as well as two rifles, while in a strong pointWiderstantnest62 killed and wounded more than 2,000 Americans! Such data makes you wonder if he had not run out of ammunition, would he have shot everyone there??? Despite huge losses, the Americans captured the empty casemates and continued the offensive. There is evidence that certain areas of the defense were surrendered to them without a fight, and the number of prisoners captured at all landing sites was surprisingly large. Why is it surprising though? The war was coming to an end and only the most fanatical adherents of Hitler did not want to admit it...
Some Rangers claim that French civilians fought against them... Several French civilians accused of shooting at American forces and assisting the Germans as artillery observers were executed...
But weren’t these residents killed, and then everything said was just a cover-up for American war crimes?
(Source Beevor, Antony. "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy." (New York: Penguin, 2009), p106)

Mini museum between landing zones:

View of Pont d'Oc from above, craters, remains of fortifications, casemates.

View of the sea and rocks there:

Omaha Beach view of the sea and landing zone:

World War II Collie Rupert

Normandy Landing: D-Day

Normandy Landing: D-Day

Hitler had long foreseen that the Allies would attempt to land somewhere in western Europe, and accordingly built a defensive line stretching 2,500 kilometers from the Netherlands to the border with Spain. Called the Atlantic Wall, the line was built over two years using the slave labor of prisoners of war. When construction was completed, the line was staffed by soldiers retired due to age or injury. Hitler predicted that the Allies would land in Calais, since it was the city closest to England.

Two years earlier, on August 19, 1942, the Allies attacked German-occupied France, landing troops in the port of Dieppe. The landing ended in disaster: the Germans easily repelled the attack. However, the lesson was not in vain: henceforth, well-fortified port cities were to be avoided. And in June 1944, the decision was made to land on deserted beaches.

In the proposed invasion of Europe, Montgomery would command British forces, Patton would command American forces, and Eisenhower would have overall command. The choice was made in favor of a hundred-kilometer strip of Norman beaches, despite the fact that the distance to England here was much greater. The problem of the lack of port facilities was solved by the construction of two huge artificial piers, which were to be towed across the English Channel and sunk on site offshore. The world's first undersea oil pipeline was laid, 110 kilometers long, from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg. This oil pipeline carried 1,000,000 gallons of oil per day to northern France. The French and Belgian Resistance were notified of the upcoming operation and received proper instructions. On the eve of D-Day, the BBC aired the poem “Autumn Song” (Chanson d’automne) by a 19th-century French poet. Fields of Verlaine, which became a pre-arranged signal informing the Resistance that the invasion would begin the next day.

The months-long preparations for the landing and the armada of ships assembled off the coast of England could not go unnoticed by German intelligence, so the Allies made titanic efforts to mislead the Germans: dummy tanks designed to deceive aviation reconnaissance, false radio communications, false headquarters and even an actor , depicting Montgomery dispatched to North Africa. The deception was a success: far fewer soldiers remained on the beaches of Normandy as Hitler dispersed his forces throughout the northwestern coast of Europe. The British, under the leadership of the inventive Percy Hobart, came up with many means designed to help tanks launched into the sea a few kilometers from the coast to float on the water. Nicknamed "Hobart's boats", different tanks had different purposes: they were supposed to "float" ashore, make passages through minefields, or roll out sheets of tarpaulin to form paths in the loose sand.

Operation Overlord began on June 6, 1944, on the appointed day. In the rear of the German positions, gliders and paratroopers (as well as dolls with parachutes) landed, liberating the first piece of occupied territory - the Pegasus Bridge. An armada of 7,000 ships (including 1,299 warships) then crossed the English Channel, carrying almost 300,000 people. The Americans targeted the beaches, which were named Utah and Omaha, and the British - Gold, Juno and Sword. The Allies met their fiercest resistance at Omaha: soldiers, jumping into the water from landing ships that failed to approach the shallow water, sank under the weight of their equipment, others died under heavy German fire, but, in the end, after a battle that lasted several hours , solely due to overwhelming numerical superiority, the bridgehead on the shore was captured. The Germans were short of aircraft because most of their air power was committed to the Eastern Front, and what little they had was soon neutralized by the Allies' air superiority.

Hitler, having learned about the landing, decided that it was a diversionary strike, and three whole days passed before he sent reinforcements. Rommel, now back in command of the German forces, went to Berlin for a day to celebrate his wife's birthday. Returning to Normandy, he immediately organized a counteroffensive, but his troops, deprived of air cover and unequal in strength to the enemy, were forced to retreat under the onslaught of the allies. The Germans were also greatly hampered by the activities of the partisans in the rear. In retaliation, they used brutal punitive measures, destroying entire villages and killing residents. On June 27, the heavily damaged port of Cherbourg was liberated, which made it easier for the Allies to transfer manpower and military equipment to France. By early July they had transported over 1,000,000 people to the continent.

On July 20, 1944, an assassination attempt was made on Hitler at his Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia, the so-called July Bomb Plot, prepared by German officers who wanted to hasten the end of the war. Hitler, although shell-shocked, escaped with bruises and scratches, and everyone involved in the conspiracy was soon captured and executed. Rommel, who was not personally involved in the plot, spoke out in support of it. Once this became known, he was given a choice: suicide and honor preserved, or the humiliation of a Nazi court with a predetermined sentence and sending all his close relatives to a concentration camp. Rommel chose the first, and on October 14, in the presence of two generals sent by Hitler, he poisoned himself. As promised, he was buried with military honors, and the family was given a pension.