OVER THE BEACHES
Despite being one of the largest, most complex, best thought-out, best prepared military operations in history, getting onto the Normandy beaches had all the brutal simplicity of a medieval siege. Brave men would hurl themselves in frontal assault at prepared positions manned by equally brave and determined men. The attackers chose the ground; had the advantage of surprise; their forces were concentrated to provide overwhelming numbers at the points of contact. The Allies had complete control of the air and seas and could impede enemy reinforcement behind the beaches. But things were bound to go awry.
Static defenses beyond the high-water mark destroyed a few landing craft, caused others to swamp, even trapped a few to make easy targets for guns on shore, but not enough to frustrate eventual advance onto a given beach.
Many landings were just minutes before high tide, counting on what was left of the rising water to float off the initial landing craft. Rising water also meant there was little space for troops between water and sea walls or berms. It they couldn’t get off the beaches quickly, they would be trapped on narrow, vulnerable ground.
This photo is early in the invasion (Omaha east of Le Moulins Draw). Troops are bunched up and there is clearly confusion. Only one tank is ashore (forward and left of the beached landing craft). Other landing craft are coming in. A swamped landing craft is off-shore at upper left.
Enlargement gives a better look at the distressed landing craft and seeming chaos on the shore.
Machine-gun and light artillery/anti-tank positions on higher ground took a considerable toll on some beaches but the ‘Atlantic Wall’ was thin. The key to breaking through that hard crust of defenses was armor. The best progress was on beaches where tanks got ashore early. Anti-tank weapons and mines took out a few tanks, but one-by-one the defensive strong points fell, allowing infantry to spill through into the ‘soft’ hinterland.
By early afternoon it was clear the invasion was a success. For the rest of 6 June, and the next few days, more men, vehicles, guns and supplies were being landed on the invasion beaches with impunity.
There was little or no prepared German defense behind most beaches so the beachheads expanded rapidly, coalescing and pushing south and west. Behind some beaches, roads heading inland looked like rush hour traffic by mid-afternoon.
Note: each of the five landing areas was divided into specific beaches which were further divided by right (Green) and left (Red). If a center sub-beach was needed it was designated ‘White’.
SWORD BEACHES (ROGER, QUEEN, PETER, OBOE)
Britain’s 3rd Infantry Division anchored the east end of the invasion, landing on beaches from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. Below is ‘Queen White’ early in the invasion. These men were through the defenses and beyond the beaches in 45 minutes.
Few landing craft have beached yet. Note barrage balloons towed for defense by two of the three Landing Craft Tank vessels (LCTs), deemed necessary, though Allied control of the air was assured by sheer numbers of RAF and USAAF fighters overhead. None of the four long, narrower Landing Craft Infantry (LCIs) had balloons.
Enlargement shows a dozen ‘wading’ Sherman M4 tanks ashore (arrows show some breathing trunks on the rear deck). I see no Duplex Drive ‘swimming’ tanks on the beach.
The photo above shows mid-morning landings on beaches ‘Queen Green’ (on left) and ‘Queen White’. Many additional LCTs have beached and are unloading. This appears to be an ebbing tide, making it early afternoon. The vessels closest to shore are from the initial landings, firmly grounded until the next rising tide. Those seemingly fixed in position but farther back are a second wave, grounding as the tide goes out. A few of them show propellers churning to push higher to firmly lodge them for safer unloading. At least one LCT has lifted free and is heading back for another load.
At least 150 vehicles of various sizes on the beach and the flow of traffic south prove that German defenses on Sword had collapsed.
Above: British Landing Craft Assault (LCA).
Below, a Landing Craft Tank (LCT) unloading tanks (photo not from D-Day). The British version could carry five tanks. The smaller American LCT carried four.
One reason for success on Sword was the courage of LCT crews risking their vessels against submerged defenses and fire from the shore to ram bows onto the beach and get vital vehicles quickly into action. The two most critical categories were tanks and specialized Engineer vehicles needed to clear on and off-shore obstacles for subsequent landings.
Enlargement of the aerial photo above shows (at left) vehicles near the beach. It looks like an Engineer unit heading south – note what appear to be ‘dozer’ blades or flails sticking out in front of the vehicles. Shadows show them raised to different heights above the road. ‘Wader trunks’ can be seen on the sterns of most of these tanks. Second from the top and third from the bottom are towing 13.5 foot long ‘Porpoise’ ammunition and supply sledges.
Enlargement (at above) shows a stream of vehicles on the same road south of ‘Queen Green’, heading toward Caen - 3rd Infantry Division’s invasion objective for the first day. The initial easy advance linked up with Airborne forces along the Orne River just after noon. Troops got within three miles of Caen but German resistance stiffened steadily through the afternoon and Caen couldn’t be taken in a rush.
Caen was largely destroyed by artillery and aerial bombing before it was finally occupied by the Allies on 18 July.
Note: it is an interesting exercise to match these images with present day Google Satellite photos. The area has seen a lot of development in 67 years, and many of the smaller country towns are almost unrecognizable, but major road alignments, intersections and field patterns don’t change. Sometimes you can even identify a large house that still exists as it did in June 1944 (look for characteristic dormers).
The same road south of the ‘Queen Green’ beach heading for Hermanville-sur-Mer. Enlargement shows tanks, trucks and Bren Gun Carriers on the road. At least nine armored vehicles are in the field to the left – one clearly a tank. The way the rest are positioned suggests a Self-Propelled Artillery unit deployed to fire southeast.
Those winged splotches scattered through the field (some of us used to call them ‘Snow Angels’) are classic spoil craters from small caliber high-angle fire such as mortars or light howitzers. Direction of fire is perpendicular to the ‘wings’ with the source directly opposite to the ‘tail’ showing on some craters - in this case fire came from the upper left.
‘Queen White’ beach with eight LCTs and two Landing Craft Infantry (LCIs) aground until the rising tide lifts them off. Those higher on the beach say the tide is going out, probably about noon. Enlargement shows the LCT at far left leaking oil near the bow. It may have been holed by an unseen ‘Czech Hedgehog’ while grounding with the tide higher.
Above, another enlargement from the preceding vertical showing three beach exits made by Invasion equipment. Engineer vehicles were vital to breaking the beach verge so combat vehicles could exit to dry land and better footing.
Below, (probably D+1 and probably not from Sword), this illustrates why ‘Hobart’s Funnies’ were so important. Wheeled vehicles, even some tracked vehicles, had trouble on the wet sand and unstable shingle. We see a Bulldozer preparing to extricate a truck. ‘Czech Hedgehogs’ removed from the beach are piled at the right.
‘Queen Green’ just east of Lion-sur-Mer, fairly early in the invasion. Vehicles are exiting the beach right through a former German strong point.
Enlargement has at least two of ‘Hobart’s Funnies’ (special function tanks – probably Flails) on the beach. These are painted tan instead of Olive Drab like the rest of the equipment. Those vehicles were crucial in removing mines, crossing loose surfaces, spanning ditches and destroying concrete bunkers. At left, four tanks are towing ammunition sledges. The tank with a trailer may be a flame-thrower. Another possible ‘Funny’ is at far right, perhaps a Dozer tank. Some Engineer M4 guns also took out German bunkers.
A little farther east, ‘Queen Red’. This was marked 1750 hours but that would have been full load tide. It must mean the time the film was processed in England because this is either the ebbing tide or well into the second rising tide – which would peak at 2300 hours. Small movement inland tells me this was taken just after noon. Well-armed bunkers and strong points just beyond this beach resulted in many casualties and held up advance of 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, for about three hours.
Enlargement of German defenses behind ‘Queen Red’. Trenches show fighting positions bearing on the beach and its exits. Concrete bunkers are painted camouflage and those on the far right exhibit blast damage.
Below, same imagery, bulldozers have broken paths up off the shingle and ‘Bobbin’ tanks have laid down matting on both to improve the footing for metal treads of tanks.
Sword was defended by a single 88mm gun, eight 50mm anti-tank guns and four 75mm artillery pieces in well prepared defense positions, most based on pre-existing buildings. Those defenses were causing damage while invasion boats were still short of grounding (89 landing craft were destroyed by shore fire and mines). Defenses eventually caused 683 casualties but were quickly suppressed as 25,000 British troops broke through the Atlantic Wall and surged four miles inland before hastily cobbled together German resistance and counter-attacks began to slow offensive momentum.
Below, Sword Area, ‘Queen Green,’ about 3000 feet east of Lion-sur-Mer. Note multiple, low-gradient exits from the beach. The wide road on the left is now named Avenue du 6 Juin. Rows of hedgehogs and ramp obstacles can be seen as full low tide is reached. Shadows show the shapes of stranded vessels helping identify them as LCTs and one LCI (in the center).
Most of 3rd Division had already moved inland. This negative was labeled 6 June but it exactly matches the scale, contrast and beach conditions of a series marked 7 June 1944.
This enlargement of two probable armored vehicles ‘brewed up’ inland south of Sword is puzzling. A third smaller AFV (Armored Fighting Vehicle) is at right near the buildings. We see where the two vehicles entered the field. At least one other apparently maneuvered and withdrew.
An artillery or anti-tank round is going off at top center. This might be British tanks, or could document part of 21st Panzer Division’s temporarily successful thrust between Sword and Juno landing areas.
