Musings on D-Day

Last updated on November 13th, 2024 at 09:54 am

6 June 2024 is the 80^th anniversary of D-Day, the ‘Day of Days’.  Was it really that long ago?  Growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, with parents who lived through the Second World War, reminders were ubiquitous and it never seemed that far away.  It wasn’t, when you think about it – it is comparable to looking back from 2024 on the 1990s, or early 2000s.  Even so, 80 years is still a long time – more than a lifetime for most males in the UK and certainly longer than the majority of those that died in that war knew.  Inevitably, there are fewer and fewer survivors who can remember it and a dwindling handful who directly experienced D-Day itself.

Some may question whether we need to remember it.  Some younger folk may even have no idea what D-Day was, or what it meant.  The Second World War killed somewhere between 60 and 70 million people and is the most violent conflict in history.  Crudely, it was fought between authoritarian, nationalist, militaristic, vile regimes on the one hand, and those who sought to stop them on the other.  D-Day 6^th June and Operation Overlord was but one of its many momentous chapters, albeit a huge and compelling one.  I certainly cannot do justice to a whole account of it, but do want to muse on some aspects of it and ponder on where we would all be if it hadn’t happened – or if it had failed.  It was such a multi-faceted operation, too, that most of us can barely comprehend the range of component parts, degree of human endeavour and individual experiences that came together to make the whole.

This is quite a long feature. Tap a heading below to go to it if you don’t want to scroll through the whole thing. Page up to return to the start.

What was D-Day?

D-Day is a term used to refer to the start of any military enterprise.  Planning cannot wait for a finite date to be determined, so ‘D-Day’ is The Day, the term used for planning purposes.  There were many D-Days during the Second World War, including the Allied invasions of French North Africa, then of Sicily and Italy.  In our times, the expression can be heard in the context of mundane civilian projects, such as rolling out a new piece of technology, or opening a new shop.  But say ‘D-Day’ to anyone with a general grasp of the recent past and their minds will turn to 6 June 1944, the start of Operation Overlord, the codename for the invasion and liberation of Nazi occupied Western Europe and one of the most significant events in mankind’s long story.

Background to D-Day

The rise of the National Socialists in Germany and their acquisition of power under Adolf Hitler in 1933 heralded in one of the darkest periods in European history.  The prelude to war saw the unification of Germany and Austria, the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the invasion of Poland and revealed the repellent nature of the Nazi regime and its leaders to anyone paying attention.  The war in the west began with the German invasions and subsequent occupations of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Denmark and Norway in 1940.  However, even with the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force and the evacuation from Dunkirk (see more about Dunkirk), minds turned to liberation.  Retreating soldiers thought to themselves, “We will be back”.  Intelligent democratic politicians all over the world knew that Nazi Germany somehow had to be defeated.  And military minds knew that, if that were to happen, the German army would need to be beaten on the ground – probably in Germany itself.  The prospect of that seemed very distant in 1940.  With friendly European democracies emasculated, Britain and the Commonwealth alone were at war with Germany.  Britain itself was under attack from the air, under imminent risk of invasion and imports of essential resources, including food, under threat.  The Soviet Union (Russian dominated USSR) had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, the USA remained steadfastly neutral and Japan, allied to Germany and Italy, was not only making war in China but also a threat to peace in the Far East in general.

In June 1941, and without warning, Hitler invaded Russia, his forces penetrating deep into Soviet territory.  On 7 December 1941 – also with no declaration of war – Japan attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbor and British bases in the Far East.  Four days after Americans realised they were at war with Japan, Germany and Italy declared war on the USA.  The entry of the USSR and the USA into the war against Germany proved to be decisive factors in the Allies’ eventual victory.  Significantly, US President Roosevelt agreed a policy of ‘Germany first’, acknowledging that the Nazi state posed a greater danger than the Japanese and that the Allies’ principle war aim was Germany’s defeat.  Still, 1942 was a low point.  In the Far East, Japan enjoyed a succession of military success, including taking Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, Singapore and Burma (Myanmar). Churchill called the fall of Singapore “the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history”.  In Europe, the only parts of continent not dominated by Germany and its allies were the neutral countries of Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Ireland. However, 1942 was also a turning point.  In January, the first US troops began to arrive in the United Kingdom – the first of more than two million American service personnel to be based here.  At the Battle of Midway in June, the US Navy inflicted devastating and decisive damage on the Imperial Japanese Navy; in Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad (which finally ended in early 1943), halted the German advance into the Soviet Union; in October, in Egypt at the Battle of Alamein, the British 8^th Army pushed the Germans and Italians into headlong retreat westward.  In November, Allied troops landed in French North Africa.  The Royal Air Force embarked upon a strategic bombing offensive against Germany.  In 1943, the Allies invaded Italy and the Russians began the long slog of beating the Nazis back through Eastern Europe.  Gradually, fortunes began to turn.  German resources were stretched, engaged in heavy fighting on the eastern front and in Italy.  Allied air power steadily gained ascendancy over the Luftwaffe and, in the Battle of the Atlantic, the British and Canadian Royal Navies began winning the war against the U-boats.  But everyone knew that, sooner or later, Western Europe would have to be invaded.  The odious Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin had been pressing for it – what some called ‘the Second Front’ – to relieve pressure on Russian forces, since August 1942.

