During June 6, in the area northwest and north of the city of YASSY, our troops successfully repulsed all attacks by enemy infantry and tanks. On June 5, 49 German tanks and 42 aircraft were shot down in this area. On other sectors of the front - no change.

On June 5, 48 enemy aircraft were shot down on all fronts in air battles and anti-aircraft artillery fire.

A massive raid by our aviation on the railway junction and military installations of the city of Iasi

On the night of June 6, our long-range aviation carried out a massive raid on the railway junction and military installations of the city of Iasi (Romania). As a result of the bombing, up to 90 fires arose. Trains, station buildings and enemy military warehouses were burning. The fires were accompanied by strong explosions. Several trains at the railway stations closest to the city of Iasi were fired upon and set on fire by machine-gun and cannon fire. Our pilots observed the flames of fires while leaving the target from a distance of more than 100 kilometers.

All our planes returned to their bases.

North-west and north of the city of Iasi, our troops continued to fight with the enemy. The Germans, who have suffered heavy losses in recent days, today brought into battle a comparatively smaller force of tanks and infantry. Soviet units successfully repelled all attacks of the Nazis. A fierce battle took place only in the sector defended by the N-formation. During the day, the Germans in this area went on the attack twice, but achieved no results. In front of our positions there were several destroyed German tanks and armored personnel carriers and up to 300 enemy corpses.

North-west of the city of Tiraspol, thirty-seven snipers of the N-unit killed 158 Germans over the past five days. Sniper Comrade Nikulin killed 13 German soldiers, sniper Comrade Lapin - 8, sniper Comrade Ryabushenko - 7, sniper Comrade Klimentyev killed 5 Germans.

North-west of the city of Vitebsk, a reconnaissance detachment under the command of Captain Gerasimenko broke into the enemy’s location early in the morning. Soviet soldiers blew up three dugouts, destroyed 20 Nazis and, having captured 6 prisoners, returned to their unit.

On the night of June 5, aviation of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet sank three German transports with a total displacement of 11 thousand tons in the Baltic Sea.

Yesterday 35 German planes tried to raid one of our military installations in the Gulf of Finland. The enemy planes were met by fighters from Lieutenant Colonel Koreshkov's unit. In fierce air battles, Baltic pilots shot down 20 German aircraft. Not a single enemy aircraft was allowed to reach the target. The pilots who particularly distinguished themselves in air battles were: Senior Lieutenant Chernenko, Senior Lieutenant Kamyshnikov, Lieutenant Zhuchkov and Lieutenant Shestopalov.

The partisans of the detachment operating in the Minsk region learned that in one locality the Germans were robbing civilians. Soviet patriots ambushed and attacked the Nazis returning from a bandit raid. The partisans killed 69 German soldiers and officers and captured two non-commissioned officers. The property looted by the Nazis from Soviet citizens was returned to the population. The partisans of the Shchors detachment derailed the enemy’s military echelon. The locomotive and 10 carriages were destroyed. Up to 200 German soldiers and officers were killed and wounded.

The captured commander of the 3rd company of the 12th regiment of the 15th Romanian Infantry Division, Captain Nikolai Alexandrescu, said: “In the fall of 1941, our division was defeated near Odessa. Its remnants were taken to the rear for reorganization. About a year later, the division was transferred to the Kletskaya area, where it lost 12 thousand people in two months. The division was re-formed for the third time and again sent to the front. The division is commanded by Brigadier General Stefan Bardan. At the division headquarters are the German Major Wendt, his assistant Oberleutnant Grese and several German clerks. The German Wendt is the actual owner. He unceremoniously cancels the orders of the division commander and does everything at his own discretion. Romanian soldiers do not want to fight for Hitler. I was once again convinced of this in the last battle. A small group of Russian soldiers in three boats quietly crossed the river, went ashore and, shouting “hurray,” rushed to our positions. These positions were defended by a Romanian company, which had several heavy machine guns. When our soldiers heard the shouts of “hurray,” they immediately fled. With several throws, the Russians reached the command post. Seeing that resistance was futile, I stood up and raised my hands. Together with me, Lieutenant Lehu, Senior Lieutenant Rosca and Lieutenant Rizcanu surrendered.”

Return to date June 6

Comments:

Both the escape from the European continent () and the landing in Normandy ("Overlode") are very different from their mythological interpretation...

Original taken from jeteraconte in Allied landing in Normandy... Myths and reality.