The center of Lion-sur-Mer on 7 June. An outer line of well-spaced ‘Belgian Gates’ and inner rows of ‘Czech Hedgehogs’ show well against the wide expanse of sand at low tide. Only one stray landing craft gives evidence of what went on the day before: no tracks on the beach, no vehicles on the beach or streets. There are no destroyed structures, in fact some of those grand beach houses may be seen today, leading to the conclusion that either no one landed here, or the going was quite easy and war passed through the city quickly.
Below, enlargement of the row of ‘Belgian Gates’. Shadows show the structure.
‘Queen White’ (on left) and ‘Queen Red’ on D+1 with the tide well out. There are few vehicles on the beach or city and little destruction in the urban area. Larger ships such as LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) able to carry more supplies in single loads are bringing in the huge amounts of bullets and beans needed to push the force south.
Enlargement of LSTs anchored (no wake) or approaching the beach. The presence of these large, vulnerable sea-going vessels near the shore indicates the threat from enemy air or artillery was considered well under control.
Below, my arrow points toward the western edge of 6th Airborne Division Landing Zone ‘W,’ northwest of Pegasus Bridge (adjoins photo on page 84). Discarded chutes are in the fields, vehicles are moving south on the road (south is up). Tracks show where tanks from Sword maneuvered, then raced off to the southwest without stopping. Craters show bombs mostly missing an elaborate German hill-top strong point. Trenches and gun positions appear unoccupied.
Three miles south of the beach and two miles west of the Caen Cannel was one of the few prepared positions behind the beaches. Enlargement of vertical imagery from the previous day discloses no apparent damage or occupancy of the obviously well-developed defense point on the road south to Bieville. The various nodes where trenches meet suggests an artillery position but no guns are in view.
JUNO BEACHES (NAN, MIKE, LOVE)
Despite a heavily defended coast, Canadian 3rd Infantry Division landings west of Sword were among the most successful, achieving most of their invasion objectives by sundown with relatively low casualties. The weight of this landing fell between Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer on the east and beaches just beyond Courseulles-sur-Mer on the west.
Buildings on fire at St. Aubin sur Mer were probably from pre-invasion naval bombardment. No landings occurred here, the inbound landing craft is heading for the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade landings at Bernieres.
I see no obvious defense strong points on this enlargement but any of those buildings could have housed anti-tank and machine guns behind concrete modifications.
Bernieres-sur-Mer was the center of a two Brigade assault landing. Fires are from pre-invasion air attack and naval gunfire. Since landing craft are pushing forward and few are grounded, this is probably before 10 AM. H-Hour was 0745 and by that time many of the off-shore hazards were under water, making it impossible for engineers to clear paths. That resulted in higher losses (90 landing craft) during landings. However, the Juno beaches were some of the easiest to exit with few seawalls and no cliffs to scale, so the Canadians made excellent progress, storming strong points, pushing inland, quickly linking with British units on their right (Gold Beach), but failing to link with Sword landings on their left.
Below are ‘Nan White’ (on the left) and ‘Nan Green’. This photo was taken by a hand-held camera shooting out the window of a transport-type aircraft flying west well off-shore. We see urban development on the shore and flat, open country just beyond.
Below, from the same photo series/source, but not necessarily the same landing or time. This is not the same location as above, but probably nearby. That AFV at right looks like a self-propelled artillery gun.
Landing on ‘Nan White’. The bicycles were a surprise to me. I understand bikes also landed on Sword and Gold, and soon littered the French countryside as troops found them useless.
More of the coastal fly-by. Courseulles-sur-Mer is two miles west of Bernieres. Here too were easily handled beach gradients and exits, and open country just behind the beach. Just left of here was one of the strongest defense points encountered on D-Day. The Regina Rifles quickly knocked out its 88mm gun. This picture, taken near high-tide (probably about 10 AM) shows landing craft grounded on the beach and off-shore beach defenses under water (i.e., at their most dangerous).
We see one LCT has lifted off the beach in the still rising tide and is going out for another load. Choice of a landing site for ‘Mike Green’ requiring an immediate river crossing and marshy ground inland seems curious – but it worked. German troops here were thin on the ground but alerted since British forces had begun landing just east and west of Juno about a half hour earlier, but the Canadians were through the shore defenses quickly. Once inland, these troops turned right to link up with British landings on Gold Beaches two miles farther west.
Attackers on ‘Mike Red,’ just east of here, faced a high seawall and one of the most heavily prepared and defended strong points encountered on D-Day. Assault infantry took 50% losses on that beach in the first hour.
One of the keys to success on Juno was that 21 of the 29 Duplex Drive M4 ‘Sherman’ tanks successfully swam ashore to go in with the initial landings – one Squadron arriving ahead of the Infantry. Tanks of 1st Hussars working in pairs were able to quickly suppress German strong points and allow troops to get beyond the beach where German opposition was ad hoc.
Early in the ‘Nan White’ landing east of Bernieres. Fires on shore are probably from naval gun fire because I see no movement off the beach at this time. At right, a cluster of vehicles is on the beach gradient. I don’t see any floatation curtains so I assume these tanks ‘waded’ in from one of the departing LCTs. At far left, 25 LCAs are on the way in to the heaviest defended beach, passing a seemingly stalled LCT which appears to have its ramp down (too far out for ‘waders’, perhaps it is launching DD M4 ‘swimming’ tanks).
Below, enlargement shows beach obstacles visible in the still rising tide.
East of Bernieres, Landing Boats and LCTs. Vehicles aren’t off the beach but troops on the roads leading to a German strong point show defenses have been overcome.
DD (Duplex Drive) M4 ‘Sherman’ tank seen from the rear with its floatation curtain raised. The curtain provide sufficient displacement to permit the 30 ton tank to float (‘swim’ to shore) but the body of the tank was below sea level. Two propellers would drive it forward and help steering. Note the characteristic Vee nose on the lowered curtain. I would love to have found an aerial photo of one of these tanks ‘swimming’ toward the beach.
The DD tanks were jokingly referred to as ‘Donald Ducks’.
Canadian tanks maneuvering inland through ripening fields. At least one (lower center) is obviously Duplex Drive with its floatation curtain lowered but still installed.
When I found this photo and saw the floatation curtains, I hoped it was 1st Hussars DD Shermans’ cutting the Caen-Bayeux railway, the only unit to reach its D-Day objective, but the presence of ground troops (on road at bottom) suggests this is Fort Garry Horse astride the (now gone) rail line between Luc-sur-Mer and Caen. By late-afternoon these tankers would be facing a thrust to the coast between Sword and Juno landings by PzKfw IVs of 21st Panzer. Cows in the field across the tracks don’t seem intimidated by the tanks.
West of Bernieres-sur-Mer, beach ‘Nan Green’, early in the landing. At least a dozen tanks are towing ammunition sledges. Bomb craters of three sizes in the open field may have been intended for the strong point on the left. It doesn’t look like anyone has started to move inland, but the bunched-up vehicles also say there is no fighting going on right here at the moment.
Below, short vehicles are probably ‘Universal Carriers’ (Bren Gun Carriers). Several of the larger vehicles, probably trucks, sport an unusually large ID marking (they are long and narrow while tanks are almost square). Note the barrage balloon at left bottom.
‘Nan Green’ showing a little more inland, taken at the same time as the photo above. Spoil from a recently installed barbed wire line (arrows) shows around the strong point overlooking the beach. Numerous mortar rounds have gone off in the field farther south, probably the source of those grass-fires. Two bombs were well wide of the mark.
I can’t be certain, but it looks like troops are on the road immediately south of the smoke.
Maneuvering armored vehicles (5 at top arrow, 9 at lower) immediately east and south of the previous photo, about 1000 feet in from the beach ‘Nan White’. Even dispersal of spoil from those craters suggests they are from bombs. Different crater diameter is probably more a function of soil density than weapon size.
Juno, a little earlier in the afternoon. An LCI (center) is driving onto the beach beside two LCTs while an empty LCT (far right) works to back off. Several smaller landing craft appear stranded by the tide and abandoned. The line of vehicles heading for dry ground may be DUKW amphibious trucks. It is impossible to discern what the men on the beach are doing bunched up like that.
Beach ‘Mike Green’ at La Platine, just west of Courseulles-sur-Mer, probably early afternoon. Stranded landing craft show where the tide was during initial landings. To avoid crossing the River Seulles (far right), vehicles are snaking west across the beach to an exit and can be seen on both sides of the cloud cover heading south on the road to Graye-sur-Mer.
Same place, same RAF sortie, but a little farther west.
There are a lot of vehicles on that beach. Note all the artillery/mortar craters in the field at lower right indicating ‘walking’ fire forward ahead of troops.
Mouth of the River Seulles, Courseulles-sur-Mer beach ‘Mike Red’ on D+1 shows two of the 176′ x 42′ outboard powered ‘Rhino Ferries’ used to bring large loads from deep draft vessels onto shore. Enlargement below shows ‘Czech Hedgehogs’ Engineers have removed from the beach and piled at the right.
