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132-554: Though Rommel's forces placed more than a million wooden poles in fields, their effect on the invasion of Normandy was inconsequential. Later, in the French Riviera , only about 300 Allied casualties were attributed to the tactic. These casualties could have been caused immediately or over time from trauma to the brain, organs, infection, etc. Rommel's asparagus refers specifically to wooden poles used against aerial invasion. The term has also been used to describe wooden logs set into

264-418: A counter-attack role. Allied intelligence also indicated that two companies of armour were in the area, as were a number of ad hoc infantry formations formed from training establishments. Based near Caen, in support of the static divisions, was the 21st Panzer Division . The 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment was billeted at Vimont , just east of Caen, and the 2nd Battalion, 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment

396-484: A coup de main operation. The other bridges were destroyed by the division, and a number of villages were occupied. A bridgehead was formed by the division, and it successfully repulsed a number of German counter-attacks until Allied ground forces from the invasion beaches reached its positions. The actions of the division severely limited the ability of the German defenders to communicate and organise themselves, ensuring that

528-614: A second front in Western Europe. Churchill declined because he felt that even with American help the British did not have adequate forces to do it, and he wished to avoid costly frontal assaults such as those that had occurred at the Somme and Passchendaele in World War I . Two tentative plans code-named Operation Roundup and Operation Sledgehammer were put forward for 1942–43, but neither

660-500: A combination of bad weather and poor pilot navigation, which caused many of the airborne troops to be dropped inaccurately throughout the divisional operational area causing a number of casualties and making conducting operations much more difficult. In particular, the 9th Parachute Battalion , which was assigned the task of destroying the Merville artillery battery, was only able to gather up a fraction of its strength before it had to attack

792-1044: A few divisions on the Alpine frontier." The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler , 9th , 11th , 19th and 116th Panzer divisions, alongside the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" , had only arrived in March–May 1944 to France for extensive refit after being badly damaged during the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive. Seven of the eleven panzer or panzergrenadier divisions stationed in France were still not fully operational or only partially mobile in early June 1944. Operation Tonga Airborne assault British Sector American Sector Normandy landings American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Logistics Ground campaign American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Breakout Air and Sea operations Supporting operations Aftermath Operation Tonga

924-589: A front line from Caumont-l'Éventé to the south-east of Caen in order to protect the American flank, while establishing airfields near Caen. Possession of Caen and its surroundings would give the Anglo-Canadian forces a suitable staging area for a push south to capture the town of Falaise . A secure lodgement would be established and an attempt made to hold all territory captured north of the Avranches -Falaise line during

1056-413: A great many of which were laced with mines or other booby-traps aimed at destroying gliders and killing or wounding airborne troops. Rommel noted in his diary, following an inspection of one area, that a division had placed over 300,000 stakes in the ground to deter airborne landings, and a corps had erected over 900,000. The Merville artillery battery was a particularly heavily fortified position. From

1188-431: A hole in beach sand, one which could be used to set high wooden stakes ( Hochpfähle ) into the beach as an obstacle to landing craft . The water hose method took three minutes, fifteen times faster than using a pile driver . Rommel ordered such methods to be used to place wooden beams, metal rails and other obstructions along the beaches of Normandy. Nearly 11,000 were emplaced in the south part of Normandy's coastline where

1320-473: A naval convoy approaching Cap d'Antifer (about 80 km from the actual D-Day landings). The illusion was bolstered by a group of small vessels towing barrage balloons . No. 218 Squadron RAF also dropped "window" near Boulogne-sur-Mer in Operation Glimmer . On the same night, a small group of Special Air Service (SAS) operators deployed dummy paratroopers over Le Havre and Isigny. These dummies led

1452-550: A necessary element of the plan for the landings. Information on the exact date and location of the landings was provided only to the topmost levels of the armed forces. Men were sealed into their marshalling areas at the end of May, with no further communication with the outside world. Troops were briefed using maps that were correct in every detail except for the place names, and most were not told their actual destination until they were already at sea. A news blackout in Britain increased

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1584-639: A number of further revisions. On 21 January 1944, a revised Overlord plan was presented to General Dwight D. Eisenhower , who had been chosen as the Supreme Allied Commander for the invasion. Montgomery's revised plan widened the landing area to include all of the coastline between the River Orne and the eastern coast of the Cotentin Peninsula; five divisions would land on the beaches, and supported by three airborne divisions to land on either side of

1716-406: A party of sappers, was sent into Troarn to ascertain the status of the bridge. These troops came under fire, from a German-occupied house near the bridge. After a brief fire-fight, the paratroopers captured a number of Germans from the 21st Panzer Division. The airborne troops then made their way to the bridge, which they discovered had been partially demolished already. Once the sappers had widened

1848-466: A relatively narrow isthmus , so these sites were rejected. The Pas de Calais, the closest point in continental Europe to Britain, was the location of launch sites for V-1 and V-2 rockets , then still under development. The Germans regarded it as the most likely initial landing zone and accordingly made it the most heavily fortified region; however, it offered the Allies few opportunities for expansion as

1980-502: A second attack would take place at Calais. Military and civilian personnel alike were aware of the need for secrecy, and the invasion troops were as much as possible kept isolated, especially in the period immediately before the invasion. American general Henry J. F. Miller was sent back to the United States in disgrace after revealing the invasion date at a party. The Germans thought they had an extensive network of spies operating in

2112-506: A single parachute brigade and an anti-tank battery to be attached to the British 3rd Infantry Division . This force would be tasked with seizing bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne near the towns of Bénouville and Ranville . Gale objected to this small-scale operation, arguing that a single brigade would not be able to achieve these objectives with such limited manpower, and asked for

2244-422: A wooden pole defense which tore into the three soldiers sitting next to him, mortally wounding them. More casualties were inflicted during delivery of glider infantry reinforcements when some 16–18 gliders landed in a field of Rommelspargel and the troops that crawled from the wrecked gliders were immediately targeted by German small arms fire. Of 250 troops landing, some 50–60 survived. Once Allied troops were on