I I think that every educated person knows that on June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, and finally, the full opening of the second front. T Only the assessment of this event has different interpretations.
The same beach now:

Why did the Allies wait until 1944? What goals did you pursue? Why was the operation carried out so ineptly and with such significant losses, despite the overwhelming superiority of the Allies?
This topic was raised by many at different times, I will try to talk about the events that took place in the most understandable language possible.
When you watch American films like: "Saving Private Ryan", games " Call of Duty 2" or you read an article on Wikipedia, it seems that the greatest event of all times is described, and it was here that the entire Second World War was decided...
Propaganda has always been the most powerful weapon. ..

By 1944, it was clear to all politicians that the war was lost by Germany and its allies, and in 1943, during the Tehran Conference, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill roughly divided the world among themselves. In a little more time, Europe, and most importantly France, could have become communist if they had been liberated by Soviet troops, so the allies were forced to rush in time to share the pie and fulfill their promises to contribute to the common victory.

(I recommend reading “Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with US Presidents and British Prime Ministers during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945,” released in 1957, in response to the memoirs of Winston Churchill.)

Now let’s try to figure out what really happened and how. First of all, I decided to go and look at the terrain with my own eyes, and assess exactly what difficulties the troops landing under fire had to overcome. The landing zone takes about 80 km, but this does not mean that throughout these 80 km, paratroopers landed on every meter; in fact, it was concentrated in several places: "Sword", "Juno", "Gold", "Omaha Beach" and "Pointe d'oc".
I walked along this territory on foot along the sea, studying the fortifications that have survived to this day, visited two local museums, sifted through a lot of different literature about these events and talked with residents in Bayeux, Caen, Sommur, Fecamp, Rouen, etc.
It is very difficult to imagine a more mediocre landing operation, with the complete connivance of the enemy. Yes, critics will say that the scale of the landing is unprecedented, but the mess is the same. Even according to official sources, non-combat losses! were 35%!!! from total losses!
We read Wiki, wow, how many Germans resisted, how many German units, tanks, guns! By what miracle did the landing succeed???
The German troops on the Western Front were spread thinly over the territory of France and these units performed mainly security functions, and many could only be called combat ones. What is the division, nicknamed the “White Bread Division” worth? An eyewitness, English author M. Shulman, says: “After the invasion of France, the Germans decided to replace it with o. Walcheren was an ordinary infantry division, a division whose personnel suffered from stomach diseases. Bunkers on the island Walcheren was now occupied by soldiers who had chronic ulcers, acute ulcers, wounded stomachs, nervous stomachs, sensitive stomachs, inflamed stomachs - in general, all known gastritis. The soldiers vowed to stand until the end. Here, in the richest part of Holland, where white bread, fresh vegetables, eggs and milk were in abundance, the soldiers of the 70th Division, nicknamed the "White Bread Division", awaited the imminent Allied offensive and were nervous, for their attention was equally divided between the problematic threat and side of the enemy and real stomach disorders. This disabled division was led into battle by the elderly, good-natured Lieutenant General Wilhelm Deiser... Horrific losses among senior officers in Russia and North Africa were the reason that he was returned from retirement in February 1944 and appointed commander of a stationary division in Holland. His active service ended in 1941 when he was discharged due to heart attacks. Now, being 60 years old, he was not enthusiastic and did not have the ability to turn the defense of Fr. Walcheren in the heroic epic of German weapons."
In the German "troops" on the Western Front there were disabled and crippled people; to perform security functions in good old France, you do not need to have two eyes, two arms or legs. Yes, there were full-fledged parts. And there were also collected from various rabble, like the Vlasovites and the like, who only dreamed of surrendering.
On the one hand, the Allies assembled a monstrously powerful group, on the other hand, the Germans still had the opportunity to inflict unacceptable damage on their opponents, but...
Personally, I got the impression that the command of the German troops simply did not prevent the Allies from landing. But at the same time, he could not order the troops to raise their hands or go home.
Why do I think this? Let me remind you that this is the time when a conspiracy of the generals against Hitler is being prepared, secret negotiations are underway between the German elite on a separate peace, behind the back of the USSR. Allegedly, due to bad weather, aerial reconnaissance was stopped, torpedo boats curtailed reconnaissance operations,
(Most recently before this, the Germans sank 2 landing ships, damaged one during exercises in preparation for the landing and another was killed by “friendly fire”),