More of Courseulles on D+1. The width of the beach is amazing. Tracks show activity taking advantage of low water to clear off-shore beach of obstacles. Enlargement, below, shows piles of ‘Hedgehogs’ and ‘Gates’ (center and right) and a self-propelled jib crane (lower left) used to remove them. Here we see the difference between a 187 foot long LCT (4) at left, a 117 foot long LCT (5) beside it, and an LCM (Landing Craft Mechanized) at right.
Farther out on the beach we see more LCMs and several hundred men (you don’t actually see them, you see their shadows) doing…something. Possibly they are salvaging from stranded landing craft but the absence of trucks to assist them is curious. I’m stumped.
Engineers began destroying beach obstacles while Infantry were still struggling to get past German strong points. Below, ‘Czech Hedgehogs’ being blown up.
Low tide on Beach ‘Nan Green’ just east of Courseulles-sur-Mer, D+1. Engineers have been busy. Eight probable DUKWs are heading for shore. Three ‘Rhino Ferries’ and several landing craft are stranded until the next tide. Lower right is a railroad track heading nowhere – possibly a remnant of the old rail line that followed the coast then turned south for Caen at Luc-sur-Mer.
Despite excellent shadows on this imagery, there are no shadows showing structure in the row of ‘Belgian Gates’. Blast marks show they have been destroyed, or blasted free of anchors and removed by Engineers to clear access to the shore.
This was the most formidable strong point encountered on 6 June and on the second most heavily defended stretch of beach (right after Omaha). Those bunkers and casemates overlooking the beach housed one of the despised 88mm PaK 43/41s (the only gun on the beach M4 tank armor lost to in nearly every encounter), several 50mm anti-tank guns (which M4s handled well), several 75mm artillery pieces, mortars, machine guns and riflemen.
Lack of bomb or artillery craters indicates the bunkers and trenches of this German strong point were suppressed by out-flanking troops with satchel charges and point-blank direct fire from tanks. By the time this photo was taken, two major beach exits ran right through the German position.
Note bridges constructed over the anti-tank ditch that protected this strong point on the landward side (just going off the image at photo bottom).
Super enlargement shows what appear to be at least three combat bridges installed, the two on the right with some sort of decking. Shadows show men standing on and near the structures.
Above, Hobart’s bridging tanks which made quick work of getting over an anti-tank ditch.
GOLD BEACHES (KING, JIG, ITEM, HOW)
The British 50th (Northumbrian) Division, supported by 8th Armoured Brigade, landed immediately west of Juno Beaches at 0725 hours. Landing boats are seen shuttling back to the fleet or are grounded ashore and being turned broadside by the rising tide. LCTs still have their loads, and the seas are rougher than expected.
The photo below is 1000 feet east of the center of Mont Fleury (at the time sometimes referred to as La Riviere), the eastern edge of Gold landings. This is actually in the westernmost limits of Juno but landings apparently spilled over. The area was much less developed than today, there are few houses along the beach (one on the left side destroyed by fire) and. It is easy to see why this landing location was selected. The nearly flat beach gradient goes directly onto land above the high water line so men and vehicles can get off the beach almost anywhere and are not channeled into defenses.
The Germans had built defenses on shore in the largely open areas just behind the beaches, but nothing major. However, German troops here were on alert. American forces had begun landing roughly 14 miles farther west an hour earlier.
Landing craft are seen grounded and pushed sideways by the incoming tide and along-shore currents, an indication of why almost every landing this day naturally drifted east. These landing craft can be considered Gold Beach ‘strays’. Troops landing here immediately headed west to join the major landings on ‘King Red’. Small groups of Infantry can be seen on both East-West roads.
This image is literally directly left (west) of the preceding photo. It shows early landing on ‘King Red’ with tanks working their way inland. The center of this photo is now the site of Mont Fleury’s Rue de la Mer.
The left arrow is an anti-tank ditch. Clockwise, the next two indicate bunkers, and a trench running inland. The lowest arrow shows a mine field crossing the road. Gold’s 88mm gun was here in WN 33. It took out two tanks before it was silenced.
Immediately west of Mont Fleury at high tide. The road on the left is the seam between landing areas ‘King Red’ (on the right) and ‘King Green’. We can see vehicles, probably tanks, going south on that road heading inland toward Le Bout-de-Bas. A few tanks are on the road angling from the beach east. The angling road just below the anti-tank ditch is the main route west to Asnelles/Le Hamel.
Aerial bombing has cratered the Asnelles road and a lot of open country. The apparent target will become clear in subsequent photos.
This photo shows the land imaged at lower right in the preceding frame. More vehicles are ashore on ‘King Red’. Ships in the background illustrate the support power inexorably pushing the landings inland.
Enlargement of the photo above shows DD M4 tanks with their ‘swimming’ curtains down. The vehicle at far right is probably a ‘Bobbin’ tank with its roll of material already deployed. Half of the ‘swimming’ tanks assigned to this beach were launched late and lost nine to high water, meanwhile the rest of the ‘swimmers’ and regular M4s were landed directly into the shallows and drove to dry land. Shadows indicate it is still early in the morning (tanks were ashore by 0730 hours).
Note: I doubt Gold beaches got more aerial photo coverage than the others, but (without realizing it at the time) I kept more images from Gold than any other except Omaha. My British beach coverage was entirely from duplicated cut-negs (selected as important by someone in England in 1944 and sent to Washington). Most of those were from RAF missions. The U.S. beach coverage was from USAAF original negatives in roll form which enlarge much better. At the time I selected those photos, in the 1980s, I didn’t recognize one beach from another, hadn’t done any research in depth on the Invasion and never considered writing a book on the subject. I was only looking at the sources available to me at random, so material in this publication is what caught my eye. I got copies of photos that interested me as a PI, ones I needed to make displays to ‘advertise’ what was in the collection under our care. I also noted that by afternoon recon missions weren’t combing parallel to the coast – they were going inland, trying to follow the southward press of the invasion.
‘King Green’ with surf and tanks that have just come out of water. Grass fires are probably from on-shore naval fire before the landings. A building is burning at lower left. About 20 men, with packs on the ground, are near the rightmost tank (a DD M4). Men beside the centre tank may be lowering its swim curtain.
Immediately left of the preceding images and from the same mission, this is ‘King Green’ three-quarters of a mile west of Mont Fleury.
Above, three tanks coming ashore, on the right a DD M4 ‘Sherman’. Left of it is what may be a Tank Retriever (Beach Armored Recovery Vehicle) in a Landing Craft. M4s on the left are ‘waders’. A ‘Dozer’ (or Fascine) tank is helping what looks like a Petard Mortar tank off the loose ground. At photo bottom, a ‘Bobbin’ tank is waiting on the beach to deploy its matting to make the footing better for subsequent arrivals. Strung out along the beach path are at least 20 men – something a PI doesn’t get to see often or this well.
Above, A ‘Bobbin’ tank with its reel of ten foot wide steel reinforced canvas matting.
Another enlargement of the same frame of imagery shows a bull-dozed pile of sand with ‘Bobbin’ material going up one side (suggesting a second ‘Bobbin’ load was expected). An empty ‘Bobbin’ tank is at lower right. Some off-shore obstacles show through the surf and DD M4s are landing. Since it is unlikely an LCT could beach with enough precision to hit that ramp, the sand was probably worked up to ease egress for an earlier landing and that LCT floated off on the rising tide.
‘King Green,’ west of Mont Fleury. Tide is high and the narrow beach crowded. Off shore activity is impressive. The Landing craft about 130 yards off shore (lower left) and one about 500 yards off (nearer photo center) may be casualties from the first waves of landings.
The same area of Beach ‘King Green’ with the tide out and covering more inland. Bomb craters aiming for a target farther inland are just beyond a belt of anti-tank ditches.
Enlargement of the inland barrage balloons. They appear to be of Allied design but their presence this far inland seems curious. They also appear larger than ones over the beach (therefore closer to the camera) so perhaps they are reeled out to max-length from LCTs beached at the high-water line.
Another enlargement of the same imagery discloses Rhino Ferries, LCTs of various sizes, Higgins Boats and DUKWs like jack-straws with the tide full out. There are a few vehicles out on the sand but activity appears minimal. At around 1730 hours the war was already well inland.
Curiously, the LCT at photo center has obviously long been stranded by the receding tide with dry beach under it, but still has some of its load of vehicles on board.
Here’s a look at ‘King Green’ about six hours earlier with the beach showing tanks landing. Enlargement discloses a long line of men trooping along the high-water line, and what may be more men wading in through the surf.
What follows are exposures from a Spitfire mission flown by 106 Group, 542 Squadron that was deemed significant enough for someone in England to select and send prints to Intelligence activities in Washington, DC.
Beach ‘King Green’ with standing water on the sands showing the tide is going out, making this early afternoon. Cloud cover was expanding, making navigation as well as imagery collection more difficult.
Enlargement of the lower left shows many offshore obstacles still in place but blast marks indicating others have been destroyed. An Engineer vehicle (arrow) is working at lower left to remove obstacles like ‘Czech Hedgehogs’ and improve egress.
LCTs heading for the beach with LCAs ahead and behind.
The leading LCT is towing a barrage balloon (the balloon is over the bow of the trailing ship and its shadow is in the water higher in the photo.