2376-399: The 12th and 13th , were also badly scattered when they were dropped at 00:50. When both units moved away from their rendezvous points neither had more than sixty per cent of their strength, although individual airborne troops and small groups would join the battalions throughout the day. Both of the battalions had been tasked with securing the area around DZ N and the two bridges captured by

2508-606: The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend , were, for the most part, younger and far better equipped and trained than the static troops stationed along the coast. In early 1944, OB West was significantly weakened by personnel and materiel transfers to the Eastern Front. During the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive (24 December 1943 – 17 April 1944), the German High Command was forced to transfer

2640-683: The 21st Army Group , which comprised all the land forces involved in the operation. The Normandy coast in northwestern France was chosen as the site of the landings, with the Americans assigned to land at sectors codenamed Utah and Omaha , the British at Sword and Gold , and the Canadians at Juno . To meet the conditions expected on the Normandy beachhead, special technology was developed, including two artificial ports called Mulberry harbours and an array of specialised tanks nicknamed Hobart's Funnies . In

2772-430: The 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion , dropped on Draguignan , 42 kilometres (26 mi) from the coast. Some gliders were wrecked by Rommelspargel but more were destroyed by other obstacles such as trees, and by gliders landing atop one another. An officer in the 551st, Major "Pappy" Herrmann, saw the damage inflicted upon the gliders by the wooden poles and concluded for himself "I'll stick to parachutes." In total,

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2904-455: The 6th Airlanding Brigade , but attached to the 5th Parachute Brigade for the initial invasion) reinforced with two extra platoons from B Company and a party of Royal Engineer sappers under the overall command of Major John Howard , who were tasked with capturing the bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne. A few minutes later, between 23:00 and 23:20, six Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle transports took off carrying pathfinders of

3036-511: The Allied Expeditionary Air Force that would be conducting air operations during the invasion of Europe, studied the threat and projected glider troops taking as much as 70% casualties from all sources, primarily from the wooden poles. On 30 May Leigh-Mallory went to see Eisenhower as he was concerned about the two American airborne divisions facing "futile slaughter" jumping onto Rommel's asparagus with heavy losses; he recommended

3168-526: The Armoured Ramp Carrier , which other tanks could use as a bridge to scale sea-walls or to overcome other obstacles. In some areas, the beaches consisted of a soft clay that could not support the weight of tanks. The Bobbin tank unrolled matting over the soft surface, leaving it behind as a route for ordinary tanks. The Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) was a Churchill tank modified for many combat engineering tasks, including laying bridges; it

3300-620: The Atlantic Wall defenses on the French coasts facing the United Kingdom. During a tour of anti-invasion fortifications Rommel concluded that the defenses would have to be improved, and quickly. He ordered millions of wooden tree trunks and logs to be set against airborne forces . Barbed wire and tripwires were to be strung between the poles. On plans that Rommel sent to his subordinates, the complete system of wooden poles and interconnecting wires

3432-797: The BBC produced over ten million items, some of which proved useful. The French resistance provided details on Axis troop movements and on construction techniques used by the Germans for bunkers and other defensive installations. Many German radio messages were encoded using the Enigma machine and other enciphering techniques and the codes were changed frequently. A team of code breakers stationed at Bletchley Park worked to break codes as quickly as possible to provide advance information on German plans and troop movements. British military intelligence code-named this information Ultra intelligence as it could only be provided to

3564-702: The British Expeditionary Force ) in the Dunkirk evacuation (27 May to 4 June). British planners reported to Prime Minister Winston Churchill on 4 October that even with the help of other Commonwealth countries and the United States, it would not be possible to regain a foothold in continental Europe in the near future. After the Axis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing for

3696-529: The Eastern Front , meant the Germans no longer had a pool of able young men from which to draw. German soldiers were now on average six years older than their Allied counterparts. Many in the Normandy area were Ostlegionen (eastern legions)—conscripts and "volunteers" from Turkestan , Russia, Mongolia, and elsewhere. The Wehrmacht had provided them mainly with unreliable captured equipment; they lacked motorised transport. Formations that arrived later, such as

3828-614: The English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August. The decision to undertake cross-channel landings in 1944 was made at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force , and General Bernard Montgomery was named commander of

3960-519: The Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated east across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord. In June 1940, Germany's leader Adolf Hitler had triumphed in what he called "the most famous victory in history"—the fall of France . British craft evacuated to England over 338,000 Allied troops trapped along the northern coast of France (including much of

4092-590: The Merville Gun Battery , an artillery battery that Allied intelligence believed housed a number of heavy artillery pieces, which could bombard the nearest invasion beach (codenamed Sword ) and possibly inflict heavy casualties on the Allied troops landing on it. Having achieved these objectives, the division was then to create and secure a bridgehead focused around the captured bridges until they linked up with advancing Allied ground forces. The division suffered from

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4224-502: The River Orne westwards. The final plan would utilise three divisions in the first assault, with airborne forces being dropped onto the town of Caen early on the first day to seize the first breakout route. Following the appointment of General Sir Bernard Montgomery to the command of the 21st Army Group and overall command of all ground forces to land in Normandy , the plan underwent

4356-481: The Soviet Union or Eastern Europe . Both divisions also had a miscellaneous collection of anti-tank guns and artillery pieces, as well as a small number of German and French tanks and self-propelled guns . Neither division was rated as being highly efficient, with Allied intelligence rating them at a forty per-cent efficiency compared to a first-class line infantry division in a static role, and fifteen per cent in

4488-575: The Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Typhoon greatly limited the number of potential landing-sites, as comprehensive air support depended upon having planes overhead for as long as possible. Morgan considered four sites for the landings: Brittany , the Cotentin Peninsula , Normandy, and the Pas de Calais . As Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, the Germans could have cut off the Allied advance at