the command flies to Berlin. And this is at a time when the same Rommel knows very well from intelligence data about the impending invasion. Yes, he might not have known about the exact time and place, but it was impossible not to notice the gathering of thousands of ships!!!, preparation, mountains of equipment, training of paratroopers! What more than two people know, so does a pig - this old saying clearly reflects the essence of the impossibility of hiding preparations for such a large-scale operation as an invasion across the English Channel.
I'll tell you a few interesting points. Zone landings Pointe du Hoc. It is very famous; a new German coastal battery was supposed to be located here, but they installed old French 155 mm cannons, manufactured in 1917. In this very small area, bombs were dropped, 250 356 mm shells were fired from the American battleship Texas, as well as a lot of shells of smaller calibers. Two destroyers supported the landing with continuous fire. And then a group of Rangers on landing barges approached the shore and climbed the steep cliffs under the command of Colonel James E. Rudder, captured the battery and fortifications on the shore. True, the battery turned out to be made of wood, and the sounds of shots were imitated with explosive packages! The real one was moved when one of the guns was destroyed during a successful air raid a few days ago, and it is its photograph that can be seen on websites under the guise of the gun destroyed by the Rangers. There is a statement that the rangers did find this relocated battery and ammunition depot, which, oddly enough, was not guarded! Then they blew it up.
If you ever find yourself on Pointe du Hoc , you will see what used to be a “lunar” landscape.
Roskill (Roskill S. Fleet and War. M.: Voenizdat, 1974. T. 3. P. 348) wrote:
“Over 5,000 tons of bombs were dropped, and although there were few direct hits on the gun casemates, we managed to seriously disrupt enemy communications and undermine their morale. With the onset of dawn, the defensive positions were attacked by 1630 “liberators”, “flying fortresses” and medium bombers of the 8th and 9th air forces of the US Air Force... Finally, in the last 20 minutes before the approach of the assault waves, fighter-bombers and medium The bombers carried out a bomb attack directly on the defensive fortifications on the shore...
Shortly after 0530, the naval artillery unleashed a hail of shells along the entire 50-mile front of the coast; Such a powerful artillery strike from the sea had never been delivered before. Then the light guns of the advanced landing ships came into action, and finally, just before hour “H”, tank landing ships armed with missile launchers moved towards the shore; firing intensely with 127 mm rockets into the depths of the defense. The enemy practically did not respond to the approach of the assault waves. There was no aviation, and the coastal batteries did not cause any damage, although they fired several salvos at transports.”
A total of 10 kilotons of TNT equivalent, this is equivalent in power to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima!
Yes, the guys who landed under fire, at night on wet rocks and pebbles, who climbed a steep cliff, are heroes, but... The big question is how many Germans survived who were able to resist them after such air and artillery treatment? The rangers advancing in the first wave are 225 people...Losses in killed and wounded are 135 people. Data on German losses: more than 120 killed and 70 prisoners. Hmm... Great battle?
From 18 to 20 guns with a caliber of more than 120 mm were fired against the landing allies from the German side... In total!
With absolute Allied air supremacy! Supported by 6 battleships, 23 cruisers, 135 destroyers and destroyers, 508 other warships. 4,798 ships took part in the attack. In total, the Allied fleet included: 6,939 ships for various purposes (1,213 - combat, 4,126 - transport, 736 - auxiliary and 864 - merchant ships (some were in reserve)). Can you imagine the salvo of this armada along the coast over an area of 80 km?
Here's a quote:

In all sectors, the Allies suffered relatively small losses, except...
Omaha Beach, American landing zone. Here the losses were catastrophic. Many drowned paratroopers. When they hang 25-30 kg of equipment on a person, and then force him to parachute into the water, where the bottom is 2.5-3 meters, for fear of getting closer to the shore, then instead of a fighter, you get a corpse. At best, a demoralized person without weapons... The commanders of the barges carrying amphibious tanks forced them to land at depth, afraid to come close to the coast. In total, out of 32 tanks, 2 floated ashore, plus 3, which, the only captain who did not chicken out, landed directly on the shore. The rest drowned due to rough seas and the cowardice of individual commanders. There was complete chaos on the shore and in the water, the soldiers were rushing confusedly along the beach. The officers lost control of their subordinates. But still there were those who were able to organize the survivors and begin to successfully resist the Nazis.
It was here that Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt, fell heroically, who, like the deceased Yakov, Stalin’s son, did not want to hide in headquarters in the capital...
The casualties in this area are estimated at 2,500 Americans. The German corporal machine gunner Heinrich Severlo, later nicknamed the “Omaha Monster,” contributed his talents to this. He uses his heavy machine gun, as well as two rifles, while in a strong pointWiderstantnest62 killed and wounded more than 2,000 Americans! Such data makes you wonder if he had not run out of ammunition, would he have shot everyone there??? Despite huge losses, the Americans captured the empty casemates and continued the offensive. There is evidence that certain areas of the defense were surrendered to them without a fight, and the number of prisoners captured at all landing sites was surprisingly large. Why is it surprising though? The war was coming to an end and only the most fanatical adherents of Hitler did not want to admit it...