Below is another frame from the RAF series. I didn’t find negatives of the entire sortie, but frame numbers from the exposures I have show it was flown inland, coasted out and went inland again, a roaming flight indicating the airspace was less crowded in the afternoon.
Enlargement from exposure 4072 of the RAF mission. Arrows indicate rows of intact beach obstacles.
Below, farther inland, overflying the Mont Fleury Battery was certainly an objective of this recce mission, and an RAF target just before the invasion. Bombing also took out a four gun mobile 100mm battery just south of the Mont Fleury Casemates.
The Mont Fleury Battery had four captured 122mm Russian guns but only two completed casemates. The two explosions at lower right are probably fire from HMS Belfast.
The Battery was quickly captured by 6th Bn Green Howards.
Below, just west of the Mont Fleury Battery, were some of the densest passive defenses to restrict transit inland that I’ve seen.
Arrows show mine fields as dots similar to ‘Rommelspargel’ but closer together. Newly turned earth shows white, and older mines inhibit grass growth with the same effect. The way these dots cross preexisting cultural patterns (fields) is another tip-off that they are land mines.
Those black circles on top of the clouds are flaws on the negative.
AUSAAF recon mission provided a good overview of ‘King Green’ and inland. The road heading south from the beach has considerable traffic heading south to Le Bout-de-Bas (located at bottom). The Mont Fleury Battery is at lower center and we see that many bombs probably intended for that target dropped wide. The typical WW II answer to bombing inaccuracy was saturation of an area in hopes of actually hitting something aimed at.
At lower left is the belt of mine fields just below the anti-tank ditch and road leading west to Asnelles.
This photo falls immediately west of the preceding image and is ‘King Green’ on the right and Beach Gold ‘Jig Red’ west of the road. Contemporary maps show the area between the beach and anti-tank ditches as swamp but it doesn’t look like that to me. The upper white arrows indicate incomplete anti-tank ditches. A white arrow at photo center indicates an intersection of the southbound road to Ver-sur-Mer/Le Bout-de-Haut and the east-west road from Mont Fleury to Asnelles that we will follow through the afternoon.
Black arrows show mine fields – an extension of those in the preceding photo. Apparently the Germans had identified this area a logical landing site.
Tanks, Universal Carriers and troops passing minefields on the road south to Le Bout-de-Haut.
Enlargement shows Bren Gun Carriers towing 6 pounder Anti-Tank guns. Large earth disturbance suggests newly planted mines. Note one of the mines had detonated.
Beach ‘Jig Green’, a mile and a half east of Asnelles, early in the landings. Land south of the road is swamp, forcing movement on the single road.
Enlargement shows a crowd on the beach and practically commuter traffic on the road west to Asnelles, indicating combat is already well inland.
‘Jig Green’, two miles east of Asnelles, about mid-day. A possible minefield at lower right. Enlargement shows a variety of support vehicles, including two articulated trucks at the water’s edge (semi-trailers – the only other one I saw was at Saint-Laurent). Those white rectangles at the back of the LCT may be bodies or casualties on stretchers.
This photo is ‘Jig Green’, immediately left of the preceding image. A water-filled bomb crater suggests the tide is going out, making this early afternoon. Organized chaos reigns on the beach but most are support vehicles such as trucks piled with supplies – the fighting vehicles are already well inland. Bulldozers (arrows) are working to clear and shape the beach access.
Progress here was intended to be inland and circling west to take Arromanches les Baines from the landward side, move on to occupy Port-en-Bessin-Huppain, then on to link with landings on Omaha Beach.
‘Jig Green’, about two miles east of Asnelles, probably early in the landings. Water is high, but not yet at full tide. Arrows indicate small landing craft (LCAs or Higgins Boats) that appear to be in trouble – partially sunk, snagged in off-shore obstacles or stranded by currents turning them so they can’t maneuver free.
This photo adjoins, and slightly overlaps, the preceding one to the east (right). Water depth is shown by vehicles driving toward dry land outside where the waves are breaking.
Engines still driving to hold them on the beach in shallow water, LCTs are disgorging their cargos of vehicles which then ‘wade’ to dry land. The rearmost LCT is still loaded but appears to be backing, perhaps to keep from grounding so far out or awaiting a slot to land.
Tanks are ‘wading’ ashore and the arrows annotate groups of men, including some struggling through the surf past a line of beach obstacles. Long shadows from an eastern sun say this is quite early in the day.
Beach ‘Jig Green’ in the open coast about a mile west of Mont Fleury. The tide is almost fully out and beach contours suggest it is starting back in (making this about 1800 hours). Many landing craft are grounded from the initial assault tides. A dozen vessels still show barrage balloons (arrows), some pulled down near or onto the deck. Supply and support ships of various sizes are active, most apparently awaiting more water over the beach.
Immediately west of the preceding photo, showing the start of a small coast road leading west to Asnelles. The staggered positions of beached LCTs show landings at high, ebbing and nearly low tide.
White arrows indicate rows of intact beach obstacles the assault ships bulled through, risking hull damage. Black arrows are groups of men (there are others).
Below, same area, a little farther west. Most of these ships must have grounded shortly after noon, but barrage balloons indicate they were probably first wave for this beach.
Enlargement of ‘Jig Green’ imagery, one half-mile east of Asnelles, just inland from a strong point with a 50mm anti-tank gun. We see a destroyed house, troops, vehicles on the road, and what seems to be a burning tank at left.
It is rare to see people on the ground and rarer still to witness combat. Super-enlargement discloses men on the road at right, some moving to the left (west). Intact roof trusses show the farm house was destroyed by blast, not fire. Perhaps it housed enemy riflemen falling back from the beach. Absent recent bomb or artillery craters, this is probably the result of direct fire or mortars (there are at least two mortar craters in the field to the south). The troops don’t look like they’re deployed for combat so I surmise the engagement is recently over.
Another super-enlargement of the same imagery discloses something even more interesting. Two Universal Carriers have unlimbered their 6 pounders and both guns are deployed looking west (note positions of the shield on one and trail on the other).
A better look at that tank shows it isn’t burning. It is probably a ‘Flail’ or ‘Crab’ tank working on a minefield east of Le Hamel (note white dots regularly spaced on the ground). This is the only aerial photo I’ve ever seen of combat de-mining activity in progress.
All but two of the Gold Beach ‘Crabs’ became fixed gun platforms on the beach when their tracks were blown away clearing mines, but they were instrumental in success on Gold.
Remember that intersection (arrow) mentioned on page 143. It was empty of traffic then. Here it is again with a stream of tanks, trucks, Bren Carriers with towed artillery all heading south from ‘Jig Red’ toward Le Bout-de-Haute/Ver-sur-Mer. At least one stick of bombs had dropped here earlier in the day, possibly aimed at the Mont Fleury Battery.
Same intersection, only this time southbound traffic has suspended for a convoy of at least 42 Universal Carriers to slip past heading west on the road to Meuvaines.
Same road farther south at Ver-sur-Mer (photo center is 4000 feet south of the ‘King Green’ beach). The upper right arrow shows land mines defending southern and southwestern approaches to the Mont Fleury Battery. Upper left arrow is signs of tanks maneuvering freely toward Meuvaines. Tanks are stationary in a field the center left arrow.
Above, enlargement of armored maneuvering tracks at the upper left arrow.
Above, extensive mine fields at the upper right arrow. These formed part of the landward defenses of the Mont Fleury Battery – the densest mine fields I saw behind any D-Day beach.
Above, enlargement of the area indicated by the center left arrow on the previous page shows at least five, perhaps six tanks facing southwest. Once behind the beach defenses and in open ground the tanks and self-propelled artillery were turned loose to excellent effect, rapidly pushing deeper into France.
Still with RAF 106 Group sortie 711, this is just west of Meuvaines. Signs of battle include dense mortar cratering at upper right and off-road track activity throughout the frame. A single bomb crater in a field near the east-west road suggests tactical air support.
About 60 vehicles are on the road heading west for Le Carrefour. This is inland from Arromanches, and the move will outflank ‘Item’ beach defenses.
Enlargement of the previous frame shows six tanks deployed just off the road and all facing in the same direction (south), suggesting positioning for a fire mission in support of advancing infantry. Four of the five tanks at bottom left face the same way, but they may still be maneuvering into position. Vehicles on the road are not taking evasive action so there is no suggestion of an enemy threat to this location.
Crepon (seen at lower right) is a mile southeast of Meuvaines and two miles south of the beaches as the crow flies. Mortar craters show plenty of evidence of fighting here and tanks, probably from ‘King Green’, are boldly charging southwest (tracks are between my two arrows).
Enlargement of fields just above the lower arrow in the preceding photo shows considerable track activity, including the turning and circling typical of combat or threat of battle. Apparently the FEBA has moved farther south because the four tanks seen in the field (bottom center) have been going at speed, what we used to call ‘hauling ass’, without a pause or jog, straight southwest to the Meuvaines Road.
‘Jig Red’, two miles east of Asnelles. Those pits just behind the beach are too regular in spacing and size to be craters. Perhaps they are positions for riflemen – that could account for the six craters nearby.
Enlargement of LCTs and Landing Craft grounding on a rising tide just short of a band of offshore obstacles.