D-Day in brief

It seems almost disrespectful to those involved in its preparation and execution to attempt a summary of D-Day – but here we go.  D-Day was not limited to the beach assaults you see on newsreels.  It was a combined Allied operation involving air, sea and land forces targeting five beaches in Normandy, to the east of the Cotentin peninsular.  From west to east, the beaches were codenamed Utah and Omaha (for the American western task force), and Gold (British), Juno (Canadian) and Sword (British) beaches for the eastern task force.  Shortly after midnight on 6 June, British and Canadian airborne troops landed by glider and parachute to secure vital bridges and gun emplacements on the eastern flank of the invasion force.  The bridges could be used to help the breakout from the beaches – or by German reinforcements heading the other way.  In the early hours of the morning, some 13,000 American airborne troops parachuted into the eastern base of the Cotentin, to help secure the western flanks.  The RAF bombed German coastal defences overnight, followed by the USAAF at daybreak.  An intense creeping naval barrage preceded the amphibious assaults on the beaches.

The infantry came ashore at Utah and Omaha beaches from 0630hrs and from 0725hrs on Gold, Juno and Sword.  The differences in time were due to tides; D-Day planners did not want landing craft to hit submerged obstacles.  After mixed receptions from the generally surprised defenders, all beaches had been secured by the end of the day and, at Juno and Sword, had advanced significantly inland.  On 7 June, the town of Bayeux fell.  On 8 June, British troops from Gold beach linked up with American troops from Omaha.  The following day, troops from Omaha linked up with those at Utah.  However, although D-Day was ultimately successful, leading to the end of World War II, it did not achieve all of its objectives on the day and the Normandy campaign would last some three months.  On 15 August, American and French forces landed in southern France (Operation Dragoon).  Paris was liberated on 25 August, but the war in Europe dragged on until the following May, after Hitler had committed suicide, by which time large swathes of liberated territory, including parts of Germany itself, lay in ruins.  D-Day was a step, albeit a very essential one, toward victory. See more about Victory in Europe Day.

D-Day was international

Although the assaults on D-Day were spearheaded by British, American and Canadian armies, Allied forces included troops from Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).  Of the ships involved, 80% were British, 16.5% American and the remainder French, Dutch, Norwegian and Polish.

The international cooperation required for D-Day, particularly between the British and Americans, was unprecedented.  However, it was not always easy.  Many Americans were suspicious of perceived British imperialism.  They also disliked the British love of committees and were generally more impatient to land in France than the British, whose proposals to invade North Africa and Sicily they initially saw as diversions.  Some British leaders, including possibly Churchill, wanted to delay a European invasion until the terms of combat were judged to be supremely in the Allies’ favour.  Some British commanders were perhaps nervous of repeating the bloodbaths of the previous war, or had more respect for the prowess of the Wehrmacht than their American allies had.  The British perhaps also regarded difficulties as insoluble and underestimated American energy and ingenuity.

By 1944, something like 2 million service personnel from a dozen nations were stationed in the United Kingdom, most of them from North America.  The United States Army Air Force was sharing the bombing campaign with the Royal Air Force and many overseas airmen flew with the RAF – and had done since the early days of the war and the Battle of Britain.  Cultures mostly mingled in a common cause – but sometimes did not.  American GIs were almost universally welcomed, their presence being dubbed ‘the friendly invasion’, but poorer-paid and absent British servicemen often labelled their allies “over-sexed, over-paid and over here.”  Neither did the fact that US troops were segregated, with black troops clearly discriminated against, always meet with universal approval in Britain and there are several instances of tensions rising to the surface as a result.  One well-known example was at Bamber Bridge, in Lancashire, when US commanders attempted to racially segregate pubs.

