In the spring of 1944, with the Nazi resolve starting to crumble, the plan for an all out assault on the Normandy beachhead was to go ahead. The planning of the invasion happened over several years but came to fruition in 1943. The date that was chosen was Monday, June 5th 1944. All the Allied Forces were to assemble at Portsmouth. They chose June as conditions in the English Channel were deemed to be more temperate then, however as the day neared the weather forecast for the 5th June showed it to be windy and unsettled with possible gale force storms in the Channel but then there was a window in the weather on Tuesday 6th June 1944. General Dwight D Eisenhower the Allied Supreme Comannder of Forces in Europe decided that the operation should go ahead. The day dawned calm and clear. Operation Overlord, as the Invasion was code named, was a GO ! The Allied Forces of Britain, the USA and Canada and additional forces from Commonwealth countries were to begin the Liberation of France and each had their own landing places. Five designated beaches of the Normandy coastline from the little seaside village of Lion Sur Mer  in the east to the coastline above Point Du Hoc towards Cherborg in the west were chosen and were given their own code names, Britain's were Sword and Gold, Canada's was Juno and the American forces had the beaches of Omaha and Utah. The D-Day operation brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied troops in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation delivered five naval assault divisions to those beaches. To put this in motion, components to build large amphibious, temporary landing platforms, known as Mulberry Harbours, were dragged across the Channel under cover of darkness during the night. They provided floating harbours for the boats and amphibious landing craft to moor to and depart from.There were two Mulberry harbours. Mulberry A was constructed off Omaha Beach to supply US forces. Mulberry B was built off Gold Beach at Arromanches to supply British and Canadian troops., some of the remains of the Mulberry Harbours are still there. Many naval ships crossed the Channel  and many small boats too. The Nazi's had gun placements all along the Normandy coastline known as The Atlantic Wall so the invasion had to be done at first light to maintain the element of surprise with the Allied forces providing air cover and support to take out those gun positions and the forces of Field Marshall Montgomery coming across land towards the coast. The Allied Forces were deployed. The Royal Navy ships provided cover, firing at those gun placements and pillboxes that dotted the coastline and the planes of the Royal Air Force and those of the Allied Forces flew in the skies over the beaches. Parachutes rained down from the planes overhead.  Each person in those battalions, groups, commands and regiments as well as the civilians and the network of French Restistance working underground played a crucial role in the success of the mission. Approximately 160,000 Allied troops were to land across the five beaches starting with Sword in the east, Juno, Gold, Omaha, and Utah in the west, with British and American airborne forces landing inland. it is estimated that 4,415 Allied personnel were killed or drowned on the beaches on D-Day. These include 2,501 from the USA, 1,449 British dead, 391 Canadians and 73 from other Allied countries with many more, thought to be about 23,000 troops in total including the associated missions of Operation Overlord. But even with this huge loss of life, Operation Overlord was a success. The beachhead was taken, the Nazi's were overcome and troops moved in to liberate the first town in Normandy. Ten months later on May 8th 1945, Germany surrendered and the war was over. We say a heartfelt thank you to all the men and women who participated in the D Day landings operation and to the support staff and personnel who made the logistics of the D Day Landings a success. We commemorate all the soldiers, sailors, airmen, nurses, wracs, wrens, civilian personnel,the French Restistance who made the D Day landings possible many paid the ultimate sacrifice for our Freedom. We also commemorate all the ones who came home but lived with the horror of war, especially on that day, for the rest of their lives. Many of them are gone now and the French people who suffered under the tyranny of occupation. There is a memorial on the beach of the seaside town of Arromanches and a D Day museum of the Invasion and there is now a British National Memorial at Ver sur Mer built fairly recently at a beautiful site on the coastline where veterans can go to remember their fallen comrades. These stand on Gold Beach. I myself, visited the D Day Beaches of Normandy in 2009. As I stood there on that beach in the warm sun with just the sound of the waves lapping on the sand, looking out over the horizon, it is hard to imagine what went on there on that day, on that beach and the four other beaches of the Normandy coastline. On the "In Focus" page link here I recount my trip to the D Day Beaches and the places I visited in 2009 along the Normandy coastline. The In Focus article is written in two parts.

 

             This article is written in commemoration of all who participated in Operation Overlord.

 

                                                            We are forever grateful

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"In Focus" - My Journey to France and The D Day Landing Beaches Part 1

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