The Americans on D-Day & in Normandy

Brooke S. Blades, Brooke S Blades

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781526743961
• eBook ISBN: 9781526743978
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

A pictorial history of the United States's military operations in World War II, focused on the Battle of Normandy and the liberation of northern France.
 
The experiences and achievements of the United States land, sea, and air forces on 6 June 1944 and the weeks following have been deservedly well chronicled. Omaha Beach saw the fiercest fighting of the whole OVERLORD invasion, and the opposition faced in the U.S. sector shocked commanders and men at all levels. The outcome was in the balance and, thanks to the courage and determination shown by the attackers, game-changing failure was narrowly averted.
 
This superb Images of War book examines, using contemporary and modern images and maps, the course of the campaign and its implication for both the American troops and the civilian population of the battle zone. These revealing images, both color and black and white, are enhanced by full captions and the author's thoroughly researched text. The result is a graphic reminder of the liberation of Northern France and the extraordinary sacrifice made by men not just of the United States military but the other Allied nations.

Chapter One

Preparations in England

Winston Churchill experienced his best night’s sleep since the beginning of the war after he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The United States would then inevitably be draWNinto the war in Europe and against Japan. Any uncertainty vanished when Hitler declared war on America a few days later. Churchill realized the entry of her massive manpower and industrial would assure victory.

The power of the American economy even following an era of economic depression was astounding. A former automotive factory could produce a single bomber aircraft in approximately an hour. Arsenals manufactured millions of cartridges each day. Shipyards on both coasts built the naval warships and cargo vessels required to transport men and equipment across oceans. All of this industrial capacity lay beyond the reach of enemy air forces and thus could proceed undisturbed. U-boats did pose a threat but one increasingly countered by Allied use of escorted convoys and air patrols.

The Allies possessed another advantage of immense importance: they could read German wireless messages. The story of breaking the Enigma encryptions at Bletchley Park and the resulting flood of intelligence knoWNby the code word Ultra emerged some thirty years after the end of the war. Ultra intelligence revealed the success of deception efforts regarding the location and timing of the invasion, the disposition of many Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe units and the increasing limitations of fuel and transport resulting from repeated attacks by Allied air forces. German use of telephones for communication resulted in gaps in Ultra data, but wireless transmissions yielded a wealth of information on divisional strength, defensive dispositions and tactical plans for counter-attacks following the fall of Carentan in June and near Mortain in early August.5 Ultra would save countless lives but the authorities who controlled that intelligence knew the cost in lives in the upcoming invasion would still be considerable.

American naval and air forces had been building up in England since 1942 and both had engaged German targets in the Atlantic and in the skies over Europe. Nevertheless, it was recognized that the liberation of France and Western Europe would require massive quantities of infantry and armoured units. Soldiers from many European nations had begun to assemble in Britain since 1940. The American and British general staffs disagreed on strategic priorities and on when to invade. Eventually it was decided to direct the first major American effort in late 1942 to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia to assist British soldiers driving westwards along the Mediterranean coast. In 1943 the Allied forces would invade Sicily and then attack the Italian mainland. American troops that had battle experience before the invasion of Normandy had gained that experience in the Mediterranean theatre.

American army units began to arrive in Britain in 1942, including the three infantry regiments in the 29th Division. Two lieutenants in the 116th Infantry – Matthew Daley and Ernest Wise – were among these early arrivals, stationed at Bristowe. The 90th Division that would land as a reserve unit on Utah Beach was posted in the west of England; Private John Cotter, an archaeologist who was older than many in his outfit, would accompany that division. Private Henri Ferri would arrive in France on D-Day with a military police company attached to the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion.

In early 1944, the 299th Engineer Combat Battalion was training in the southern United States. Most of that battalion – including Captain Matthew Perry and Company A – would land on Omaha Beach. So would the 1 st Division that had fought in North Africa and Sicily, although its veteran regiments would include numbers of young replacements by early 1944.