4620-470: The Transport Plan , communications infrastructure and road and rail links were bombed to cut off the north of France and to make it more difficult to bring up reinforcements. These attacks were widespread so as to avoid revealing the exact location of the invasion. Elaborate deceptions were planned to prevent the Germans from determining the timing and location of the invasion. The coastline of Normandy

4752-603: The Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943 took the decision to launch a cross-Channel invasion within the next year. Churchill favoured making the main Allied thrust into Germany from the Mediterranean theatre , but the Americans, who were providing the bulk of the men and equipment, over-ruled him. British Lieutenant-General Frederick E. Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), to begin detailed planning. The initial plans were constrained by

4884-529: The Washington Conference . The two Allied leaders decided that all available Allied forces should be concentrated in the United Kingdom , and that planning for the invasion of North-Western Europe should begin. A provisional target date of May 1944 was set with the code-name 'Overlord' decided upon. A joint Anglo-American planning staff was created under lieutenant-general Frederick E. Morgan , who

5016-430: The highest tides . The Allies wanted to schedule the landings for shortly before dawn, midway between low and high tide, with the tide coming in. This would improve the visibility of obstacles the enemy had placed on the beach while minimising the amount of time the men had to spend exposed in the open. Specific criteria were also set for wind speed, visibility, and cloud cover. Eisenhower had tentatively selected 5 June as

5148-448: The 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment; the first was defeated after destroying a tank and taking a number of prisoners, and the second was repulsed with the help of an air-landed anti-tank battery which had recently arrived. The 3rd Parachute Brigade (Brigadier James Hill ) began to land at the same time as the main elements of 5th Parachute Brigade, and suffered from the same problems. All of its constituent units were scattered throughout

5280-411: The 22nd Independent Parachute Company, who were to mark the three drop-zones to be used by the airborne troops of the division. Another sixteen Albemarles followed the transports carrying the pathfinders, these transported elements of the 9th Parachute Battalion , 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion , and 3rd Parachute Brigade Headquarters. Thirty minutes later, the remainder of the transports carrying

5412-610: The Allies would eventually land. However, a test against the wooden stakes in mid-February showed them to be too weak to stop a captured British landing craft. As a result, a stronger design was contrived using a larger beam set at an angle and reinforced with other thick beams, most topped with a Teller mine . The more robust obstacles were called Hemmbalken , or "obstruction beams". The original upright beams were left in place – some were topped with mines for greater effectiveness. The Hochpfähle have sometimes been called "Rommel's asparagus" or Rommelspargel for their close resemblance to

Rommel's asparagus - Misplaced Pages Continue

5544-505: The British forces landing in the area codenamed Sword . The third mission was to destroy several bridges which spanned the River Dives , located near the towns of Varaville , Robehomme, Bures and Troarn . The division would then hold the territory that it had seized, until it could be relieved by advancing British ground forces. Detailed planning for Tonga began in February, starting with

5676-661: The British side, Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey commanded the Second Army , under which XXX Corps was assigned to Gold and I Corps to Juno and Sword. Land forces were under the command of Montgomery, and air command was assigned to Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory . The First Canadian Army included personnel and units from Poland , Belgium, and the Netherlands. Other Allied nations participated. The Allied Expeditionary Air Force flew over 3,200 photo-reconnaissance sorties from April 1944 until 6 June. Photos of

5808-508: The Caen canal bridge and two near the Orne River bridge and the third destined for the Orne River bridge some seven miles away due to a navigational error. Once on the ground, the troops emerged and assaulted the German positions. At the Caen canal bridge, troops assaulted German trench positions, attacked sentries, and threw grenades into a concrete bunker believed to hold the triggering equipment for

5940-692: The Combined Training Centre in Inveraray in Scotland. Naval exercises took place in Northern Ireland, and medical teams in London and elsewhere rehearsed how they would handle the expected waves of casualties. Paratroopers conducted exercises, including a huge demonstration drop on 23 March 1944 observed by Churchill, Eisenhower, and other top officials. Allied planners considered tactical surprise to be

6072-910: The Germans to believe an additional airborne assault had occurred. Training exercises for the Overlord landings took place as early as July 1943. As the nearby beach resembled the planned Normandy landing-site, the town of Slapton in Devon , was evacuated in December 1943, and taken over by the armed forces as a site for training exercises that included the use of landing craft and the management of beach obstacles. A friendly fire incident there on 27 April 1944 resulted in as many as 450 deaths. The following day, an additional estimated 749 American soldiers and sailors died when German torpedo-boats surprised members of Assault Force "U" conducting Exercise Tiger . Exercises with landing craft and live ammunition also took place at

6204-573: The Low Countries, with another 18 stationed in Denmark and Norway. Fifteen divisions were in the process of formation in Germany, but there was no strategic reserve. The Calais region was defended by the 15th Army under Generaloberst (Colonel General) Hans von Salmuth , and Normandy by the 7th Army commanded by Generaloberst Friedrich Dollmann . Combat losses throughout the war, particularly on

6336-562: The UK, but in fact, all their agents had been captured, and some had become double agents working for the Allies as part of the Double-Cross System . The double agent Juan Pujol García , a Spanish opponent of the Nazis known by the code name "Garbo", developed over the two years leading up to D-Day a fake network of informants that the Germans believed were collecting intelligence on their behalf. In

6468-632: The USAAF, and 8,178 flying under the command of the RAF) Civilian deaths: Airborne assault British Sector American Sector Normandy landings American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Logistics Ground campaign American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Breakout Air and Sea operations Supporting operations Aftermath Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns Operation Overlord

6600-475: The advent of air-landing by troops itself; such obstacles were littered over the British countryside in the summer of 1940 after the threat of invasion from the air became all too apparent. By 1944 the threat from paratroops was very much that of an Allied invasion of German-occupied territory. In November 1943, when Rommel took command of the German Army Group B in occupied France , he also took control of