D-Day was complicated

D-Day was an enormously complex, multi-faceted undertaking to plan, culminating in a colossal logistical and military exercise.  How on earth would you go about organising the concerted movement of that number of human resources, their equipment – tanks, trucks and more – getting them to the right place at the right time and keeping them suppled with everything they need, not least food, medical support, ammunition and fuel?  What about welfare – anything from haircuts to clothing to religion to writing home to maintaining order – and more besides.  What about training?  What about security?  Communications?  What about coordination between different services – and different nations? 

In planning anything, the devil is always in the detail.  Everything should be considered, nothing left to chance.  One veteran recalled advancing from the beachhead to a crossroads and finding someone, white-gloved, directing traffic.  The attention to detail was – and had to be – astonishing.

The planners had to identify where to invade and even asked the public to help.  In 1942, an appeal for holiday photographs and postcards of Europe’s coastline resulted in millions of images being sent to the War Office for assessment.  Samples of sand were secretly gathered from potential landing beaches in France, to gauge suitability for tanks – and so on.  This took place under the noses of the Germans, in the dead of night, using mini-submarines.  RAF photo reconnaissance was superb.  All of this work, together with intelligence supplied by French Resistance and agents on the ground – enabled planners to build up accurate pictures, even models, of landing grounds and key targets.

I do not know the origin of the Six P rule – Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance – but it could well have started with D-Day.

Plans for an invasion of Europe were considered soon after the fall of France and various options were discussed.  These included near simultaneous attacks on the Pas de Calais and Dieppe areas of France, as well as the Cotentin Peninsular.  With very different mindsets between the British and Americans, perhaps whatever was agreed was always going to be a compromise.  However, it was only at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 that the UK-US Combined Chiefs of Staff agreed to establish a dedicated staff to plan operations in North West Europe.  Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan was appointed COSSAC – Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander, who had yet to be appointed.  Part of Morgan’s responsibility was to draw up plans for an invasion to take place in 1944.  Initial plans were submitted in July.  Planning became more focussed with the appointment of Eisenhower as SHAEF in December 1943 and in January Montgomery suggested the broad outline of the approach – five divisions landing across a 50-mile front with airborne landings on the flanks.

D-Day in numbers

The size of D-Day cannot be overstated.  It was an enormous operation, the largest amphibious military undertaking in history.  It involved transporting some 156,000 troops across the English Channel, landing them on the defended coast of France, overcoming opposition and establishing sufficient beachheads to enable more troops, and supplies, to follow on.  On the day, almost 7,000 naval vessels, including more than 1,200 warships and 4,000 landing craft, were involved, along with more than 11,500 aircraft, which flew more than 14,000 sorties.

Eye witnesses repeatedly mention the enormity of the armada making its way across the English Channel, the sky being full of aircraft and – at least on the Allied side – the feeling of pride and hope that this colossal display of military hardware generated.  For the German defenders peeking out through their gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and experiencing the bombardment from air and sea, it must have been both awesome and terrifying.  Many would not have been able to imagine fielding such a colossal display of arms.

Of the 156,000 Allied troops involved in D-Day, 73,000 were American, 61,700 British and 21,400 Canadian.  23,400 of the total were airborne and 132,600 came ashore on the beaches.  Beach numbers were: Utah – 23,250; Omaha – 34,250; Gold – 24,970; Juno – 21,400; Sword – 28,845.

D-Day casualties

It is surprisingly difficult to obtain consistent casualty figures for D-Day.  The figure generally quoted for Allied troops killed on D-Day is c4,440.  Of those, some 2,500 were American, 1,760 British and 370 Canadian.  The diligent reader will note that the sum of these figures is greater than the generally accepted total number of Allied deaths – possibly because of other nationalities killed.  Losses were of course disproportionate between landing areas.  The Americans had a particularly bad time on Omaha beach, with at least 770 deaths (although some sources suggest some 3,000 fatalities) and the British lost 680 men on Sword.  Casualties at Utah, in contrast, were relatively light. Each death is a tragedy; however, overall casualties, including killed, wounded and captured, were considerably lower than expected.  Military planners have to factor in what they consider to be an ‘acceptable’ number of casualties before deciding an operation is viable.  Naturally, as the battle continued into D-Day +1 and beyond, casualties mounted.  The three months following D-Day saw some of the toughest fighting of the Second World War, with some units suffering appalling casualties, comparable to those of the trenches a generation before.

