Voiceover: “By the spring of 1944 things were looking grim for Nazi Germany. Already starved of key resources and under severe pressure in the East, the Western Allies were now poised to launch their long-awaited invasion of Western Europe. And yet Germany's leader Adolf Hitler was, despite everything, looking forward to D-Day.
His plan was simple reinforce the western defences, launch a furious counterattack and throw the Allies back into the sea. After that he could turn his full strength against the Soviet Union and end the war. for Hitler the outcome of this campaign would be decisive.
In the previous episode of our D-Day series we looked at the air battle for Normandy. This time we're covering the fighting on land that would make or break the operation. Why were some beaches bloodier than others? Why did German counterattacks fail? And why did it take so long for the Allies to break out into France? To answer those questions we brought in the help of the Royal Armouries’ Jonathan Ferguson to look at some of the most important weapons of D-Day. But more from him later on.
This is Lieutenant General Sir Frederick E. Morgan. You might never have heard of him, but in his role as COSSAC it was Morgan who wrote the first plan for Operation Overlord - the Allied invasion of Europe.
The Allied Landing site would be Normandy, but with a major deception operation to focus German eyes on the Pas-de-Calais. Airborne forces would secure the flanks, while assault forces would land with Americans on the right and British and Commonwealth forces on the left. In lieu of capturing a major port, Morgan also settled on the ingenious solution of bringing two prefabricated harbours across the channel to supply an Allied breakout.
When Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of SHAEF and Sir Bernard Montgomery commander of the Allied ground forces in December 1943 the responsibility for Overlord passed to them. But the only major change they made was to increase the strength of the air and seaborn landings. With a wider front the first target would be Caen and after that the port of Cherbourg. After surviving the inevitable German counterattack, Montgomery expected the Germans to retreat to defensive positions on the river Seine within three months of the landings.
But that did not mean that this campaign would be an easy one. The divisions chosen to carry out the invasion were augmented with extra units. Both the British and Commonwealth and American forces were equipped with duplex drive or DD tanks which would swim to the shore. While the British were further reinforced by more specialist armour.”
IWM Curator, Adrian Kerrison: “Rather than engage enemy tanks, the tanks that landed on the beaches were primarily intended to provide fire support for the infantry by suppressing enemy pillboxes and gun positions. Many of them would be so-called ‘funnies’ like this one, which were the brainchild of Major General Sir Percy Hobart. This Churchill AVRE, short for Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers, was equipped with what was known as a Spigot Mortar instead of a standard tank gun which enabled it to fire large, high-explosive charges capable of destroying pill boxes and bunkers. It could also be fitted with various attachments that could aid the movement of other vehicles across the beach. Such as a small box-girder bridge, a bobbin which was a giant roll of canvas that could be laid over soft sand, or large bundles of wood known as fascines that could be used to fill trenches and ditches.”
Voiceover: “As the massive invasion force built up in Britain, including an entirely fake army group poised to attack Calais, the Germans were building up their defences.
By this point in the war the German Air Force and Navy were largely a spent force. Thus, the defence of ‘Fortress Europe’ would fall on the shoulders of the German Army and in particular Army Group B commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Rommel believed that Germany's best chance of countering an invasion would be to stop the Allies at the water’s edge, at the much vaunted ‘Atlantic Wall’. Begun in 1942, it was still far from complete. But from early 1944 Rommel oversaw a massive strengthening of the existing fortifications adding pillboxes, gun emplacements, beach obstacles and millions of mines - many of them in the Normandy sector.
The units charged with holding these positions varied as much as the defences themselves. Though there were 58 German divisions in the theatre by May 1944, many of them were poor quality garrison troops from which the fittest and most able had been combed to feed the meat grinder in the east. Destroying the invaders would come down to the nine Panzer and one Panzergrenadier division in the theatre, with a total of 1,400 tanks and self-propelled guns. The only problem was Rommel had no control over them.
Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of all German army forces in the west, and General Geyr von Schweppenburg, commander of the armoured reserve ‘Panzer Group West’, disagreed with Rommel. They argued for a defence-in-depth strategy, holding the panzers further back.”
Adrian Kerrison: “Rommel wanted the panzers positioned much closer to the most likely landing sites. He knew that the Allies had air superiority which would significantly restrict movement in the battle of manoeuvre that Rundstedt and Schweppenburg favoured. Not only that, but if the Allies were permitted to establish a beachhead, their vast resources in men and material would ensure that they could wear down Germany's finite resources by continuously feeding fresh divisions into France. In the end, after the argument had been taken to Hitler, a tactically unsound compromise was reached. Of the nine panzer divisions and one panzergrenadier division in the west Rommel would be given three. Von Schweppenburg would get four to be held in reserve, while the remaining three were deployed to the south of France as part of the new Army Group G. Hitler also stipulated that Panzer Group West could only be deployed with his permission, which would prove to be costly for the Germans on D-Day.”