6732-515: The air-landing obstructions. U.S. Navy Commander Edward Ellsberg said of the various Atlantic Wall obstacles, "Rommel had thoroughly muddled our plans. Attacking at high tide as we had intended, we'd never get enough troops in over those obstacles..." Instead the Allies landed at low tide, which increased the length of the beach to be crossed but uncovered and revealed the obstacles, greatly reducing their effectiveness. Invasion of Normandy 16,714 Allied airmen killed (8,536 members of

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6864-409: The area due to poor navigation, heavy cloud cover, and several of the drop-zones either not being marked correctly or marked correctly but incorrectly positioned due to pathfinder error. The 8th Parachute Battalion , tasked with destroying two bridges near Bures and a third by Troarn, was widely scattered with a number of its paratroopers landing in the operational area of 5th Parachute Brigade. When

6996-496: The area is bounded by numerous rivers and canals. On the other hand, landings on a broad front in Normandy would permit simultaneous threats against the port of Cherbourg , coastal ports further west in Brittany, and an overland attack towards Paris and eventually into Germany. The Allies therefore chose Normandy as the landing site. The most serious drawback of the Normandy coast – the lack of port facilities – would be overcome through

7128-469: The area to bolster the illusion that a large force was gathering there. As well as the broadcast of fake radio-traffic, genuine radio messages from 21st Army Group were first routed to Kent via landline and then broadcast, to give the Germans the impression that most of the Allied troops were stationed there. Patton remained stationed in England until 6 July, thus continuing to deceive the Germans into believing

7260-473: The battalion's commander could only command around 40 per cent of the battalion, although more men arrived throughout the night and day. Relatively few supply containers had been found by the airborne troops, meaning that they possessed few heavy weapons or radio sets. However, the 7th Battalion managed to rendezvous with 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and establish a defence against German counter-attacks. The first organised German responses to

7392-416: The battery, with the result that the depleted force suffered heavy casualties. However, the battery was successfully assaulted and the guns inside it disabled. The division's other objectives were also achieved despite the problems encountered. A small force of glider-borne troops, from the 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry , secured two bridges over the Caen Canal and River Orne in

7524-414: The beach, it was protected by two strongpoints that included approximately thirty bunkers as well as an observation post, and the battery itself consisted of a bunker containing the battery's command post, two blockhouses, a light flak emplacement and four casemates able to contain artillery pieces up to dimensions of 150 mm. The entire battery covered an area roughly four hundred metres in diameter and

7656-488: The beaches of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean to disrupt amphibious landings of troops. Testing found these wooden defenses too weak to stop boats, and they were largely abandoned in favor of Hemmbalken ("obstruction beams") and other beach defenses. The use of sharpened wooden poles as obstacles is not new in warfare, and their application to defending against invasion from the sky only slightly post-dates

7788-448: The beaches where fewer fields were planted with Rommelspargel . Most of the Allied contact with Rommelspargel in Normandy was by British airborne forces. During Operation Tonga , the British airborne invasion of Normandy, Airspeed Horsa gliders landed among the wooden poles and suffered casualties. Some gliders were wrecked near Sainte-Mère-Église where Americans parachutists had also landed. Where encountered, British forces blew up

7920-498: The bridge and were repelled. As the day progressed, the 2nd Battalion, 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment counterattacked in the Bénouville area in an attempt to get through to the bridges. The coup-de-main force and the 7th Parachute Battalion held their position, knocking out 13 of the 17 tanks trying to get through. The British troops moved forward into Bénouville and cleared the Germans in house to house fighting. By midday, most of

8052-448: The bridge demolition charges. At the Orne River bridge, a machine-gun nest was suppressed with mortar fire but no other defenders were found, and the two platoons captured the bridge before radioing Howard and informing him of their success. Both bridges had been secured within fifteen minutes, at the cost of only a small number of casualties. It was also discovered that the bridges had not been rigged with explosives as believed. While

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8184-446: The bridges at Bures, and lead the rest of the battalion to a crossroad north of Troarn where it would await more reinforcements before it attacked. The force sent to Bures discovered that the two bridges had already been demolished by a group of sappers, who had reached the bridges a few hours earlier, and so rejoined the battalion near Troarn that had now increased in numbers after another fifty men had arrived. A reconnaissance party, and

8316-485: The capture of the bridges came between 05:00 and 07:00, and consisted of isolated and often uncoordinated attacks by tanks, armoured cars, and infantry that grew in intensity throughout the day. At 10:00, the German Air Force ( Luftwaffe ) attempted to destroy the Caen bridge. A lone aircraft dropped a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb, which failed to detonate. Furthermore, two German coastal craft attempted to attack

8448-451: The capture of the port at Cherbourg. This significant expansion required the acquisition of additional landing craft, which caused the invasion to be delayed by a month until June 1944. Eventually the Allies committed 39 divisions to the Battle of Normandy: 22 American, 12 British, three Canadian, one Polish, and one French, totalling over a million troops. "Overlord" was the name assigned to

8580-486: The city of Caen , tasked with a number of objectives. The division was to capture two strategically important bridges over the Caen Canal and Orne River which were to be used by Allied ground forces to advance once the seaborne landings had taken place, destroy several other bridges to deny their use to the Germans and secure several important villages. The division was also assigned the task of assaulting and destroying

8712-574: The coastline were taken at extremely low altitude to show the invaders the terrain, obstacles on the beach, and defensive structures such as bunkers and gun emplacements. To conceal the location of the invasion, sorties were flown along all European coastline. Inland terrain, bridges, troop emplacements, and buildings were also photographed, in many cases from several angles. Members of Combined Operations Pilotage Parties clandestinely prepared detailed harbour maps, including depth soundings . An appeal for holiday pictures and postcards of Europe announced on