The nation that suffered the worst casualties on D-Day was Germany.  It is estimated that the number of German soldiers killed on D-Day, including foreign nationals, such as Russians and Ukrainians, some of whom were coerced to fight for the Third Reich, was as high as 9,000.

Source: CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

The US Necrology Project set about pinning down the number of Allied combatants that died on D-Day and came up with a figure of 4,415.  2,502 of those were American and 1,913 of other nations, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.

Source: Necrology Project

It is believed that between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed during the Normandy Campaign.  More were killed by Allied bombing in general, before D-Day.  During the fighting, French towns and villages were hit by Allied artillery and bombers.  It is ironic that civilians suffered far worse casualties and more damage and destruction to their homes as a result of their country’s liberation than were inflicted by their Nazi German occupiers in the four years previously.

D-Day weather

The weather was a significant consideration in D-Day planning.  Landings necessitated lengthy daylight, clear visibility, calm seas and low tides.  There were a limited number of options that matched the criteria, but Monday 5 June seemed to fit the bill and was chosen.  Some remember the month of May in the south of England, where the invasion forces gathered, as being virtually wall-to-wall sunshine.  The dry ground resulted in fires breaking out in the New Forest.  However, early June saw low-lying rain clouds, high winds, and stormy seas building up in the English Channel.  With some forces already embarked, Eisenhower was forced to postpone.

Group Captain James Stagg, chief meteorological adviser to Eisenhower, then received reports (initially from the west of Ireland) of a possible break in the weather on 6^th June.  Conditions were not ideal, but not going meant a fortnight’s delay until the tides were right again.  Eisenhower decided to take the gamble.

Some Germans thought the weather was completely unsuitable for an invasion.  Many senior officers were attending war games in Rennes.  The famous Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, responsible for protecting the coastline, went home for his wife’s 50^th birthday (he bought her a pair of shoes).

D-Day defences

Nazi propaganda liked the idea of Festung Europa, ‘fortress Europe’ a term suggesting the strength of the defences in occupied territories.  However, they knew that invasion would come at some point.  Considerable effort and resources were then devoted to constructing coastal defences from Norway to the Spanish border, known as ‘the Atlantic Wall’.  These included massive reinforced concrete gun emplacements, observation posts, bunkers and pillboxes at places considered to be particularly vulnerable, with mines, beach obstacles, to deter landing craft and tanks, and masses of barbed wire.  The Germans needed to thrust any invasion back into the sea before it could become established and resupplied.

However, the coastline of Western Europe is thousands of miles long.  Inevitably, German defences varied.  Ports, for example, were especially well protected, but in places, the coastline was lightly defended, or defences were incomplete.  Some German troops were battle-hardened veterans of the Russian front, or elsewhere; but many were teenagers who had never seen action before.  The success of D-Day depended not only on the Allies overcoming German defences, but also on the effectiveness of the German response and its ability to deploy reinforces in a timely manner to where they were most needed.

D-Day deception and subterfuge

D-Day was a triumph for Allied intelligence, and British intelligence in particular.  The astonishing work undertaken at Bletchley Park gave the Allies a real edge.  However, the success of D-Day was partly due to a highly successful deception plan that convinced many Germans that the main invasion would take place in the Pas de Calais, the region of France with its coast on the Straits of Dover.

In many regards, the Pas de Calais was the obvious place to attack.  Not only was it the closest point to England, just 30 miles away, there were ports, good communication links and it was closer to other occupied countries – and to the ultimate objective, Germany.  Its very noticeable advantages of course also suggested that it was a bad choice.  Normandy was much farther away, but had good beaches, was sheltered from gales by the Cotentin peninsular, was less heavily defended and the multiple ports on the English coast opposite would be better launch-pads, with more room for assembling the invasion fleet than was available of the coast of Kent.

So an elaborate deception was concocted, Operation Fortitude, which included creating a fictitious armies in Scotland (Fortitude North) for an attack on Norway and in South East England (Fortitude South), for an attack on northern France.  Fortitude North relied mostly on radio traffic for its trickery, but dummy plywood building and inflatable tanks and aircraft were used in the south, in case the Germans wanted to take a look from the air.  The fictional army in the south was the non-existent First US Army Group, commanded by no other than US General George Patton, considered by many senior Wehrmacht officers to be the Allies’ best general.