Unusual track activity caught my eye. Enlarging showed M4 ‘Sherman’ tanks seemingly milling about, then I noted the piles of similar shapes associated with individual stationary tanks. After considerable study and measurement I concluded that those objects indicated by arrows are probably the exhaust trunks used to make ‘wading’ tanks – perhaps removed for better rearward visibility or traverse of the main gun.
The road south from Asnelles was roughly the seam between ‘Jig Green’ (on the right) and ‘Item Red’. There is some cratering from bombs and mortars south of the anti-tank ditch. Tracks show where tanks have maneuvered (mostly leaving the road at bottom center). Wheeled vehicles are on the road just south of the anti-tank ditch and at photo bottom. All movement seems to be to the southwest.
Enlargement of the previous photo shows a few small vehicles on the road but tracks show the ‘big boys’ have gone off to the SW. Four probable Self Propelled Artillery guns are in the field at right, aiming south (white arrows). Three AFVs (black arrows), probably tanks, face slightly differently in the adjacent field.
Below, a photo just west of the preceding imagery shows Gold Beach ‘Item Red’, immediately west of Asnelles. The little town of La Guerre is where the anti-tank ditch almost meets the sea road and a major artery angles inland. The winding road on the left leads to La Fontaine Saint-Come on the coast. Arromanches-les-Bains is a half-mile farther west. The tide is high and there is no sign of any landing on these beaches. There are no vehicles on the roads and, except for a few bomb or shell craters and German strong points (arrows) near the coast, everything looks deceptively peaceful.
OMAHA BEACHES (FOX, EASY, DOG, CHARLIE)
An unfortunate but necessary choice, this beach was the only viable landing site in the thirty miles of coast between Gold and Utah Beaches. It was essential that the Allies quickly get a major port to support the beachhead. Le Havre was too tough a nut to crack right off and Port-en-Bessin-Huppain (five miles west of Arromanches) and Grandcamp-Maisy (another 12 miles west) were insignificant. The target port was Cherbourg and the way to get it was for the Landings to power southwest, cutting off the Cotentin Peninsula. Two American Infantry Divisions (1st ID and 29th ID) were needed for that drive east of the Vier River to link up with Airborne landings and 4th ID troops advancing inland from Utah Beach. The French coast west of La Fontaine Saint-Come had narrow, rocky beaches and steep cliffs (100 to 180 foot) with little or no access inland, except for four and a half miles between Vierville and La Revolution – so, despite unfavorable terrain, Omaha landings were unavoidable.
The formidable task of getting inland from Omaha Beaches was made more difficult because everything that could go wrong did. The seas were much higher than expected on 6 June and particularly bad off Omaha. Seven foot waves swamped landing craft, DUKWs, and sank DD tanks trying to ‘swim’ to shore to suppress fire from casemates overlooking the beaches. Since Omaha was known to have the most heavily developed beach defenses, including dense offshore obstacles, landings were planned for early in the rising tide to make them visible, but that meant troops had a long beach to cross under fire from the heights. Landings were aimed at the critical draws, avenues inland, hoping to quickly take them by storm, but currents pushed some landing craft away from their objectives so some boat-loads of men wound up well east of their objectives. That scattered and disorganized some units and upset timetables for cohesive action.
Below is Draw D1, Vierville, on 7 June. The beach is clear of vehicles and debris, but German defenses on the heights are still apparent. Beach ‘Charlie’ is to the left. ‘Dog Green’, to the right, faced a sea wall protecting the beach road. Landing as far as 300 yards out, 29th ID came under withering fire from machine guns, two 50mm AT guns and an 88mm fire from the German bunkers (arrows). Some assault units lost half their strength in minutes. The draw itself was blocked by a 100 foot long concrete wall. Tanks here were delivered directly to the beach by LCT captains sailing into heavy enemy fire, but infantry still took heavy losses, some units losing half their men. The situation worsened when attackers couldn’t get off the beach and maneuver room shrank as the tide came in. Congestion forced suspension of landings at 0830 hours. Heavy fire from the heights kept Engineers from clearing the beach and carving routes inland until later in the day.
Infantry finally scaled the heights between draws, flanking German strong points and opening the draw. Tanks were moving inland here by 1100 hours. The village of Vierville, on high ground above the draw, was occupied by nightfall.
The coast road seen at right ran to Saint-Laurent, creating a wall that had to be breached to get off the beach anywhere along that coast.
Draw D1 (Vierville) with a receding tide on D+1. Off shore defenses are still largely intact and landing emphasis has clearly already shifted east (to the right) to the growing ‘Mulberry A’ artificial harbor at Saint-Laurent (Draw E1).
Les Moulins, Draw D3, beaches ‘Dog Red’ (on the left) and ‘Easy Green’ (right of the inland road). Ebbing tide and landing craft at right high on the beach makes this early afternoon on 6 June. The anti-tank ditch is intended to stall attacks in fields of fire from strong points on the heights on either side of the road inland.
Enlargement shows Draw D3 had a wide mouth, making it harder to defend so defenses were built to deny access rather than channel it. Bare bluffs gave the defenders a clean-slate for building bunkers and casemates, and they made the most of it. Roads and trenches at lower left and right are on the heights, both armed with numerous machine-guns and at least two 50mm anti-tank guns. The anti-tank ditch and forward firing positions closer to beach are 85 to 100 feet below those two strong points on flat land between the bluffs and the high-water line. The switch-back road going up the bluffs to the strong point on the left gives an idea of how steep they are. Strong points (left, right, and bottom) were ringed by barbed wire and the beaches were mined. Bombing and fire from heavy guns off-shore don’t appear to have hit either of the strong points on the heights or just beyond the beach. Naval gun fire before the landings did start grass fires and that smoke partially blinded some gunners on shore, sparing men struggling through on-coming tide for dry land.
Engineer bulldozers (probably blades on M4s) have filled the anti-tank ditch at the road. A few vehicles are on the roads paralleling the ditch and beach (on the left), and three or four are moving inland just beyond the beach, but it doesn’t appear anything has made it up the draw to high ground as yet.
Enlargement of the ‘Easy Green’ beach discloses landing craft hung up on obstacles and stranded by a receding tide. Particularly densely placed off shore obstacles show well and clearly none of the landing craft made it to the high water line. Ramps and mines at the water’s edge are backed by a dense line of what are probably ‘Czech Hedgehogs’. There don’t appear to be any off-shore obstructions between the Hedgehogs and the coast road and freely moving vehicles suggest no beach mining.
Image quality isn’t good enough for positive identification of all vehicles on the beach but some may be DUKWs. ‘Skid turns’ and turning radii show most are tracked vehicles, probably tanks and SPs (Self Propelled Guns).
Tanks and men on ‘Easy Green’ east of Draw D3 to E1 (Saint-Laurent) and the western end of ‘Easy Red’.
All that off-shore debris is probably landing craft wreckage hung up on lines of uncleared beach obstacles.
I wish this image would hold together for an enlargement, but it won’t.
Les Moulins on D+1. Most of the off-shore obstacles appear cleared, evidenced by many landing craft going high on the beach when the tide was in. Some of those large cargo vessels must be almost touching bottom to get closer. Farther out, note the large number of ships still towing barrage balloons to keep any attacking aircraft from a low pass (a totally unnecessary precaution as it turned out).
This photo is immediately right (east) of the preceding one and covers the rest of ‘Easy Green’, also giving an idea of the scope of naval effort off Omaha.
Enlargement of the 7 June photo above. Three Rhino Ferries are high on the beach along with LCTs and troops. Trucks are off-loading supplies for transfer to dumps inland.
Above, far west end of ‘Easy Red’. Lines of ramps and ‘Czech Hedgehogs’ are well demarcated. Troops are clustered near the high-water mark but you can see how much open beach they had to cross to reach what scant shelter there was on invasion morning.
Three LCTs and an LCI unloading just west of Saint-Laurent. The beach is dotted with bodies but don’t be fooled by beach obstacles. As the inset shows, barrier ramps and their shadow make a ‘Vee’ showing height (two on right) where probable bodies (two on left) do not. The black scatter marks at bottom left are probably the results of Engineers blowing beach obstacles.
‘Easy Red’, west of Saint-Laurent Draw, with several types of vehicle ‘wading’ ashore, passing what bodies or prone men on the beach. I can’t explain troops bunched at the water line. Upper right is probably a bridging tank coming through the shallow water.
Moving east toward Saint-Laurent Draw (E1), sometimes called La Sapiniere. This is the western side of ‘Easy Red’. Landing was by 16th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) of 1st ID augmented by two ‘stray’ boatloads from 29th ID beaches who were supposed to land a mile farther west.
Enlargement below shows troops and casualties on the beach along with trucks, jeeps, what looks like an M7 ‘Priest’ self-propelled 105mm howitzer on the left – but no tanks. This photo is near high tide and maneuver room is severely restricted (the beach is down to 30-35 feet wide). The west end of ‘Easy Red’ was a relatively good landing location with German strong points 600 yards east and west having poor angles of fire on this beach. Troops here were through the defense line, up the bluffs and moving inland by 0900 hours.