8844-403: The commanding officer, Alastair Pearson , arrived at the battalion rendezvous point at 01:20, he found only thirty paratroopers and a small group of sappers with a Jeep and trailer. By 03:30, this number had increased to just over 140 paratroopers yet there were still no sign of the sappers who would be required to demolish the bridges. Pearson therefore decided to send a small force to demolish

8976-881: The conditions would be unfavourable for Allied aircraft. After much discussion, Eisenhower decided that the invasion should go ahead. Allied control of the Atlantic meant that German meteorologists did not have access to as much information as the Allies on incoming weather patterns. As the Luftwaffe meteorological centre in Paris predicted two weeks of stormy weather, many Wehrmacht commanders left their posts to attend war games in Rennes , and men in many units were given leave. Marshal Erwin Rommel returned to Germany for his wife's birthday and to meet Hitler to try to get more tanks. Had Eisenhower postponed

9108-479: The correct speed and height over the scale models, realistically simulated the paths the glider pilots would take towards their landing-zones. The 6th Airborne Division would be opposed by German Army ( Heer ) formations stationed in the area around Caen and the River Orne. By June 1944, this consisted of the 711th and 716th Infantry Divisions ; both of which were static formations whose manpower consisted of medically downgraded troops and conscripts recruited from

9240-449: The coup-de-main force, a task which was made much more difficult by being scattered throughout the area. The 12th Parachute Battalion's mission was to secure the village of Le Bas de Ranville, which it did so by 04:00. The 13th Parachute Battalion was to capture the town of Ranville, which it achieved around the same time albeit against heavier resistance than that encountered by the other battalion. One company from 13th Parachute Battalion

9372-531: The date for the assault; however, on 4 June, conditions were clearly unsuitable for a landing, as high winds and heavy seas made it impossible to launch landing craft, and low clouds would prevent aircraft from finding their targets. By the evening of 4 June, the Allied meteorological team, headed by Group Captain James Stagg of the Royal Air Force , predicted that the weather would improve sufficiently so that

9504-528: The development and deployment of artificial harbours. The COSSAC staff planned to begin the invasion on 1 May 1944. The initial draft of the plan was accepted at the Quebec Conference in August 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). General Bernard Montgomery was named commander of the 21st Army Group , which comprised all of

9636-461: The division began to take off. This wave was divided into three groups. The first consisted of 239 Douglas Dakota and Short Stirling transports as well as seventeen Horsa gliders, carrying the bulk of the 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades and their heavy equipment. These forces were due to land in their respective drop-zones at 00:50. The second group was destined to land at 03:20, and consisted of sixty-five Horsa and four Hamilcar gliders transporting

9768-421: The divisional headquarters and an anti-tank battery. The final group was formed of three Horsa gliders carrying sappers and men from the 9th Parachute Battalion, who were to land atop Merville Battery at 04:30. The first unit of the 6th Airborne Division to land in Normandy, was Howard's coup-de-main force. The coup-de-main force landed in six gliders, over a five-minute period (00:15–00:20); three landing near

9900-416: The drop-zone for thirty minutes. One of the teams assigned to DZ K accidentally dropped onto DZ N without realising their error, and set up radio beacons and markers that caused a number of airborne troops to drop in the wrong area. The Pathfinders 'stick' on DZ K commanded by Lt Bob Midwood were successful. A pathfinder team belonging to 9th Parachute Battalion, assigned to mark out the drop-zone area for

10032-563: The east coast of the Cotentin Peninsula . "Plan C", an ambitious proposal put forward by General George C. Marshall , the Chief of Staff of the United States Army , would have involved a large airborne drop on the River Seine , aiming to cut the German forces in half during D-Day itself. Morgan and his staff finally decided that the invasion should take place along a thirty-mile front from

10164-456: The east since the creation of Führer Directive 51 , which no longer allowed any transfers from the west to the east. There were also transfers to the Italian front: von Rundstedt complained that many of his best units had been sent on a "fool's errand" to Italy, saying it was "madness ... that frightful boot of a country should have been evacuated ... we should have held a decent front with

10296-451: The eastern flank to secure the Orne River bridges, and north of Carentan on the western flank. The initial goal was to capture Carentan, Isigny , Bayeux , and Caen. The Americans, assigned to land at Utah and Omaha, were to cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and capture the port facilities at Cherbourg. The British at Sword and Gold , and the Canadians at Juno , were to capture Caen and form

10428-459: The effectiveness of the deception operations. Travel to and from the Republic of Ireland was banned, and movement within several kilometres of the coast of England restricted. The invasion planners specified a set of conditions regarding the timing of the invasion, deeming only a few days in each month suitable. A full moon was desirable, as it would provide illumination for aircraft pilots and have

10560-423: The entire II SS Panzer Corps from France, consisting of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, as well as the 349th Infantry Division , 507th Heavy Panzer Battalion and the 311th and 322nd StuG Assault Gun Brigades. All told, the German forces stationed in France were deprived of 45,827 troops and 363 tanks, assault guns, and self-propelled anti-tank guns. It was the first major transfer of forces from France to

10692-401: The entire division to be deployed. After consultation with his superiors, Browning agreed to the request and ordered Gale to begin planning for the operation. The division was allotted three specific tasks to achieve as a part of Tonga, apart from protecting the eastern flank of the Allied seaborne landings and taking control of the areas of strategic importance to the east of Caen. First, it

10824-537: The entire division was deployed by parachute or glider. Between 21 April and 26 April, Exercise 'Mush' utilised approximately 700 aircraft to deploy the British 1st Airborne Division and the Polish 1st Parachute Brigade against the 6th Airborne Division, who moved by road, in a simulation of a full-scale airborne operation. As the date of the operation approached, training became more intensive. Glider units spent hours aloft every day circling over airfields as they practiced

