Words in bold are explained in the D-Day Glossary.
How did the Germans defend Normandy against the possibility of invasion by Allied forces?
To defend coastal areas against a possible Allied invasion, the Germans built huge fortifications known as the Atlantic Wall. They included concrete pill boxes, bunkers, mines, beach obstacles and gun positions; low-lying terrain was also flooded to make it difficult for invading forces to move inland. The German commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel strengthened the defences facing the English Channel. Some six and a half million mines were laid and over 500,000 beach obstacles installed.
In the Normandy area, the defences were manned mainly by the German 716th Infantry Division, which included a number of Polish and Russian-born conscripts (remember, Russia and Poland were both fighting against Germany at this stage in the war). However, one of the beach landing sites – Omaha, where many American soldiers lost their lives - was defended by the battle-hardened German 352nd Infantry Division who were on an anti-invasion training mission on 6 June and put up very tough resistance.
D-Day in the air
Words in bold are explained in the D-Day Glossary
In the early hours of 6 June three Allied airborne divisions (the US 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions and the British 6th Airborne Division) landed troops by parachute and Horsa Glider to seize and protect the areas surrounding the invasion beaches. They blocked roads and held causeways across flooded plains, captured bridges at important river and canal crossings and attacked German gun batteries.
D-Day at sea
The naval element of Operation Overlord under Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay was code-named Operation Neptune. By June 1944 nearly 7,000 warships, landing craft and other vessels were assembled in the ports of southern England. Minesweeping cleared safe routes across the Channel, and on D-Day itself as well as bombarding coastal defences, the two naval task forces landed two British, one Canadian and two American divisions on the Normandy beaches.
After the first landings naval forces ensured that supplies to the beaches were maintained. Many landing craft were sunk or damaged but by nightfall the Allies had put over 132,000 troops ashore.