An anti-tank ditch spanned the wide mouth of Saint-Laurent Draw. As you can see, behind the hard shell of Atlantic Wall coastal defenses, there were no prepared positions to contend with and terrain was open for maneuvering troops and tanks. Once American armored forces reached the high ground it was ‘Powder River, let ’er buck’.
Troops on the beach even with the western end of the Saint-Laurent anti-tank ditch proves some landings were somewhat west of what many histories indicate. It appears the ditch is watered, making it more of a barrier to infantry.
Enlargement shows troops, KIAs laid on the sand, trucks, DUKWs, jeeps, half-tracks, and an ambulance (big cross on large white panel, driving onto the beach near a stranded Higgins Boat). There’s only one vehicle down there that I’d call a tank. It is seventh in from the left, the only vehicle facing directly inland. A possible articulated truck is just offshore at photo centre.
Following the anti-tank ditch east, the Saint-Laurent Draw road runs off the bottom of this photo. WN 65 casemates on higher ground just south of the ditch held two 50mm anti-tank guns and a 75mm howitzer. Trench lines just off the beach were protected by mines and barbed-wire. This is where the pre-landing loss of those twenty-seven 75mm guns in the sunk M4 DD tanks was felt most.
A companion strong point immediately east of the road was still under construction.
Saint-Laurent Draw with its inland road crossing the anti-tank ditch. Tide is well in so this is probably four to five hours after initial landing. By this time troops just east of here had scaled the bluffs and taken these strong points from the rear, eliminating the anti-tank gun fire, but hadn’t yet suppressed all resistance.
Casualties laid out on the beach.
Another enlargement from the same imagery left.
At least one tank or half-track (lower black arrow) has proceeded inland to a position just past one of the anti-tank gun positions (white arrow), but appears to be on fire. If that is a tank, it’s an Engineer Tank with dozer blade. Dark blobs scattered on the road and behind walls are supporting infantry (upper black arrows).
Note that a concrete wall shielding the gun position from the sea limits fire perpendicular to, or from, the beach. That gun couldn’t engage a tank on the road until the AFV was across the anti-tank ditch.
Eastern end of the Saint-Laurent Draw defenses. This area is the traditional site of the main 1st ID landing. Three LCIs are bringing reinforcements to ‘Easy Red’. Large, more vulnerable, ships like this coming in together suggests this is the Second Wave, or later.
It looks like the anti-tank ditch is watered to the end to double as an anti-personnel barrier.
I’d had the imagery since 1982 but first looked at it under high magnification while putting this book together. I saw something that surprised and delighted me – something I’d never seen before on aerial imagery.
Those are infantry troops surging inland from the beach, skirting the anti-tank ditch, hundreds of them. Note how they are moving in a general advance on the top of the photo (over flat land below the bluffs), and in single files following trails at the photo bottom. That shows where the bluffs begin to get steeper.
Continuation of the photo on previous page. Topping the bluff, single file troops fanned out to a broad front to take Widerstandsnests from the rear and open draws. It’s amazing the imagery ‘held together’ to enlarge like this. Troops may be ‘E’ Co., 116th Inf., 1,000 yards east of where they were supposed to land.
East of Saint-Laurent Draw bulldozer tanks have cut their own beach exit.
This is a good overview of the land between Saint-Laurent and Colleville. The photo shows the Omaha Gooseberry being assembled so it probably dates from 7 or 8 June.
Intense activity at Saint-Laurent Draw on D+1. ‘Mulberry A’ would be constructed here over the next few days.
Ships on the left are supporting Saint-Laurent landings. Those on the right are for Colleville Draw landings. Troops landing between Saint-Laurent and Colleville Draws, elements of the 16th RCT, were out of the best lines of machine-gun and small arms fire from strong points at either draw, but they had no place for their vehicles to go inland because of the bluffs and lack of roads paralleling the shore.
Above, a USAAF F-5 over Colleville Draw looked at ships working off Saint-Laurent. Lack of tank gun direct fire to suppress defenses prompted intrepid Destroyer captains to move so close to shore some were scraping bottom as they laid their guns on German casemates and bunkers for line-of-sight fire, probably saving at least one beachhead (USS Corry was lost to shore fire during those engagements).
Enlargement Below, a ‘Gleaves class’ Destroyer with four 5″ turrets turned to ‘Fox Green’.
Above, half way between Saint-Laurent and Colleville Draws – Beach ‘Easy Red’.
Below, enlargement of the ‘Easy Red’ photo above. LCTs are landing with the tide high – first off was almost always a tank. The vehicle just off the left landing craft, passing a beached Higgins Boat, is possibly a DD M4. On the beach to its right is another tank, apparently an Engineer version with a ‘dozer’ blade. A third tank is at the far right. Typically tanks will be seen early in the landings with their bow (best armor) facing the enemy. Tanks were finally on the beach here by 0700 hours and immediately effective in suppressing enemy strong points.
Below, another enlargement from the same imagery.
Twenty-nine M4 DD tanks of 741st Armored Battalion were put into the water to lead the way onto the beach, but they were launched too far out and seven foot seas spilled over their floatation curtains, swamping the tanks. The east end of Omaha landings paid a high price for loss of all but two of the ‘swimming’ tanks. These may be the two 741st Battalion survivors of the ‘swim’ to shore. We see them on the east end of ‘Easy Red’. The left ‘floatation curtain’ is either damaged or in the process of being lowered. To their left is an Engineer M4 with ‘wading trunks’ on its rear deck and towing a trailer. Typically those trailers were loaded with Bangalore Torpedoes to blast through wire defenses.
Shapes on the beach at right are mostly casualties. Different shapes among clusters of bodies suggest people kneeling over some of them, providing care. Some of the dark shapes being washed up are pieces of debris from sunk landing craft, others are likely KIAs.
Though M4s did well suppressing fire onto the beach and clearing paths for subsequent landings, the price was high. Only five of 741st Armored’s tanks were still in action on D+1.
Beach ‘Fox Green,’ Colleville Draw (exit E3), was defended to the west by the most formidable strong point on Omaha Beach. WN 62 was manned by the largest contingent (85 men) armed with two 75mm howitzers, two 50mm anti-tank guns, mortars and automatic weapons. Defenders were ensconced in well sited and well-constructed concrete casemates.5 Companion strong point WN 61 was immediately east of the draw, 1000 feet away and a little farther forward to sweep the beach and beach approaches to the west with its deadly 88mm gun mounted for direct fire. The 20 men manning WN 61 also had a 50mm anti-tank gun and several machine-guns.
Starting at 0640 hours, four Companies of the 1st IDs 16th Infantry Regiment attacked directly into the teeth of these defenses – initially without armored support. They took devastating losses before reaching some shelter at the top of the shingle and under the bluffs causing the assault to temporarily stall out.
Above, Colleville Draw to Le Cavey.
After the disaster of 741st Armored Battalion’s ‘swimming’ tank losses, the remaining tanks; 16 M4 ‘waders’, eight Engineer ‘dozers’ and three DDs that couldn’t be launched at sea because of a torn floatation curtain, were taken directly to the beach by their LCTs. Several tanks were quickly destroyed but their arrival began to change matters for Infantry pinned down on ‘Fox Green’ as the tanks suppressed fire from enemy casemates.
Above, the western side of ‘Fox Green’ (and a little of the eastern boundary of ‘Easy Red’.
Troops can be seen clustered near the high water mark. The three tanks at upper left are the same ones three photos back. Another tank is a few yards east and vehicles are moving inland.
Enlargement shows what is probably an Engineer tank on fire at the start of the inland road going off the beach. A half-track is going up the E3 road.
Tanks (black arrows) climbing the steep curving road up Colleville Draw. White arrows near the road are positions for 50mm anti-tank guns. White arrows at far left are unfinished casemates housing two 7.62cm field guns captured in Russia, threatening targets on ‘Easy Green’ and ‘Dog Red’ to the west (i.e., unable to fire at this landing beach). A few troops can be seen on the road at photo bottom.
Colleville Draw a little later in the day. My sense is that the tide is going out (making this after noon). Shore fires were probably from earlier combat. The troops on the beach don’t seem to be in a defensive posture so fire from the strong points must have abated.
WN 62 and WN 61 were flanked and taken from the rear by 1430 hours (some sources say the positions were abandoned when the defenders ran out of ammunition).
Le Cavey (WN 61) guarding the east side of Colleville Draw, behind the anti-tank ditch but below the buffs – the only Omaha strong point not on high ground overlooking the beach. Despite manning by only 20 men, this strong point did considerable damage with its 50mm anti-tank gun (probably at lower arrow) and one of the two 88mm guns at Omaha (upper arrow). As the blast zone in front of the 88’s bunker shows, the gun was sited to fire west along the beach and be relatively immune from off-shore fire. The 88mm high-velocity gun was a notorious tank killer.
I believe this is the 88mm bunker – protected from off-shore fire by concrete and earth, this gun could cover the entire beach curving away to the west.
Enlargement of the same beach shows three recently landed Engineer tanks with their trailers.
La Revolution, Draw F1. Beach ‘Fox Red’ was the eastern edge of Omaha (left flank). The characteristic ‘fish-tailing’ wake shows the incoming vessel is a Higgins Boat. It looks like a large number of troops are huddled against the cliffs. These may be elements of three 16th Infantry Companies. Men are moving inland under strong point WN 60 using the diagonalling road. Defenders likely couldn’t see this movement because WN 60 was sited too far back from the lip of the bluffs – the only strong point poorly located.