10956-497: The establishment of a large-scale lodgement on the Continent. The first phase, the amphibious invasion and establishment of a secure foothold, was code-named Operation Neptune and is often referred to as "D-Day". To gain the required air superiority needed to ensure a successful invasion, the Allies launched a strategic bombing campaign (codenamed Pointblank ) to target German aircraft-production, fuel supplies, and airfields. Under

11088-420: The existing defences in the region and immediately began the process of improving them, particularly those situated inland as he believed no more than thirty per cent of the German defences were adequate. These anti-airborne measures consisted of planting a large number of mines to create minefields, as well as the erection of so-called Rommel's asparagus ; a system of wire-braced poles up to two metres in height,

11220-665: The exits of fields that were bounded by bocage —tall, dense hedgerows—so that glider infantry and paratroopers would come under fire as they moved out of their landing area. The bocage hedgerows themselves were the worst hazard to safe glider landings, and caused more glider casualties than Rommelspargel . Rommel reported after an inspection tour in April 1944 that "The construction of anti-paratroop obstacles has made great progress in many divisions. For example, one division alone has erected almost 300,000 stakes, and one corps over 900,000." Rommel emphasized that "Erecting stakes alone does not make

11352-520: The expectation that fuel would be difficult or impossible to obtain on the continent, the Allies built a "Pipe-Line Under The Ocean" ( PLUTO ). Specially developed pipes 3 in (76 mm) in diameter were to be laid under the Channel from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg by D-Day plus 18. Technical problems and the delay in capturing Cherbourg meant the pipeline was not operational until 22 September. A second line

11484-630: The first day, but gained a tenuous foothold that they gradually expanded when they captured the port at Cherbourg on 26 June and the city of Caen on 21 July. A failed counterattack by German forces in response to Allied advances on 7 August left 50,000 soldiers of the German 7th Army trapped in the Falaise pocket by 19 August. The Allies launched a second invasion from the Mediterranean Sea of southern France (code-named Operation Dragoon ) on 15 August, and

11616-694: The first three weeks. The Allied armies would then swing left to advance towards the River Seine . The invasion fleet, led by Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay , was split into the Western Naval Task Force (under Admiral Alan Kirk ) supporting the American sectors and the Eastern Naval Task Force (under Admiral Sir Philip Vian ) in the British and Canadian sectors. The American forces of the First Army , led by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley , comprised VII Corps (Utah) and V Corps (Omaha). On

11748-409: The force waited for the rest of the division to land, and for the 7th Parachute Battalion to arrive to reinforce their position, they had to repel several spontaneous attempts by the Germans to re-take the bridges. At 01:30, two German tanks attempted to drive onto the bridge, but were repelled with the loss of one tank to a PIAT anti-tank weapon. The coup-de-main force had been followed closely by

11880-552: The ground, some German units used the Rommelspargel for defense, by cutting them down and using the logs to reinforce impromptu positions. Sturmmann Karl Vasold of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend described how his unit dug in under fire in a tank trench and foxholes on the road from Buron to Villons-les-Buissons , and used cut-down Rommelspargel poles to cover their positions and protect them from enemy fire. On June 29, 1944, German General of Infantry Friedrich Wiese

12012-405: The invasion again, the next available period with the right combination of tides (but without the desirable full moon) was two weeks later, from 18 to 20 June. As it happened, during this period the invaders would have encountered a major storm lasting four days, between 19 and 22 June, that would have made the initial landings impossible. Nazi Germany had at its disposal 50 divisions in France and

12144-470: The invasion could go ahead on 6 June. He met Eisenhower and other senior commanders at their headquarters at Southwick House in Hampshire to discuss the situation. General Montgomery and Major-General Walter Bedell Smith , Eisenhower's chief of staff, were eager to launch the invasion. Admiral Bertram Ramsay was prepared to commit his ships, while Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory expressed concern that

12276-412: The invasion, the Allies conducted Operation Bodyguard , the overall strategy designed to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. Operation Fortitude included Fortitude North, a misinformation campaign using fake radio-traffic to lead the Germans into expecting an attack on Norway, and Fortitude South, a major deception designed to fool the Germans into believing that

12408-469: The land forces involved in the invasion. On 31 December 1943, Eisenhower and Montgomery first saw the COSSAC plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three divisions , with two more divisions in support. The two generals immediately insisted on expanding the scale of the initial invasion to five divisions, with airborne descents by three additional divisions, to allow operations on a wider front and to speed up

12540-520: The landing areas to secure their flanks and protect the landing troops from counterattack. The British airborne forces were assigned to the eastern flank, and the American airborne forces the west. The 6th Airborne Division , which was under the command of Major-General Richard Gale , was chosen to conduct the airborne operations on the eastern flank of the invasion area. The division was new, having been activated in April 1943, and Operation Overlord would be its first experience of combat. The division

12672-494: The landings would take place at Pas de Calais in July. A fictitious First U.S. Army Group was invented, supposedly located in Kent and Sussex under the command of Lieutenant General George S. Patton . The Allies constructed dummy tanks, trucks, and landing craft, and positioned them near the coast. Several military units, including II Canadian Corps and 2nd Canadian Division , moved into

12804-466: The length of the bridge demolished, using their explosives, the reconnaissance force withdrew back to the rest of the battalion at the crossroad. Having achieved its objective, the battalion then moved north and took up positions near Le Mesnail to widen the airborne bridgehead formed by the division. The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was allotted, as its primary task, the demolition of two bridges: one at Varaville and another at Robehomme. Much like

12936-505: The logs with dynamite and cleared landing fields for reinforcements. On June 6, 1944, and afterward, most of the American airborne landings in Normandy were flown into areas that were not studded with Rommelspargel . Some flights, however, came up hard against the defense. Accompanying the 82nd Airborne Division , Tito Moruza landed on D-Day with orders to don civilian clothing and make his way to Paris to seize Gestapo papers. His glider hit