The British security service, MI5, promoted Fortitude through its Double-Cross System.  With one possible exception, all German spies sent to Britain were either captured, or turned.  MI5 therefore maintained several invaluable double agents feeding false information to their German handlers. One, Juan Pujol (codenamed Garbo) fabricated a network of imaginary agents in Britain who the Germans believed were spying for them.  His masters were so grateful, they even awarded him the Iron Cross.

During D-Day itself, Lancaster bombers of 617 (Dam Busters) Squadron flew precision trips to northern France dropping ‘window’, metal strips that would fool German radar into thinking a large invasion fleet was approaching. 

Fortitude was a resounding success.  Surprise was complete and, even as late as July, the Germans kept troops in the Calais area that could have been used against the Allies in Normandy.

Another aspect of D-Day subterfuge is the work undertaken by the French Resistance, agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and solders of Special Air Services.  The BBC announced the imminent invasion to the French Resistance by broadcasting, on 5^th June, Berce mon coeur d’une langueur monotone (“cradle my heart with a monotonous languor”).  This was the signal to particular groups, working with the SOE, to undertake acts of sabotage to disrupt communications and delay reinforcements.  The Special Air Service (SAS) deployed small teams behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day, to take out specific targets.

D-Day innovation

The planners of D-Day foresaw many obstacles that had to be overcome and often came up with highly innovative ways of doing so.

One of these innovations was the Mulberry Harbours, two enormous prefabricated temporary harbours constructed using reinforced concrete, in great secrecy, in sections around the cost of Britain.  They were designed to overcome the need for a deep water port at which to unload supplies until suitable ports were captured.  The Mulberries were towed over to Normandy following D-Day, one to Omaha beach (Mulberry A) and the other to Gold (Mulberry B).  Sadly, Mulberry A was completely wrecked in a storm at Omaha on 19 June, before it had been assembled, and could never be used.  Mulberry B, however, was in use for 10 months after D-Day.  Its remains are still there.

The Allies also sought to overcome the supply of petrol, without risking tankers in a war zone and in the absence of suitable port facilities.  The solution they came up with was PLUTO – pipeline under the ocean.  PLUTO came into operation many weeks after D-Day, pumping fuel from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg and from Dungeness to Boulogne. Pumping stations in the UK were camouflaged as innocent looking buildings, such as bungalows and ice-cream shops.  In the event, PLUTO supplied less than 10% of the fuel used by the Allies in North West Europe, but it is still estimated to have delivered some 172 million gallons (781,927,480 litres).

Paradummies – 3-foot high hessian dolls stuffed with sand and straw – were dropped across Normandy on the morning of D-Day, miles away from where Allied airborne troops were actually landing.  They added to the confusion experienced by German defenders and even diverted troops.

Some of the most curious innovations were ‘Hobart’s Funnies’.  These were adapted armoured vehicles devised by Major General Percy Hobart.  They included the DD (‘Duplex Drive’) tanks, which were standard battle tanks fitted with twin drive propellers and an inflatable canvas screen so that the tank would float.  The DD tanks were launched offshore and worked well – as long as the water did not come over the top of the screen.  Other ‘funnies’ included a chain flail fitted to the front of a tank to thrash a path through minefields, a ‘bobbin’ tank which unrolled its own canvas path over soft sand and a terrifying ‘crocodile’ tank which included a flame-thrower that shot a deadly flame of burning fuel 100 feet ahead of the tank.  Interestingly, Hobart was General Montgomery’s brother-in-law.

D-Day’s disasters and difficulties

Good planning gives you time to deal with the things you should have considered, but did not.  Further, if one military adage is the Six Ps, another is that ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’.  There is always something unexpected.  However, some disasters struck before D-Day – one two years before.

The Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942 has to be one of the most pointless disasters of World War Two.  More than 6,000, mainly Canadian, troops were dispatched across the Channel to the port of Dieppe.  Apparently, the purpose was to gather intelligence, try out a beach landing and see how difficult it was to capture a defended port.  It simply proved how difficult it was.  None of the 30 tanks in the force made it into the town, the infantry was slaughtered on the beach, more than half the force was killed or captured, the Royal Navy lost a destroyer and 33 landing craft and the RAF lost 106 aircraft.