Mini museum between landing zones:

View of Pont d'Oc from above, craters, remains of fortifications, casemates.

View of the sea and rocks there:

Omaha Beach view of the sea and landing zone:

Many events claim to be the main battle of World War II, but in Europe there is no doubt that it was the Normandy landing operation and the events that followed it. Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Lavrov, in a conversation with RT, said that Western historians hush up the role of the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, focusing on the decisive role of the Western allies.

Vladimir Lavrov is confident that Germany would have been defeated even without the Allied landing in Normandy.

“The opening of the second front by the Americans and the British in 1944 was not the most important event, not a turning point, as is usually written in Western textbooks,” the historian believes. “This is a major operation for the West, they opened a second front, but they promised to open it much earlier.”

“The Americans enter the war, start dividing the pie, when they already need to get benefits, but without large losses, neither the Americans nor the British are used to fighting with large losses. We could have won without them,” Lavrov added.

The head of the German Agency for Global Communications, Professor Lorenz Haag, also believes that the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944 “are an important event, but the Second World War was won on the Eastern Front by the Red Army.”

“It was on the Eastern Front that the Wehrmacht lost 90% of its personnel,” he recalled. “Therefore, we should not overestimate the significance of this operation. If it had not taken place, World War II could have been completely won by the USSR.”

According to the expert, “the Allied landing in Normandy was of enormous military and political significance, primarily for the United States and Great Britain.” “The leaders of these countries understood that Nazi Germany would soon be defeated, and its only winner would be the USSR. The leaders of the USA and Great Britain took into account that delay in opening a second front would harm their interests in Europe after the end of the war,” said Lorenz Haag, ITAR-TASS reports.

“Given the contradictions between the USSR and Western countries, their hostility towards each other, solving this problem was previously not easy,” the historian believes. “The Allies’ promise to open a Second Front was not fulfilled either in 1942 or 1943,” the agency’s interlocutor recalled. “They waited and hoped that after a grueling war, the Soviet Union would be weakened and lose its significance as a great power. And the deployment of military operations in Western Europe would lead to the diversion of part of the German troops from the Eastern Front and, consequently, to the preservation of the forces of the Red Army.”

The professor believes that the war in Europe could have ended in 1943. “And if this did not happen, then the reason for this is the desire of the United States and especially England to outplay the USSR not in the fight against Nazi Germany, but in building the post-war world order. The costs were of little concern to London and Washington,” he said.

The famous British historian of the Second World War, James Holland, also believes that the landing of Allied forces in Normandy, contrary to the popular point of view, was not an exclusively American military operation.

“By the Normandy landings, many people only mean the fierce fighting of American and German troops in the Omaha area and the American parachute landing,” Holland notes in an article posted June 5 on the CNN website on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Operation Overlord. . According to him, such ideas were largely influenced by popular culture, including the famous film “Saving Private Ryan” and the television series “Band of Brothers.”

“The Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 were an allied operation in which Great Britain rather played the leading role. Yes, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe was the American General Dwight Eisenhower, but his deputy was the British Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Arthur Tedder. Three commanders of the armed forces were also British,” writes the researcher.

According to Holland, the plan for Operation Overlord was largely developed by British General Bernard Montgomery, the commander-in-chief of Allied ground forces in Europe, and the main responsibility for executing the landing fell on the British Navy.

Holland notes that as a result of the landing operation, the United States and Great Britain lost approximately equal numbers of people. The historian emphasizes that he does not diminish the merits of the American side, but strives to show the public a broader view of this important historical event.

According to information from open sources, the Normandy operation, or Operation Overlord, was the Allied strategic landing of troops in Normandy, which began in the early morning of June 6, 1944 and ended on August 31, 1944, after which the Allies crossed the Seine River, liberated Paris and continued their offensive. to the French-German border.