Voiceover: “D-Day was scheduled for the 5th of June 1944. But in the preceding days terrible weather conditions forced Eisenhower to postpone the invasion by 24 hours. This was a difficult decision, any delay made it increasingly difficult to keep the operation a secret. But over the course of the fourth and fifth meteorologists predicted a temporary break in the weather and based on this information Eisenhower ordered that the invasion proceed on the 6th of June.”
Adrian Kerrison: “This is the letter issued to thousands of troops bound for Normandy on the eve of the invasion written by Supreme Commander Eisenhower. In it he says that “the task will not be an easy one” that “the enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened”. But Eisenhower also says that he has the “full confidence” in the troops “courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle” and that “nothing less than full victory” will be accepted. For the men who received this letter there was of course a mix of feelings. But the mood was captured incredibly well by then Major James Robert Morgan who was second in command of the British 12th Light Anti-aircraft Regiment. In this letter to his wife, written on the back of Eisenhower's message, Morgan says “I'm looking forward immensely to the next few hours. At present I look just like Father Christmas in full equipment with binoculars dangling on my chest. Well my darling I'll soon be back with you both. Save some of the tomatoes for me and keep this letter as a reminder of a terrific event in history. All my love, Jim”.”
Voiceover: “The first Allied troops into Normandy were British and Canadian Airborne forces of the 6th Airborne Division. Landing by glider and parachute to the east of Sword Beach their main task was to capture and hold important bridges over the Caen canal and river Orne. Despite scattered landings, they managed to capture their objectives. But to hold on to them, the lightly armed troops would have to fend off German armoured counterattacks. To tell us more here's the Royal Armouries’ Jonathan Ferguson.”
Jonathan Ferguson: “Hi guys Jonathan here in the National Firearms Centre here at the Royal Armouries Museum. And I'm here with the PIAT. So PIAT stands for Projector Infantry Anti-Tank. Common misconception that it's a big spring catapult thing, absolutely untrue. There is a big spring in here. It's to absorb the huge recoil of what this really is which is a Spigot Mortar. Normally something fired based in the ground, but it's fired from the shoulder. So this idea of harnessing the ‘Monroe Effect’ that's in here but from a shoulder fired weapon that's what makes this thing really quite remarkable and much better than people think it was. Although there are some pretty heavy caveats there. In terms of you’ve got to get very close, it's an arcing trajectory, your first hit might bounce off if it doesn't hit just right.
So one of the most iconic accounts of the use of the PIAT associated with D-Day is at Pegasus Bridge. We have Major John Howard of D company, 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He relates this story of Sergeant Thornton, ‘Wagger’ Thornton as he calls him, who essentially saves the day with a PIAT. He's managed to get close enough to where he thinks he's going to be able to score a decisive hit on the tank, always the problem with the PIAT. And just as Howard is about to order the men in with anti-tank grenades to try and kill this thing. Thornton lets loose with the PIAT bomb and just knocks the tank out outright. That causes the Germans to think that there's anti-tank artillery in play and to stop what they're doing and rethink and turns the tide of that the battle at that bridge. Because they were going to get annihilated one after the other. Now that might have been true with the PIAT as well but it's punching above its weight and it's a really almost unique account of a single shoulder fired weapon turning the tide of a battle.”
Voiceover: “To the west the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions were landing on the Cotentin Peninsula behind Utah Beach. They were to secure the exits allowing the amphibious troops landing later in the morning to move on towards the vital Port of Cherbourg.
The drop zones were supposed to be marked by elite pathfinders ahead of the main force, who used special radar transponder beacons known as ‘Eurekas’ to guide them in. But, by the time they jumped, a massive cloud bank had formed over the Cotentin peninsula, causing many of the pathfinders to miss their target, and when they did land many couldn't get the ‘Eurekas’ to work. The result was chaos.”