13068-493: The manoeuvers required to land the airborne forces next to the bridges over the Orne River, the Caen canal, the Dives, and the Merville battery. Once the pilots had practiced this sufficiently during the day, they were then switched to night operations. In the landing grounds used by the division for their operations, dozens of poles similar to those in Normandy were erected, with engineering units then timed on how fast they could demolish

13200-402: The missing men from the 7th Parachute Battalion had arrived at the bridges. Despite the ferocity of the attacks, the battalion and the coup-de-main force were able to hold the bridges until 19:00, when the leading elements of the British 3rd Infantry Division arrived and began to relieve the airborne troops, a process that was completed around 01:00 7 June. The brigade's other two battalions,

13332-475: The months leading up to the landings, the Allies conducted Operation Bodyguard , a substantial military deception that used electronic and visual misinformation to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. Adolf Hitler placed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of developing fortifications all along Hitler's proclaimed Atlantic Wall in anticipation of landings in France. The Allies failed to accomplish their objectives for

13464-677: The months preceding D-Day, Pujol sent hundreds of messages to his superiors in Madrid, messages specially prepared by the British intelligence service to convince the Germans that the attack would come in July at Calais. Many of the German radar stations on the French coast were destroyed by the RAF in preparation for the landings. On the night before the invasion, in Operation Taxable , 617 Squadron (the famous "Dambusters") dropped strips of "window", metal foil that German radar operators interpreted as

13596-563: The most senior commanders. The Enigma code used by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt , Oberbefehlshaber West (Supreme Commander West; OB West ), commander of the Western Front , was broken by the end of March. German intelligence changed the Enigma codes after the Allied landings but by 17 June the Allies were again consistently able to read them. After the disastrous Dieppe Raid , the Allies developed new technologies for Overlord. To supplement

13728-441: The nearby canal that stood in place for their real objective. The pilots of the gliders and transport aircraft were also constantly briefed with thousands of maps and photographs of the landing zones and the surrounding areas, as well as dozens of scale models of the zones and the primary objectives, such as the bridges and the Merville battery. A coloured film was produced from aerial reconnaissance photographs which, when played at

13860-685: The number of landing craft , most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific. In part because of lessons learned in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, the Allies decided not to directly assault a heavily defended French seaport in their first landing. The failure at Dieppe also highlighted the need for adequate artillery and air support, particularly close air support , and specialised ships able to travel extremely close to shore. The short operating range of British aircraft such as

13992-423: The number of transport aircraft assigned to the operation being expanded rapidly to accommodate the entire division. Two Royal Air Force (RAF) air groups were provided for the operation to ensure that the division could be deployed in just two airlifts. The pilots and crew of these transport aircraft then began formation flying training and specialised aircrew training to ensure that they were as familiar with what

14124-416: The obstacles complete; the stakes must be wired together and shells and mines attached to them... It will still be possible for tethered cattle to pasture underneath these mined obstacles." From February 1944, Allied reconnaissance showed the growing presence of Rommelspargel in landing fields, placed about 23 to 30 metres (75 to 100 ft) apart. Commander-in-Chief Trafford Leigh-Mallory , in charge of

14256-465: The obstacles. The battalion assigned to neutralising Merville spent two weeks at a special camp, where they built a replica of the battery and carried out several rehearsal exercises in and around it. The force assigned to the coup-de-main operation, to capture the bridges over the Orne River and Caen canal, were transferred to Exeter . There, they conducted intensive exercises around the River Exe and

14388-474: The operation required of them. The 6th Airborne Division carried out several large-scale airborne exercises, using them to find the most efficient way to deploy a brigade group on one or multiple landing-zones. On 6 February, the 3rd Parachute Brigade undertook an exercise in which the entire brigade was dropped by 98 transport aircraft. At the end of March, 284 aircraft were used in Exercise 'Bizz II' in which

14520-488: The pathfinders of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company, tasked with marking out the drop-zones and landing-zones to be used by the rest of the division. However, due to a combination of heavy cloud cover and poor navigation, only one pathfinder team was dropped correctly. The aircraft carrying the remainder had to make between two and three runs over their respective drop-zones before their teams jumped. Pathfinders assigned to DZ N were dropped wide, and did not manage to get to

14652-451: The poles were often connected by tripwires, and every third log carried a mine or hand grenade on top. Not only were tree trunks used as poles but steel rails were put to the same purpose in some locations. Air-landing obstacles were not the only tactic Rommel used against aerial invaders. Rommel ordered the flooding of some fields so that glider troops and paratroops landing in the water would drown. He ordered machine gun crews to cover

14784-587: The preliminary offshore bombardment and aerial assaults, some of the landing craft were equipped with artillery and anti-tank guns to provide close supporting fire. The Allies had decided not to immediately attack any of the heavily protected French ports and two artificial ports, called Mulberry harbours , were designed by COSSAC planners. Each assembly consisted of a floating outer breakwater , inner concrete caissons (called Phoenix breakwaters ) and several floating piers. The Mulberry harbours were supplemented by blockship shelters (codenamed "Gooseberries"). With

14916-466: The seaborne troops could not be attacked during the vital first few hours after landing when they were most vulnerable. Operation Tonga originated in the planning of Operation Overlord , the Allied plan for the eventual invasion and liberation of German -occupied France . Invasion planning begun in May 1943, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met during

15048-429: The strategic level over the wider plan for D-Day . On 17 February 1944, Major-General Frederick Arthur Montague Browning (commander of all British airborne forces) arrived at the 6th Airborne Division's headquarters to brief Gale on what the division was expected to achieve during the invasion; their role codenamed Operation Tonga. The original plan for Tonga did not involve the entire division, instead only called for

15180-419: The unit tasked with destroying the Merville artillery battery, was all but wiped out when an air-raid by RAF Avro Lancaster heavy bombers missed the artillery battery itself and bombed the area the team was in. Due to the above factors, Brigadier Nigel Poett 's 5th Parachute Brigade was scattered and dropped incorrectly. The constituent units of 7th Parachute Battalion were so badly scattered that, by 03:00,