Above, I’m not as sure of this enlargement as with the Saint-Laurent cover, but those dots on the road are comparable with shapes on the beach that are certainly men. If those are troops, there are over 100 of them heading southeast off the beach.
Below, three tanks on the left are Engineers with trailers. The one at far right is a ‘dozer’. Failure to get tanks ashore ahead of the infantry on the 1st ID beaches resulted in German strong points remaining effective well into the morning. Pinned down on the beaches (particularly ‘Fox Green’) and taking brutal losses, troops finally said ‘to hell with the draws’ and climbed the less-defended cliffs between draws, outflanking the main German defense positions and taking them from the rear by early afternoon. When tanks got into action, the strong points were as vulnerable as on other landing beaches, falling one-by-one, but by nightfall movement inland from Omaha was still measured in yards.
La Revolution a little east of the previous imagery. Tide is full and the LCT has a tank to unload first – but no place for it to go. Two Higgins Boats from an earlier landing are beached in the surf at the right.
The cleared area of WN 60 is just showing white at lower right and some of its trenching is at bottom center. That German strong point didn’t have a view of the beach and was quickly outflanked by troops who currents swept east and landed in the ‘wrong place’, scaled the cliffs and moved inland. This was the first Omaha defense position to fall.
Enlargement of the LCT. I think I see ‘wading’ trunks sticking up on the rear deck of that M4 waiting to off-load. The left-rear vehicle may be a self-propelled gun, the rest appear to be trucks and jeeps.
This is an overview of ‘Fox Red’. The German strong point is based upon that light colored, riceshaped cleared area atop the bluffs. It was manned by 40 troops and held an anti-aircraft gun, a bunkered tank turret, mortars and a 7.62cm field gun. The two beached landing craft of the previous photo are still there (on rocks opposite the strong point), but the LCT isn’t, nor are any vehicles, so this is earlier, or the LCT didn’t unload here. Fires inland northwest of WN 60 (the light colored almond shape) suggest ground combat moving inland.
It appears the ships and landing craft are concerned with ‘Fox Green’, west of here at Colleville Draw.
La Revolution on 7 June 1944. There’s the light colored shape of strong point WN 60 again. Three ‘Rhino Ferries’ and three LCTs, along with several landing craft, are beached in the low tide. Off shore at least 30 large vessels await unloading. The cost in casualties was high, but, like an uneven Rugby Scrum, with that sort of weight on the Allied side pushing relentlessly on shore the invasion couldn’t fail.
Four miles west of Omaha Beach, three Companies of U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion pulled off one of the most daring and costly coups of the war. Their mission was to eliminate German observation of the landings and neutralize six large cannon thought to be on the site. Intelligence and Command elements had reports, but didn’t tell the Rangers, that those guns had been moved inland (according to conventional wisdom) on 4 June, to protect them from escalating naval and aerial bombardment. This action has been told and retold in books and movies. Accepting everything said and written, here are some thoughts of an old PI and Combat Intel Analyst looking at imagery available to me.
It seems to me three U.S. Ranger Companies were sent on a mission reminiscent of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. The intrepid Rangers did what they were asked to do. They scaled sheer 100 foot cliffs under heavy fire, taking the German position on top in 30 minutes only to discover the large caliber guns they were to destroy weren’t there.
Patrolling inland to control a more defensible perimeter, link with units on their left, and search for the missing guns, they discovered five large caliber artillery pieces camouflaged ‘in trees’ and destroyed them with thermite grenades in breaches or trunnions.
By the end of D+1 only 90 of the 225 Rangers were still available for combat.
Allied Central Interpretation Unit at Medmenham produced a graphic using reconnaissance imagery that predates bombing on 15 April 44.
This shows four large-gun positions under construction and as yet unoccupied. Within two months it was apparent that guns were installed in earthen revetments awaiting completion of their concrete casemates.
This graphic, copied through several generations, losing detail each time, doesn’t hold together well enough to enlarge and look for the guns/objects present in March (when there were two more firing positions U/C).
Revetment measurements and ground information suggested the weapons were 155mm.
Large guns such as a 155mm could be kept on their wheeled carriages in a fortification using turntables to change azimuth. Because of the gun’s trail, that required a roughly 45 foot diameter revetment that offered little protection.
I see one probable gun (lower right of the six emplacements) and two possibles (upper right sites) on 8 March imagery. There are no guns on the left and none set up in the construction area or surrounding fields and no tracks or other indications that there had ever been any. Shadows at the centers of the two revetments on the left (aiming northwest and west) disclose central mounding in each suggesting bases for turntables. Large guns were temporarily installed in those open revetments between February and March—a new battery in the heart of Overlord. A probable occupied revetment is at lower right. Another open dirt revetment above it is possibly occupied and has a concrete casemate under construction beside it. Two open gun positions on the left are being dismantled to make room for casemates. Hardened firing positions at Pointe du Hoc posed a much greater threat to Overlord landings (Omaha Beach east; Utah, eight miles west).
Three long, narrow objects (black arrows) in a central area that were not there a month earlier have an overall length consistent with 155 GPFs in travel configuration. They could be the large guns parked pending completion of their casemates. White arrows indicate what could be tarps hiding guns or might simply be covering construction materials.
Batteries of long range guns were sited about every 20 miles along the coast, and one to four miles inland. Pointe du Hoc is uncharacteristically close to the coast and misplaced in the east-west deployment pattern—the Mont Fleury Battery was 22 miles east and Grandcamp-Maisy 2.5 miles west.
This Overlord planning document, based on 10 April 1944 imagery, shows the detailed analysis Allied PIs were doing on German defenses. Rapid progress was replacing all six open revetments with concrete casemates. April 10 imagery also resulted in bombing on 15 April. (U.S. National Archives)
Large guns available to Rommel for the West Wall were a motley assembly of captured and old weapons. In this case the guns were most likely split-trail, wheeled Canon de 155mm GPF—a WW I design.
The 1920s photo below is one in U.S.Army service. The GPF could throw a 95 pound high explosive round 12 miles. Some 450 of those guns were captured when the Germans invaded France in 1940. For scale, the barrel is 20 feet long.
Above, a WW I Manual shows a 155mm GPF with recoil mechanism disconnected, barrel slid to the rear, the trail closed and up on its limber for towing.
Planners in England deemed destruction from the 15 April bombing insufficient and another mission was laid on for 25 April.
Enlarged imagery from 9 May imagery below shows casemates (black arrows) and open revetments (white arrows) well covered by the second bombing. Some impacts are off target but craters are mostly concentrated on the gun positions facing northeast. One of the 155mm guns was later reported destroyed here during the first bombing.
Whatever they were, some of the possible parked artillery pieces observed in that open central area in early March are no longer present.
Three of the casemates appear near completion but none appear occupied. I believe the surviving guns, parked and/or in open revetments, were pulled south before this strike (sometime between 16 and 25 April).
Similar destruction of concrete works at V-1 Launch Sites usually resulted in relocation. But activity continued here.
In any case, PR was covering Pointe du Hoc every few days and I’m sure PIs at Medmenham were watching closely.
The lower arrow on this 9 May imagery (above) is where Rangers reported finding the big guns on 6 June, 3,500 feet south of the Pointe.
Pointe du Hoc was bombed again on 22 May, just to make sure.
New in late April, construction at the upper arrow mimics the Pointe in a slightly smaller version of orientation to the coast, and each other. Two of the revetments appear occupied by ‘something’. Were the guns taken 2,000 feet west and set up temporarily in earthen revetments pending completion of work on the casemates?
Lack of heavy track activity to the revetments suggests a decoy, and that suggests continuing interest in the Pointe.
If that’s a decoy it’s the dumbest one I’ve ever seen—way too close to the target.
Another ACIU graphic (below) showed results after the 22 May bombing. Again many bombs were long or wide of the mark, but this time the target, looks ‘plastered’ by the carpet bombing. As a general I worked for in Saigon was fond of saying, ‘Quantity is quality… if you’ve got enough’. Open revetments are gone and all casemates are heavily damaged. Apparently that new activity to the west didn’t attract any attention from the bombers. Defenders could reasonably anticipate more bombing.
Moon-like cratering made new opportunities for defenders but they also show that nothing large, or requiring a fixed firing position, could survive at Pointe du Hoc. Heavily disrupted ground made new construction, much less installing the 155s in casemates, impossible without bulldozing roads through the mess. Concrete walls and roofs would have been seriously damaged, and anything in revetments would have been destroyed.
At this point restoration of damaged hard defense works was problematic.
According to some books and websites, construction here continued right up to D-Day, but I haven’t seen imagery showing new work on the casemates. The construction reported may have been a ruse, or simply restoration of the ground defenses. At least one contemporary account mentions fake guns (logs painted black), possibly intended to disguise withdrawal of the actual guns to the south—those were called ‘Quaker Guns’ during the American Civil War. That too could be part of a deception plan but I have seen no imagery confirming it.
I don’t believe there was any heavy artillery at Pointe du Hoc after April 1944.