Adrian Kerrison: “Many of the drops became widely scattered. For example, the majority of the 2nd Battalion, 52nd Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped over the wrong drop zone and then spent most of D-Day trying to reassemble. However, others that mislanded were able to improvise and form groups that were a mishmash of units which went on to achieve their objectives. One of those to jump on D-Day was 29-year-old Sergeant Floyd Corrington, an Assistant Squad Leader in the Second Platoon of Dog Company, 506 PIR, 101st Airborne Division. He was wearing this helmet when his C-47, which also carried his platoon Commander Lieutenant Ronald Spears, took off for Normandy and was wearing it when he jumped at about 1:20 a.m. Little is known of what happened to Corrington after he jumped, but he was reported to have been killed in action on D-Day. His helmet was later found near the Hamlet of Basse-Addeville, just south of Drop Zone C where his unit was meant to land. Corrington now lies in the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.”
Voiceover: “Though the American airborne drops didn't quite go to plan they caused chaos and confusion amongst the German defenders and secured the exits from Utah Beach. By now the Allied air and sea bombardment of the beach defences had begun. The volume of fire was huge, but the results were inconsistent. The strongpoints that survived would exact a heavy toll.
On Utah Beach the landings were a huge success. The troops were accidentally landed well south of their designated landing zone in an area that was only lightly defended. Quick-thinking commanders exploited this and by 10:00 a.m. all enemy resistance was cleared at a cost of just 197 casualties. A few miles east however the landing at Omaha became a bloodbath.
Of the five Invasion beaches Omaha was without to doubt the most challenging. Most of the 6-mile-long beach was dominated by steep bluffs around 150 ft high which gave the German strongpoints excellent fields of view and fire over an area littered with mines, obstacles and barbed wire. The only way through the bluffs were through five gullies known as exits. Of course the Germans knew how important they were and these exits were quite literally turned into deathtraps. To tell us more, here's Jonathan once again.”
Jonathan Ferguson: “We are looking at the infamous MG42 general purpose machine gun. So, this was intended to be a universal machine gun and it served in that role. It's in front of me here on its bipod for use as a light machine gun. Where this thing has become truly iconic is in the defensive role and that's throughout the back half of the war, but especially D-Day and especially Omaha Beach. So we have belt feed, ideal for sustained fire, for suppressive fire, for defensive fire. And to allow for that we have a replaceable barrel system, allowing for a much lower overall weight and complexity than the old water cool system, which is extremely effective for sustain fire, but made for a much heavier more awkward gun. So those two things, plus some very solid engineering, mean that not very many German soldiers can seriously inconvenience an awful lot of Allied soldiers.
And this is really summed up in the experience of and the claims of Heinrich Severloh who wrote his memoir, published it in 2000 and he claimed to have killed between 1,000 and 2,000 American soldiers on Omaha Beach. Strongly contested numbers, but regardless. If there are many like Heinrich, and I suspect there were this, thing is a sort of force multiplier and in the defensive role they're able to hold off thousands of attacking Allied soldiers. Keep heads down, if they're not actively killing and wounding people. If you need a gun for defensive fire, whatever you think of the MG42, it's a very capable weapon in that role.”
Adrian Kerrison: “The Allies had planned for a fierce naval bombardment followed by an attack by Allied bombers that would obliterate the strong defences before the first wave of troops hit the beach at 6:30 a.m. But the bombardment was inadequate and the bombers missed most of their targets which left most of the German defences still standing. To make matters worse on Omaha, the concept of the DD tanks that would float and swim to shore ended in disaster. The 741st tank Battalion disembarked most of its DD tanks about 15,000 ft out from the shore. Almost immediately 27 out of 32 tanks sunk owing to the bad weather and rough seas.
Things didn't quite go to plan for the infantry either. Strong winds and currents put many of the landing craft off course and some got swamped which drowned the heavily-laden infantry inside. Other landing craft hit sandbars that forced the Infantry to wade up the beach in sometimes neck high water, greatly extending the time that they were exposed to enemy fire. The situation became so perilous that General Omar Bradley, commander of the American Ground Forces, briefly considered halting the landings on Omaha and diverting the assault forces to Utah Beach. Slowly however small groups of men began to exploit gaps in the defences and by the evening the situation had finally begun to stabilize. 34,000 troops had landed on Omaha by the end of the day at a cost of over 2,400 men killed wounded or missing. By far the highest cost in human life of any of the five invasion beaches.”
Voiceover: “An hour after the Americans, British, Canadian, and Free French assault troops began landing to their East on Gold, Juno and Sword beaches. The 50th division at Gold Beach faced strong German resistance and though they got well off the beach they failed to take all their objectives. At Juno, Canadian forces made the strongest inroads into Normandy of any Allied formation after tough house-to-house fighting. And likewise at Sword the initial assault went mostly to plan.”