Clearly, there was considerable training and rehearsing for D-Day, at various places all over the United Kingdom.  Entire villages were requisitioned for this purpose.  One of these rehearsals was Operation Tiger, in April 1944, which involved 30,000 US troops making a live-fire practice landing on Slapton Sands in South Devon – said to resemble the beach at Utah.  Firstly, some troops were killed by friendly fire.  Then, unfortunately, the exercise attracted the attention of six German E boats of the Kriegsmarine, who attacked the convoy at sea in the early hours of the morning.  Two landing craft were sunk, two damaged and 749 Americans died.  It was more than perished at Utah on 6 June.  The authorities covered up the incident before D-Day, the truth only emerged later.

In contrast with the astonishing precision of glider midnight landings, most of the American airborne troops landing in the early hours of D-Day were dropped way off their intended drop zones.  Some landed in fields that the Germans had flooded to discourage landings.  Many of them, weighed down by heavy kit, drowned.  Others were shot before even hitting the ground.  One, John Steele, famously came down in the middle of the village of St Mere Eglise and spent the night suspended from the church tower.  Disorientated paratroopers, separated from the units they were meant to be with, nonetheless bandied together, fought and won the day.

On D-Day itself, Omaha was very nearly a disaster.  It was always going to be difficult – a deep expanse of sand at low tide and a curved beach dominated by high cliffs which allowed defenders to lay down devastating fire on anyone below.  The preliminary air and naval bombardments failed to knock out defensive strong points.  Troops were landed too far out in rough seas, landing craft were swamped, DD tanks were swamped and immediately sunk.  Troops were landed in the wrong place, became separated, lost their officers and were pinned down by heavier than anticipated fire from by now alerted experienced German troops which Allied intelligence had not expected to be there.  One US unit lost 90% of its men. There were log-jams of destroyed equipment and men, dead and alive, on the beach and of milling landing craft off it.  Eventually, detachments of American Rangers and the 1^st Infantry Division (‘the Big Red One’) flanked and got behind German defenders, but winning at Omaha was a close call.

A characteristic of the Normandy landscape is the bocage – small fields bordered by high, dense, hedgerows, often concealing sunken lanes.  It is difficult to penetrate, ideal country for defence and the experienced Germans used it to their full advantage.  Veterans commented that there had been no training for this kind of warfare; they had to improvise.

D-Day was clearly a success, but it did not achieve its objectives.  For example, it was planned to take Caen, a vital communications hub, on D-Day.  In the event, it was only captured on 21 July after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war as well as controversial Allied bombing that destroyed more than 70% of the city.  The deep water port of Cherbourg was also an early objective and fell to the Americans, again after intense battles, at the end of June. The entire Normandy campaign, in fact, was brutal.  Casualties in infantry regiments exceeded those forecast by the planners.

The Germans committed atrocities on both civilians and Allied prisoners of war in Normandy.  Much is made of the shooting of Canadians, for example, by members of 12^th SS Panzer Division.  However, Allied witnesses also had direct knowledge, or experience, of German prisoners being shot too – especially members of the SS.

Many sources cite the technical superiority of German equipment, particularly tanks and anti-tank weapons, as well as the tactical skill of the Wehrmacht, the German army.  Max Hastings writes, “Throughout the Second World War, where British or American troops met the Germans in anything like equal strength, the Germans almost always prevailed.”  Experienced German soldiers were masters of the counter attack and improvisation and some, famously, were Nazi fanatics.  However, quality and experience varied considerably and hitherto less experienced Allied soldiers learned.  Ultimately, the Germans, short of resources, especially fuel, ammunition and medical supplies, and lacking air cover, could not win.

England’s armed camp

By the end of May, there were approaching 3 million troops in Britain, the bulk in southern England in readiness for the invasion.  In the run up to D-Day, almost every country lane adjacent to embarkation ports was lined with tanks, trucks and other supplies.

People knew something was happening, but did not know when, or where, it would take place.  The troops departed from a variety of ports, linking up with other contingents once at sea.  The main ports used were, from west to east, Falmouth, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Weymouth, Southampton, Portsmouth and Newhaven.  Today, there is very little trace of all the activity of 1944, when these places were at the centre of world events.