The young American soldiers who arrived in England encountered a strange world that seemed similar in terms of language but only just so. Consumption of warm beer and navigating vehicles on the opposite – to them the wrong – side of roads reinforced the alien nature of the land they had ‘invaded’ in preparation for their landings in Europe. Some soldiers, particularly draftees, wondered why they were there to fight in a ‘European’ war. They were engaged in what Paul Fussell termed ‘the Boys’ Crusade’ because of their youth.6 One such youth was Peter Munger who graduated from Lower Merion High School in suburban Philadelphia in June 1944. By the end of the summer he was assigned to the 30th Division in Normandy and narrowly missed being caught up in the deadly advance to Saint-Lô and the German counter-offensive near Mortain.

Youth was certainly prevalent among the divisions the Americans were assembling for the invasion but this was not exclusively the case. Edward Wright from Brooklyn entered the army in 1943 and was trained as an infantryman. He was in his thirties and older than many of his fellow trainees. He had participated in New York political affairs and maintained an extensive correspondence with prominent persons including Wendell Wilkie, the Republican nominee for president in 1940. Wright combined the articulate writing of a college graduate with the informed perspectives of an enlisted man to describe his training battalion in late 1943 as ‘largely youngsters of 18 or 19, and family men over 30’.7 He subsequently expanded his description to focus on morale and the seeming unreality of military training:

Basic is tough, especially on the older men, though in some respects I think it is not tough enough for preparation for combat. There is something unrealistic about simulating the operation of weapons, about night problems led by acting squad leaders who are neither soldiers nor woodsmen in any real sense, and about other phases of the program.

For the most part, the men I know here are not yet at war emotionally or in spirit. In some respects we are an Army of remnants, older men and men who would have been rejected earlier for physical reasons. The spirit does not seem quite the same as it did with the earlier part of the Army, composed chiefly of our best youngsters.

Few of us can really believe that we are really training to fight and kill, that we will ever be part of a genuine skirmish line … I think most men here confidently expect the Russians to be in Warsaw and Belgrade within a matter of weeks, followed by a swift German collapse, which will in turn make the war with Japan a swift march. Whether there is any real justification for this feeling, I don’t know, but it does not help to turn us into eager soldiers. Though the first shock of combat will undoubtedly do so.8

Within two months Wright was sent to the Mediterranean where he would be assigned as part of the replacements to the 88th Division in Italy. Serving at least initially with strangers rather than friends made during training, he would march into Rome on the night of 3/4 June just before D-Day in France.

The American airborne units were certain they would be draWNinto combat in some theatre. One of the best reflections of the challenges related to invasion preparations is provided in the diary of Brigadier General James Gavin, assistant commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. He described problems with command in several units, including the veteran 505th Parachute Infantry that had landed in Sicily. He doubted whether officers in other regiments in the division would be effective leaders in combat. Subsequently some were killed or captured while others proved to be highly effective. He emphasized defence against armour and more generally that training was ‘the time to drive home the proper techniques’. Gavin believed ‘the decisive A/B battle is fought on the ground of the A/B commander’s selection, there are no retrograde movements.’9

Gavin commented on the rigours of camp life for the enlisted men and decried the tendency of officers to obtain better housing for themselves. Winter exercises were unpleasant but necessary, as would be understood later in the Ardennes. During jump training one soldier in the 507th Parachute Infantry placed a wooden paddle in the pack perhaps to ‘tuck in flaps’ during deployment. The main chute only opened about one-quarter of its full extent, the reserve chute became entangled in the main and he was killed in the fall.10

There were also social problems to be addressed. In late February problems erupted with local African American units who had been in the Leicester area for a longer period of time and became friends with many local civilians. Gavin n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter One Preparations in England
• Chapter Two Airborne Landings on the Cotentin Peninsula
• Chapter Three Landings on Easy Red and Fox Green Beaches
• Chapter Four The Photographs of Sergeant Richard Taylor
• Chapter Five Beach Landings and Views
• Chapter Six Utah Beach and Coastal Defences
• Chapter Seven Soldiers, Prisoners and Civilians
• Chapter Eight Advance to Cherbourg and Interior to Saint-LÔ
• Chapter Nine The Wounded
• Chapter Ten The Dead and Their Cemeteries
• Chapter Eleven Then, Now and Then
• Image Credits
• Notes
• References