Adrian Kerrison: “This bombardment was carried out by the largest naval bombardment fleet of those supporting the five beaches, so the weight of firepower was immense. The majority of the DD tanks made it to the beach and at almost the same time as the infantry giving the latter the fire support and cover that they needed to move up the beach. The funnies immediately got to work clearing passages through the obstacles and minefields, filling ditches and then engaging enemy strong points with their heavy Petard Mortars. Though many were hit and knocked out, their surviving crews dismounted and cleared obstacles by hand. Within 2 hours of landing 7 out of 8 Beach exits were cleared.
Of course, this is not to say that the assault on Sword was easy. One of the German strongpoints on Sword, codenamed Cod, took 3 hours to capture with two of the attacking battalions taking 25% casualties each. Still though the battle for Sword Beach was relatively quick and by the end of D-Day nearly 29,000 troops had landed.”
Voiceover: “During the first hours of the Beach Landings with the exception of Omaha the Allies generally succeeded in overwhelming the largely understrength, overstretched, and ill-prepared German defenders. The big question was how would the German panzers respond?
Incredible as it may seem, the massive Allied invasion force that was approaching the Normandy Coast on the 5th of June went largely undetected by the Germans. Thanks to the poor weather in preceding days an invasion was simply not expected at the time. Rommel was visiting his family in Germany, while most senior commanders in the invasion sector were ironically away on an anti-invasion training exercise when the blow fell. The first major counterattack took place on D-Day itself. That afternoon the 21st Panzer Division, the only German armoured formation in the area, drove between the British and Canadian Forces reaching the coast. But thanks to poor command decisions, confused communications and the weight of Allied firepower the attack was beaten back. With the 21st Panzers losing more than half of their 124 tanks. The rest of the German armour was under Hitler's direct control, but he was asleep until the afternoon having worked late the night before. When informed he said to have reacted with glee. However, both Hitler and Rundstedt still believed that the landings in Normandy were a faint and that the main blow would come at Calais. Elements of Panzer Group West were released for use in Normandy, but by then it was too late. A full strength German counterattack would have to wait. Instead, on D-Day itself the Allies biggest challenge was supply.”
Adrian Kerrison: “While the Mulbury Harbours were being constructed, supplies still had to be landed directly on the beaches in vehicles like this DUKW or Duck. A six-wheel drive amphibious truck, the Duck was a valuable piece of the Allied war machine. Wowever they struggled in the rough Channel waters. The steadily rising tide also caused major problems, reducing the shore's depth, which caused men, vehicles and equipment to bunch up, restricting movement off the beach and providing good targets for German gunners. The impact of this is clear in the British advance on the city of Caen. What was meant to be a quick advance was slowed by German strongpoints as well as the traffic jams on the beach. The city, an objective for D-Day itself, would remain in German hands for another 6 weeks.”
Voiceover: “Though many key objectives were not taken, D-Day was undoubtedly a major success - with 156,000 Allied troops ashore. On the 7th of June the Allies further expanded their Beachhead. Meanwhile the Germans struggled to build up for their counterattack. The Allies had near total control of the skies and so as Panzer Group West moved towards Normandy, they were hampered all the way by Allied fighter-bombers - so much so that they had to abandon daylight movement. Elsewhere, members of the French Resistance attempted to slow German reinforcements and though they found some success, local people faced brutal reprisals. All this delayed and dislocated the German response.”
Adrian Kerrison: “When it came it was the 12th SS Panzer Division from Panzer Group West who made the strongest effort, attacking against the 3rd Canadian division on D-Day+1. But the Allies were well prepared. The Canadian 3rd Division had twice the normal amount of field artillery and as many gunners in their order of battle as infantrymen. This Sexton self-propelled gun was one such weapon. With its 25-pounder gun it was able to provide mobile fire support for British and Canadian forces in Normandy. Assisted by Allied warships off the coast, overwhelming Allied firepower was able to put a stop to the German counterattacks. When the Panzer Lehr Division arrived to join the attack on D-Day+2 the momentum had now been lost, and instead of counterattacking, they were forced to dig in to block the Allied attempts to take Caen.”
Voiceover: “On the 12th of June the Allies captured Carentan, linking all five beaches together. With a constant stream of men and equipment pouring into their now vast beachhead on a daily basis any German hopes of pushing the invaders back into the sea was folly. Hitler's chance for a counterattack was gone. The Western Allies had pulled off the largest air, land and sea operation in the history of warfare - a monumental achievement. It worked thanks to their skillful planning, overwhelming material advantage and the heroism and sacrifice of their fighting men, as well as many German failures. While D-Day was by no means a turning point in the war, it did mark the beginning of a new phase. Within a year, crushed by Allied advances from east and west, the tyranny of the Nazi regime would finally come to an end.”