15312-413: The western drop be cancelled (but the British drop was less perilous). Eisenhower consulted his airborne commanders and decided Leigh-Mallory was wrong; it would have meant cancelling the attack on Utah Beach. However, Allied leaders noticed that German planners appeared to expect airborne landings to be carried out relatively far from the beaches. In response, invasion plans concentrated most landings near

15444-460: The wooden stakes caused about 300 casualties in the 1st Airborne Task Force. Before Rommel was assigned defense of the Atlantic Wall, obstacles to amphibious landing were being built upon the beaches of Belgium and France. On February 3, 1944, during a visit to the beach at Neufchâtel-Hardelot , Rommel was shown a method by which local troops employed a high pressure water hose to quickly create

15576-408: Was armed with a demolition gun that could fire large charges into pillboxes . The Duplex-Drive tank ( DD tank ), another design developed by Hobart's group, was a self-propelled amphibious tank kept afloat using a waterproof canvas screen inflated with compressed air. These tanks were easily swamped, and on D-Day, many sank before reaching the shore, especially at Omaha. In the months leading up to

15708-468: Was based at Cairon to the west of the Caen canal and the River Orne bridges. Although a new formation equipped with an assortment of older tanks and other armoured vehicles, the core of the division were Afrika Korps veterans. Further afield was the Panzer Lehr Division , based at Chartres , which was less than a day's march from the area. Also considered a threat to the airborne forces

15840-482: Was called Luftlandehindernis . Along inland fields and meadows where enemy gliders could land, Rommel specified that 15-to-30-centimetre (6 to 12 in) diameter wooden poles were to be set into the ground with some 2 to 4 metres (8 to 12 ft) of the pole projecting upward. In every 1 square kilometre (0.4 sq mi) there would be placed approximately 1,000 such defenses. The wooden poles were to be made from tree trunks or very thick tree branches. The tops of

15972-622: Was deemed by the British to be practical or likely to succeed. Instead, the Allies expanded their activity in the Mediterranean, launching the Operation Torch an invasion of French North Africa in November 1942, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and Allied invasion of Italy in September. These campaigns provided the troops with valuable experience in amphibious warfare . Those attending

16104-488: Was detailed to remain at the battalion drop-zone in order to provide protection for a company of sappers. The latter were to demolish the poles and explosives that were present in the area, so that the 6th Airborne Division headquarters could land safely. The two battalions held their respective areas until relieved by ground forces advancing from the beaches. The 12th Parachute Battalion was bombarded with heavy mortar and artillery fire, and repelled two German counter-attacks by

16236-445: Was divided into seventeen sectors, with code-names using a spelling alphabet —from Able, west of Omaha , to Roger on the east flank of Sword . Eight further sectors were added when the invasion was extended to include Utah on the Cotentin Peninsula. Sectors were further subdivided into beaches identified by the colours Green, Red, and White. Allied planners envisaged preceding the sea-borne landings with airborne drops: near Caen on

16368-511: Was given the title of Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC). Early drafts of Overlord called for the commitment of airborne forces to support the ground forces and protect their landing areas. Operation Skyscraper, for example, called for the deployment of two airborne divisions to support the beach landings that would be made by five infantry divisions. One airborne division would land near Caen , and another on

16500-549: Was laid from Dungeness to Boulogne in late October. The British built specialised tanks, nicknamed Hobart's Funnies , to deal with conditions expected during the Normandy campaign. Developed under the supervision of Major-General Percy Hobart , these were modified M4 Sherman and Churchill tanks . Examples include the Sherman Crab tank (equipped with a mine flail), the Churchill Crocodile (a flame-throwing tank), and

16632-516: Was put in command of the French Riviera, where it was expected that the Allies would conduct an invasion of Vichy France . Wiese ordered Rommelspargel planted in vineyards and fields from Nice to Marseille . On August 15, Allied paratroopers and gliders of General Robert T. Frederick 's mixed-nationality 1st Airborne Task Force landed in Operation Dragoon . One of the constituent units,

16764-439: Was surrounded by an inner perimeter of barbed wire, a minefield, and an outer perimeter of barbed wire as well as an anti-tank ditch. Operation Tonga began at 22:56 on the night of 5 June, when six Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton towing six Horsa gliders carrying the coup-de-main force; this consisted of D Company, 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (part of

16896-691: Was the Waffen SS 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend , based at Lisieux and believed capable of arriving in the vicinity of the airborne landings within twelve hours. The division possessed a large number of tanks and self-propelled guns, including the Panther . Under the orders of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , German forces had constructed a large number of static defensive positions and obstacles. Rommel had been appointed Inspector General of Coastal Defences and commander of Army Group B , in November 1943, by order of Adolf Hitler . On his arrival he had assessed

17028-449: Was the codename for the Battle of Normandy , the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II . The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 ( D-Day ) with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune). A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed

17160-509: Was the codename given to the airborne operation undertaken by the British 6th Airborne Division between 5 June and 7 June 1944 as a part of Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings during the Second World War . The paratroopers and glider-borne airborne troops of the division, commanded by Major-General Richard Nelson Gale , landed on the eastern flank of the invasion area, near to

17292-419: Was the first to be established for the sole purpose of undertaking division-level airborne operations rather than contributing to a range of smaller operations, and there was considerable debate over what the unit should do. As late as January 1944, Gale noted that he had "no indication as yet of a definite airborne task" for his unit and continued to keep all options open, reflecting the ongoing discussions at

17424-511: Was to capture intact the two bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River at Bénouville and Ranville. The bridges then would be defended against counterattacks. Gale knew that the capture of the bridges would be critical for the resupply and reinforcement of his division, but he did not know that the bridges were incapable of supporting tanks. Second, the division was to destroy the heavily fortified Merville coastal artillery battery located at Franceville Plage , to ensure that it could not shell

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