The operation opened the Western Front in Europe in World War II. More than 3 million people took part in the landing operation in Normandy, who crossed the English Channel from England to Normandy.

World War II Collie Rupert

Normandy Landing: D-Day

Hitler had long foreseen that the Allies would attempt to land somewhere in western Europe, and accordingly built a defensive line stretching 2,500 kilometers from the Netherlands to the border with Spain. Called the Atlantic Wall, the line was built over two years using the slave labor of prisoners of war. When construction was completed, the line was staffed by soldiers retired due to age or injury. Hitler predicted that the Allies would land in Calais, since it was the city closest to England.

Two years earlier, on August 19, 1942, the Allies attacked German-occupied France, landing troops in the port of Dieppe. The landing ended in disaster: the Germans easily repelled the attack. However, the lesson was not in vain: henceforth, well-fortified port cities were to be avoided. And in June 1944, the decision was made to land on deserted beaches.

In the proposed invasion of Europe, Montgomery would command British forces, Patton would command American forces, and Eisenhower would have overall command. The choice was made in favor of a hundred-kilometer strip of Norman beaches, despite the fact that the distance to England here was much greater. The problem of the lack of port facilities was solved by the construction of two huge artificial piers, which were to be towed across the English Channel and sunk on site offshore. The world's first undersea oil pipeline was laid, 110 kilometers long, from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg. This oil pipeline carried 1,000,000 gallons of oil per day to northern France. The French and Belgian Resistance were notified of the upcoming operation and received proper instructions. On the eve of D-Day, the BBC aired the poem “Autumn Song” (Chanson d’automne) by a 19th-century French poet. Fields of Verlaine, which became a pre-arranged signal informing the Resistance that the invasion would begin the next day.

The months-long preparations for the landing and the armada of ships assembled off the coast of England could not go unnoticed by German intelligence, so the Allies made titanic efforts to mislead the Germans: dummy tanks designed to deceive aviation reconnaissance, false radio communications, false headquarters and even an actor , depicting Montgomery dispatched to North Africa. The deception was a success: far fewer soldiers remained on the beaches of Normandy as Hitler dispersed his forces throughout the northwestern coast of Europe. The British, under the leadership of the inventive Percy Hobart, came up with many means designed to help tanks launched into the sea a few kilometers from the coast to float on the water. Nicknamed "Hobart's boats", different tanks had different purposes: they were supposed to "float" ashore, make passages through minefields, or roll out sheets of tarpaulin to form paths in the loose sand.

Operation Overlord began on June 6, 1944, on the appointed day. In the rear of the German positions, gliders and paratroopers (as well as dolls with parachutes) landed, liberating the first piece of occupied territory - the Pegasus Bridge. An armada of 7,000 ships (including 1,299 warships) then crossed the English Channel, carrying almost 300,000 people. The Americans targeted the beaches, which were named Utah and Omaha, and the British - Gold, Juno and Sword. The Allies met their fiercest resistance at Omaha: soldiers, jumping into the water from landing ships that failed to approach the shallow water, sank under the weight of their equipment, others died under heavy German fire, but, in the end, after a battle that lasted several hours , solely due to overwhelming numerical superiority, the bridgehead on the shore was captured. The Germans were short of aircraft because most of their air power was committed to the Eastern Front, and what little they had was soon neutralized by the Allies' air superiority.

Hitler, having learned about the landing, decided that it was a diversionary strike, and three whole days passed before he sent reinforcements. Rommel, now back in command of the German forces, went to Berlin for a day to celebrate his wife's birthday. Returning to Normandy, he immediately organized a counteroffensive, but his troops, deprived of air cover and unequal in strength to the enemy, were forced to retreat under the onslaught of the allies. The Germans were also greatly hampered by the activities of the partisans in the rear. In retaliation, they used brutal punitive measures, destroying entire villages and killing residents. On June 27, the heavily damaged port of Cherbourg was liberated, which made it easier for the Allies to transfer manpower and military equipment to France. By early July they had transported over 1,000,000 people to the continent.

On July 20, 1944, an assassination attempt was made on Hitler at his Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia, the so-called July Bomb Plot, prepared by German officers who wanted to hasten the end of the war. Hitler, although shell-shocked, escaped with bruises and scratches, and everyone involved in the conspiracy was soon captured and executed. Rommel, who was not personally involved in the plot, spoke out in support of it. Once this became known, he was given a choice: suicide and honor preserved, or the humiliation of a Nazi court with a predetermined sentence and sending all his close relatives to a concentration camp. Rommel chose the first, and on October 14, in the presence of two generals sent by Hitler, he poisoned himself. As promised, he was buried with military honors, and the family was given a pension.