Pointe du Hoc was bombed twice in June just before Overlord began and bombed and shelled from off shore on D-Day. What I see tells me the report of one gun destroyed earlier is correct (thus a battery of five found on 6 June) and information that the guns were pulled out of harm’s way on 4 June is wrong. They had to be gone by the second bombing.
So, we know the guns were gone, but where? Ranger After-Action Reports put the guns along a sunken road 900 feet south of the east-west Grandcamp-Vierville Road.
Five heavy weapons deployed to fire required a lot of elbow room. Typical spacing is shown in this post-war display. The near 155mm GPF cannon is in full recoil position (probably broken).
I find it hard to believe Allied PIs could have missed five deployed large artillery pieces so close to the impending invasion beaches. The big guns were heavy (40 tons for each gun and limber), so were trucks or half-tracks required to tow the guns and haul their ammunition. That would leave tracks if they left the road—and imagery before and after D-Day shows fields south of the Pointe are clear, so the guns had to be somewhere along a hard surface.
During the run-up to D-Day frequent PR and meticulous PI work were combing every inch of France for miles inland searching for V-1 launch sites and defense improvements. After the invasion, PIs found the camouflaged four gun 155 battery below elsewhere in Normandy without a problem. A concave arc is typical for registered artillery, allowing all guns in a battery to fire using the same azimuth data. Note easily seen tracks crossing the orchard to the guns. But maybe the Pointe guns weren’t set up conventionally.
The photo below shows GIs on the trail of a GPF 155 set up to fire in Normandy (location and date unspecified). The gun sight appears intact so it is probably not one of the guns the Rangers disabled. This gives a better idea of how much lateral room an open gun-trail requires.
This 155mm appears elevated for direct fire, possibly as an anti-tank weapon—a function it was ill-suited for. I’d estimate a short life for the gun in that role.
Above, the same gun from the other side. This would be hard to spot from the air, but not impossible. The gate shows the gun is just off an unpaved road (foreground) on a farm lane heading through the trees.
It’s unlikely positions this good would be available nearby for other guns in the battery.
The barrel is slewed to the left on its carriage and had probably last fired from that position. The weapon doesn’t appear damaged so it was likely overrun or abandoned.
I find it curious that none of the reports, interviews and books dealing with finding and disabling the guns on 6 June mention the dozen trucks or prime movers required to support the 155s (if the move had been made on 4 June as reported, the vehicles would certainly have been nearby). Nor are any vehicles seen on imagery of the area. That suggests German troops Rangers saw assembling nearby on 6 June may have had nothing to do with the guns found in the trees (why wouldn’t gunners assemble AT their guns?). It seems likely the guns (probably those removed from Pointe du Hoc) were hidden under the tree cover to protect them from bombing with every intention of taking them back to the Pointe when their casemates were completed/repaired. Subsequent bombing precluded that and then the invasion happened. The hidden guns may have simply been forgotten or abandoned as useless in the current crisis and confusion, the prime-movers required to move them or bring more ammunition, more urgently needed elsewhere.
In most accounts, the guns were in trees. Some mention a ‘grove’ but there isn’t one. Close-spaced trees line the north-south dirt sunken road and more trees separate fields. Ranger accounts say the guns were set up to fire west and with fused ammunition near (and no guard?). That would put them out of sight, directly under trees on the left side of the road, their trails spread on the packed ground. No guns are seen on 9 May imagery (above), but I suspect they were already there.
Disabling cannon with thermite grenades wouldn’t show on imagery, but blowing the ammunition should have and I see only one possibility of that on the post invasion imagery below. The upper hedgerow shows two disruptions, as does the sunken road south. Someone had driven south paralleling the road and outside the trees, but the fields to the west are still clear of track activity.
Tracks to a break in the lower hedgerow are more prominent but activity pre-dates the invasion.
If the guns were intended to fire on Utah, how would they have received needed range and azimuth data? How would they have known to aim at Utah Beach, where landings were in an isolated area and German defenses sparse?
The night of 6/7 June, Rangers held the hedge line running across this image against a German counter-attack from the lower left corner.
I have yet to see aerial photographs actually showing the guns so I can neither confirm nor deny the location and destruction of those Pointe du Hoc guns. No matter precisely where they were, five large caliber guns needed neutralization because they represented a potential threat if towed to another location in German-held territory. The Rangers took care of that.
A three mile stretch of sand and gravel west of the Douve Estuary, and 12 miles west of Omaha, was added to the Normandy Invasion late in planning and proved to be the easiest of the five beaches. It had the most gradual gradient from low water to inland. It had the fewest cultural features to get in the way or be converted into defenses by the enemy, and there was a large portion of luck in the landings. Actual landings took place east (left on this graphic) of programmed objectives in a less developed, less defended section of the coast. One wonders why this wasn’t the planned location in the first place. In any case, it was a fortunate ‘mistake’.
This photo map shows where the Utah landings were intended to take place. As planned Tare Green,’ in particular, was heading straight into a well-developed strong point defended by bunkers and anti-tank ditches.
TOP SECRET BIGOT was the security code word limiting access to Invasion planning. To see the map one had to have a Top Secret clearance, then be cleared for ‘Bigot’ access.
My arrow shows where the first Higgins Boats actually grounded and troops came ashore.
Unfortunately the photo map imagery isn’t dated, but was likely from several months earlier. Tide height is about what was expected at H-Hour on 6 June.
Troops debarking from a Higgins Boat (during training).
Enlargement of the planning photo graphic shows fields beyond the coastal roads reflecting sunlight and crossed by drainage paths, indicating standing water. South is up and the beaches themselves are off the bottom of this photo map (to keep it oriented like the previous page).
Other Utah pre-invasion graphics show that mile-deep zone as swamp. As we shall see, in practice, tracked and wheeled vehicles managed to go inland from the invasion beach without significant difficulty.
The relatively insignificant village of La Madeleine was one of the few cultural features along the otherwise undeveloped coast. Apparently light German defenses were because they planned to flood the area behind the coast for defense if necessary.
An F-5 from US 7 Photo Group photographed Utah Beach early in the invasion. The Douve Estuary is in the background. Airborne landing sites are just beyond the aircraft nacelle. A few vehicles are on the roads heading inland and some activity can be seen on the beach. Marshy ground just inland from the shore is easy to identify from light reflecting off the water. It shows why early control of the few roads leading south to dry ground was so important.
Flat bottom Higgins Boats had three small keels designed to let them ground on a beach and pull free – but that didn’t provide much directional stability. A combination of smoke and explosions on shore caused some coxswains to lose orientation with the few cultural features available for orientation, and along-shore currents proved too strong for the Higgins Boats to fight. Coupled with the rising tide, currents pushed boats east. The more the Higgins bows were pointed toward objectives increasingly to the west, the more they were broadside to the current, making it a more powerful influence on their actual course.
U.S. 4th Infantry Division landed smoothly, albeit in the ‘wrong’ place, and swiftly overcame the sparse German defenses. Progress was immeasurably aided by 27 of 28 DD ‘Shermans’ making it to the beach early to take out German bunkers. Combat Engineers also got ashore in good order and immediately began clearing the beach obstacles. By dark some 23,250 men and 1700 vehicles had landed at a cost of just over 200 casualties.
The tide is ebbing so this imagery is probably from early afternoon. A few landing craft are temporarily stranded and men and vehicles can be seen on the beach. Relatively few vehicles on the beach or road running south shows of how Utah forces came ashore and how fast the front line moved inland.
Movement inland was so swift that 4th ID Infantrymen took some crossroads assigned as Airborne objectives and linked with paratroops deeper inland before the day was out.
This enlargement shows what are probably rear echelon support troops settling in. Between the arrows, and along the road, fresh-turned earth shows numerous ‘fox holes’, likely as protection from shelling more than worry about an enemy air threat. The five pits in a circle at lower left (with a sixth in the center) may be a light anti-aircraft gun battery. Few craters (except lower left – probably pre-invasion tactical bombing or shelling), particularly absence of craters showing mortar fire, indicates combat units breezed through here on their way inland, and there is no immediate threat to this position.
Another enlargement from the same imagery covers what I believe to be an Aid Station or Field Hospital. The upper arrow indicates three probable ambulances and my guess for the medical facility would be the long building at the lower arrow. Some of these ‘fox holes’ are quite large (to hold several people) and a few are open at one end. Those may have had ramps to facilitate ingress and egress for patients.
De Facto Tare Green’. Late afternoon, tide still ebbing but not quite fully out. Material is flowing on shore from the dozens of support craft. Upper right, three Rhino Ferries and breakwater segments are at what may be the start of the Utah Beach Gooseberry. A Rhino Ferry high on the beach at lower right indicates combat pushed the threat inland well before the tide turned around 1200 hours.
De Facto ‘Uncle Red’ with inland access running right through the former German strong point. This imagery is immediately east (right) of the preceding photo. To the right the beach is widening and curving into the Douve Estuary. The land east of here was even more barren and less settled with fewer roads and no defenses.
The western end of Utah Beach landings. Note the few bomb/naval gunfire craters on shore. Isn’t this the ideal for an assault landing – quickly putting overwhelming numbers ashore where the defenders aren’t?
5. The huge American cemetery is on the high ground west of WN 62.