Close to Southsea’s Canoe Lake and South Parade Pier in Portsmouth is a modest memorial to D-Day.  It resembles a tank trap.  The seafront was closed off from 1943 to all without a special pass and the beach was covered with barbed wire for the duration.  It is hard to imagine that thousands of troops boarded landing craft from South Parade Pier, as well as from the Camber on Old Portsmouth, Portsmouth Harbour Station and what is now Portsmouth International Port. Portsmouth was the main departure point for units going to Sword Beach in Normandy.  Local people watched them march through the city, undoubtedly wondering how many would return safely.  27 men from Southsea were killed on D-Day and during the Normandy campaign.

Was D-Day worth it?

How would those that went through it answer that question?  Years ago, I told a good friend of mine I was going to Normandy on holiday and hoped to visit the landing beaches.  “Great”, he replied.  “Interesting, humbling – and wonderful swimming.”  I mumbled that I would feel a bit uncomfortable having a jolly time on beaches where men had died.  “Don’t be silly”, he said.  “That’s what they did it for.”  He was right, of course.  And the beaches are indeed beautiful.

I stood in the pristine Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, close to Omaha beach, and looked at the memorials to some of the 9,388 Americans that lie there.  They have names that reveal predominantly European heritages – including many that are clearly German or Italian in origin.  Like all war cemeteries, most were very young.  They came from thousands of miles away, from exotic places like New Mexico, to help restore freedoms in lands their forbears had left behind for a better life in the New World.  Perhaps this helps explain the isolationism of some Americans, even now.  It is irritating when you hear someone claim that the USA won the Second World War; it did not.  However, the war would not have been won without it, without American industrial might, flexibility, ingenuity, the ability to make things happen – and the young people lying in the Normandy American Cemetery.  We owe all of those who fought for freedom a huge debt.

At the end of the day, of course, something like D-Day had to happen.  It set in motion the liberation of Europe, hope for a new future and the evolution of the modern, free, Europe, including the United Kingdom, we know today.  You can’t help wondering whether it had to happen, though, that so many died and suffered because Hitler and his cronies succeeded for so long.  So I find it profoundly sad that the autocrats, bullies, bigots and small-hearted egotists who think they know better than anyone else, are still around.  Not only that, but they slime their way out of the playground into positions of power.  How do we allow that to happen?

What if D-Day had failed, or not taken place?

Lives are peppered with ‘what ifs’.  If D-Day had failed, it would have been difficult to know how, or where, the Allies could attempt another invasion in Western Europe.  Depending on the extent of the failure, the commitment in men and material to Operation Overlord was so enormous, it is hard to envisage how long it would have taken to replace any losses.  Moreover, with the element of surprise gone, a completely new plan would have been required.

For all its significance, D-Day was not the only contribution toward Allied victory.  Most significantly, the part played by the Soviet Union was a decisive factor in defeating Nazi Germany.  Max Hastings points out that the Russians had killed some two million German soldiers before the first Allied troops stepped ashore on 6 June 1944.  The war in the east, and in Italy, tied up some of Germany’s best troops and other resources.  Germany was already losing the war on other fronts, too – such as in the air and at sea, which was entirely due to the efforts of the western democracies.

The most obvious consequence of D-Day failure, or absence, is that the war would have continued for longer. The threat to Britain had already been reduced by Allied domination in the air and at sea, but more civilians would probably have died from attacks by V1 and V2 weapons.  More innocents would have died in labour and concentration camps not liberated by the Allies – such as Buchenwald and Belsen – although the bulk of these camps was in the east.  Probably, more Germans have perished from Allied bombing too.

So, without an ultimately successful D-Day, Germany would still have lost – it was a matter of when, and how.  What if Hitler had been overthrown?  The Western Allies and the Soviet Union were partners of convenience, pretending to share values whilst holding diametrically opposed world views.  Eisenhower’s decision to ‘allow’ the USSR to take Berlin is still considered controversial by some – though was probably pragmatic.  It is said that the British rushed to secure the Danish border before the Russians could get there.  What if, in the absence of western democratic Allied forces, the victorious Soviet armies had continued heading west?  What if the western allies had found that unacceptable?  Would the USA have been tempted to use the atomic bomb on Germany? (Although that is unlikely, if only because matters on the ground would probably have come to a head before the Bomb was ready to be used).  What impact would there have been on the post-war settlement, the foundation of the United Nations, NATO, the prosecution of war crimes at Nuremburg, the creation of Israel, the independence of India– and more?

More about Britain and World War Two.