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"Second front". Our soldiers opened it for three whole years. This is what the American stew was called. And the “second front” existed in the form of planes, tanks, trucks, and non-ferrous metals. But the real opening of the second front, the Normandy landings, occurred only on June 6, 1944.

Europe is like one impregnable fortress

In December 1941, Adolf Hitler announced that he would create a belt of giant fortifications from Norway to Spain and this would be an insurmountable front for any enemy. This was the Fuhrer's first reaction to the US entry into World War II. Not knowing where the Allied troops would land, in Normandy or elsewhere, he promised to turn all of Europe into an impregnable fortress.

It was absolutely impossible to do this, however, for another whole year no fortifications were built along the coastline. And why was it necessary to do this? The Wehrmacht was advancing on all fronts, and the victory of the Germans seemed simply inevitable to them.

Start of construction

At the end of 1942, Hitler now seriously ordered the construction of a belt of structures on the western coast of Europe within a year, which he called the Atlantic Wall. Almost 600,000 people worked on construction. All of Europe was left without cement. Even materials from the old French Maginot Line were used, but they could not meet the deadline. The main thing was missing - well-trained and armed troops. The Eastern Front literally devoured German divisions. So many units in the west had to be formed from old men, children and women. The combat effectiveness of such troops did not inspire any optimism in the commander-in-chief on the Western Front, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. He repeatedly asked the Fuhrer for reinforcements. Hitler eventually sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to help him.

New curator

The elderly Gerd von Rundstedt and the energetic Erwin Rommel did not work well together right away. Rommel did not like that the Atlantic Wall was only half built, there were not enough large-caliber guns, and despondency reigned among the troops. In private conversations, Gerd von Rundstedt called the defenses a bluff. He believed that his units needed to be withdrawn from the coast and attack the Allied landing site in Normandy afterward. Erwin Rommel strongly disagreed with this. He intended to defeat the British and Americans right on the shore, where they could not bring up reinforcements.

To do this, it was necessary to concentrate tank and motorized divisions off the coast. Erwin Rommel stated: “The war will be won or lost on these sands. The first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive. The landing of troops in Normandy will go down in military history as one of the most unsuccessful thanks to the valiant German army.” In general, Adolf Hitler approved of Erwin Rommel's plan, but kept the tank divisions under his command.

The coastline is getting stronger

Even under these conditions, Erwin Rommel did a lot. Almost the entire coast of French Normandy was mined, and tens of thousands of metal and wooden slingshots were installed below the water level at low tide. It seemed that a landing in Normandy was impossible. The barrier structures were supposed to stop the landing ships so that the coastal artillery had time to shoot at enemy targets. The troops were engaged in combat training without interruption. There is not a single part of the coast left that Erwin Rommel has not visited.

Everything is ready for defense, you can rest

In April 1944, he would tell his adjutant: “Today I have only one enemy, and that enemy is time.” All these worries exhausted Erwin Rommel so much that at the beginning of June he went on a short vacation, as did many German military commanders on the west coast. Those who did not go on vacation, by a strange coincidence, found themselves on business trips far from the coast. The generals and officers who remained on the ground were calm and relaxed. The weather forecast until mid-June was the most unsuitable for landing. Therefore, the Allied landing in Normandy seemed something unreal and fantastic. Strong seas, squally winds and low clouds. No one had any idea that an unprecedented armada of ships had already left English ports.

Great battles. Landing in Normandy

The Allies called the Normandy landings Operation Overlord. Literally translated, this means “lord.” It became the largest landing operation in human history. The Allied landings in Normandy involved 5,000 warships and landing craft. The Allied commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, could not delay the landing because of the weather. Only three days - from June 5 to 7 - there was a late moon, and immediately after dawn there was low water. The condition for the transfer of paratroopers and troops on gliders was a dark sky and moonrise during landing. Low tide was necessary for the amphibious assault to see the coastal barriers. In stormy seas, thousands of paratroopers suffered from seasickness in the cramped holds of boats and barges. Several dozen ships could not withstand the assault and sank. But nothing could stop the operation. The Normandy landings begin. The troops were to land at five places on the coast.

Operation Overlord begins

At 0 hours 15 minutes on June 6, 1944, the ruler entered the soil of Europe. Paratroopers began the operation. Eighteen thousand paratroopers scattered across the lands of Normandy. However, not everyone is lucky. About half ended up in swamps and minefields, but the other half completed their tasks. Panic began in the German rear. Communication lines were destroyed, and, most importantly, undamaged strategically important bridges were captured. By this time, the marines were already fighting on the coast.

The landing of American troops in Normandy was on the sandy beaches of Omaha and Utah, the British and Canadians landed on the Sword, Juna and Gold sections. The warships fought a duel with the coastal artillery, trying, if not to suppress, then at least to distract it from the paratroopers. Thousands of Allied aircraft simultaneously bombed and stormed German positions. One English pilot recalled that the main task was not to collide with each other in the sky. The Allied air superiority was 72:1.

Memoirs of a German ace

On the morning and afternoon of June 6, the Luftwaffe did not offer any resistance to the coalition troops. Only two German pilots showed up in the landing area: the commander of the 26th Fighter Squadron, the famous ace Joseph Priller, and his wingman.

Joseph Priller (1915-1961) got tired of listening to confusing explanations of what was happening on the shore, and he himself flew out to investigate. Seeing thousands of ships at sea and thousands of aircraft in the air, he ironically exclaimed: “Today is truly a great day for Luftwaffe pilots.” Indeed, never before have the Reich air force been so powerless. Two planes flew low over the beach, firing cannons and machine guns, and disappeared into the clouds. That's all they could do. When mechanics examined the German ace’s plane, it turned out that there were more than two hundred bullet holes in it.

The Allied assault continues

The Nazi navy did little better. Three torpedo boats in a suicidal attack on the invasion fleet managed to sink one American destroyer. The landing of Allied troops in Normandy, namely the British and Canadians, did not encounter serious resistance in their areas. In addition, they managed to transport tanks and guns to the shore intact. The Americans, especially in the Omaha section, were much less fortunate. Here the German defense was held by the 352nd Division, which consisted of veterans who had been fired at on different fronts.

The Germans brought the paratroopers within four hundred meters and opened heavy fire. Almost all American boats approached the shore east of the designated places. They were carried away by a strong current, and thick smoke from the fires made it difficult to navigate. The sapper platoons were almost destroyed, so there was no one to make passages in the minefields. The panic began. Then several destroyers came close to the shore and began direct fire at the German positions. The 352nd Division did not remain in debt to the sailors; the ships were seriously damaged, but the paratroopers under their cover were able to break through the German defenses. Thanks to this, the Americans and British were able to advance several miles forward at all landing sites.

Trouble for the Fuhrer

A few hours later, when Adolf Hitler woke up, Field Marshals Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl cautiously reported to him that the Allied landings seemed to have begun. Since there were no exact data, the Fuhrer did not believe them. The tank divisions remained in their places. At this time, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was sitting at home and also didn’t really know anything. The German military commanders wasted time. The attacks of the following days and weeks achieved nothing. The Atlantic Wall collapsed. The Allies entered the operational space. Everything was decided in the first twenty-four hours. The Allied landings in Normandy took place.

Historic D-Day

A huge army crossed the English Channel and landed in France. The first day of the offensive was called D-Day. The task is to gain a foothold on the coast and drive the Nazis out of Normandy. But bad weather in the strait could lead to disaster. The English Channel is famous for its storms. In a matter of minutes, visibility could drop to 50 meters. Commander-in-Chief Dwight Eisenhower demanded minute-by-minute weather reports. All responsibility fell on the chief meteorologist and his team.

Allied military assistance in the fight against the Nazis

1944 The Second World War has been going on for four years. The Germans occupied all of Europe. The allied forces of Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States need a decisive blow. Intelligence reported that the Germans would soon begin to use guided missiles and atomic bombs. A vigorous offensive was supposed to interrupt the Nazi plans. The easiest way is to go through occupied territories, for example through France. The secret name of the operation is “Overlord”.

The landing of 150 thousand Allied soldiers in Normandy was planned in May 1944. They were supported by transport aircraft, bombers, fighters and a flotilla of 6 thousand ships. Dwight Eisenhower commanded the offensive. The landing date was kept in the strictest confidence. At the first stage, the 1944 Normandy landings were supposed to capture more than 70 kilometers of the French coast. The exact areas of the German assault were kept strictly secret. The Allies chose five beaches from east to west.

The Commander-in-Chief's Alarms

May 1, 1944 could potentially become the date for the start of Operation Overlord, but this day was abandoned due to the unpreparedness of the troops. For military-political reasons, the operation was postponed to the beginning of June.

In his memoirs, Dwight Eisenhower wrote: “If this operation, the American landing in Normandy, does not take place, then only I will be to blame.” At midnight on June 6, Operation Overlord begins. Commander-in-Chief Dwight Eisenhower personally visits the 101st Air Force just before departure. Everyone understood that up to 80% of the soldiers would not survive this assault.

"Overlord": chronicle of events

The airborne landings in Normandy were to take place first on the shores of France. However, everything went wrong. The pilots of the two divisions needed good visibility, they were not supposed to drop troops into the sea, but they saw nothing. The paratroopers disappeared into the clouds and landed several kilometers from the collection point. The bombers would then clear the way for the amphibious assault. But they did not fix their goals.

12 thousand bombs had to be dropped on Omaha Beach to destroy all obstacles. But when the bombers reached the shores of France, the pilots found themselves in a difficult situation. There were clouds all around. The bulk of the bombs fell ten kilometers south of the beach. Allied gliders proved ineffective.

At 3.30 am the flotilla headed for the shores of Normandy. After a few hours, the soldiers boarded small wooden boats to finally reach the beach. Huge waves rocked small boats like matchboxes in the cold waters of the English Channel. Only at dawn did the Allied landing in Normandy begin (see photo below).

Death awaited the soldiers on the shore. There were barriers and anti-tank hedgehogs all around, everything around was mined. The Allied fleet fired at German positions, but strong storm waves prevented accurate fire.

The first soldiers to land were faced with fierce fire from German machine guns and cannons. Hundreds of soldiers died. But they continued to fight. It seemed like a real miracle. Despite the most powerful German barriers and bad weather, the largest landing force in history began its offensive. Allied soldiers continued to land on the 70-kilometer beach of Normandy. During the day, the clouds over Normandy began to clear. The main obstacle for the Allies was the Atlantic Wall, a system of long-term fortifications and cliffs that protect the Normandy coast.

The soldiers began to climb the coastal cliffs. The Germans fired at them from above. By mid-day, the Allied troops began to outnumber the fascist Normandy garrison.

The old soldier remembers

American Army private Harold Gaumbert recalls 65 years later that towards midnight all the machine guns fell silent. All Nazis were killed. D-Day is over. The landing in Normandy, the date of which was June 6, 1944, took place. The Allies lost almost 10,000 soldiers, but they captured all the beaches. It looked as if the beach had been flooded with bright red paint and bodies had been scattered. Wounded soldiers lay dying under the starry sky, while thousands of others moved forward to continue the fight against the enemy.

Continuation of the assault

Operation Overlord has entered its next phase. The task is to liberate France. On the morning of June 7, a new obstacle appeared before the Allies. Impenetrable forests became another barrier to attack. The intertwined roots of the Norman forests were stronger than the English ones on which the soldiers trained. The troops had to bypass them. The Allies continued to pursue the retreating German troops. The Nazis fought desperately. They used these forests because they learned to hide in them.

D-Day was just a battle won, the war was just beginning for the Allies. The troops the Allies encountered on the beaches of Normandy were not the elite of the Nazi army. The days of the hardest fighting began.

The scattered divisions could be defeated by the Nazis at any moment. They had time to regroup and replenish their ranks. On June 8, 1944, the battle for Carentan began, this city opens the way to Cherbourg. It took more than four days to break the resistance of the German army.

On June 15, the forces of Utah and Omaha finally united. They took several cities and continued their offensive on the Cotentin Peninsula. The forces united and moved towards Cherbourg. For two weeks, German troops offered fierce resistance to the Allies. On June 27, 1944, Allied troops entered Cherbourg. Now their ships had their own port.

Last attack

At the end of the month, the next phase of the Allied offensive in Normandy began, Operation Cobra. This time the target was Cannes and Saint-Lo. The troops began to advance deeper into France. But the Allied offensive was opposed by serious resistance from the Nazis.

The French resistance movement, led by General Philippe Leclerc, helped the Allies enter Paris. Happy Parisians greeted the liberators with joy.

On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his own bunker. Seven days later, the German government signed a pact of unconditional surrender. The war in Europe was over.