Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - D-Day

Starting point is 00:00:00 On June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious landing in world history took place on the shores of Normandy, France. The Allied forces called it D-Day. The landing marked the commencement of Operation Overlord, a strategic move that heralded the long-awaited opening of the Second Front of the European War. D-Day was the start of the most meticulously planned event in history and was one of the greatest logistical operations of all time. And it was also the day that saw some of the war's most horrific and heroic actions. Learn more about D-Day and the start of the liberation of Western Europe on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

Starting point is 00:01:02 It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us. every week on the ThuLine podcast from NPR. Despite being a single day, the events of June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, are actually an enormous topic. It was just the tip of the spear of what was a much larger operation known as Operation Overlord. Many people think that Operation Overlord was the landing on D-Day. Operation Overlord was the codename for the overarching operation for the entire invasion of Europe. The actual landings and events on D-Day were under the codename Operation Neptune.

Starting point is 00:01:47 Hence, Operation Neptune and D-Day were just one part of the Greater Operation Overlord. In previous episodes, I touched on several topics surrounding the Normandy invasions, including Operation Fortitude, the great deception to fool the Germans into thinking that the evasion would take place further north. The Red Ball Express that carried supplies to troops on the front lines, and the raid on Dieppe, which was sort of a trial run of. of D-Day. For this episode, I want to zoom in and focus on the events of D-Day itself and leave some of the bigger-pitcher discussions of the invasion and planning for another episode.

Starting point is 00:02:23 Preparations for D-Day had gone on for over a year. As the time approached, the big question was exactly what day should the landings take place. This was not something you could just mark on the calendar as a successful landing would be highly dependent on the weather. Once the landing began, it couldn't be stopped. There were too many moving parts just to put it on pause. And furthermore, any stop in fighting would allow the Germans a chance to regroup. Advanced planning initially scheduled D-Day for May 1st, but changes in the number of divisions forced the landing to be postponed until June. As the fleet began to assemble in the first week of June, June 5th was set as the invasion date. They wanted a date and time that had a full moon to allow pilots to see targets in the dark, as well as

Starting point is 00:03:09 a time when low tides would be just before sunrise. On June 4th, the senior meteorologist of the Allies, Group Captain James Stagg of the Royal Air Force, said that conditions would be poor on June 5th, but there would be a break in the weather on June 6th, which would give the Allies enough time for the landings. It was arguably the most important weather forecast in history. The battle plan for D-Day was relatively straightforward, if extremely difficult. The Germans had been preparing for an invasion for several years. They built a series of fortifications known as the Atlantic Wall. Normally, an entrenched defense would have an advantage over an offense,

Starting point is 00:03:51 especially in an amphibious landing. However, the Germans had the disadvantage of not knowing where the Allies would land. They had to defend the entire coast of France, spreading their forces thin. The first phase of the operation began in the wee hours of the morning just after midnight. members of the American 101st Airborne and the British 6th Airborne were dropped behind enemy lines. Their objective on D-Day was to take key positions behind the beaches and hopefully meet up with the landing forces later that day. Within the hour, British gliders carrying reinforcements and supplies also landed in the fields in the surrounding area. Between 1 and 2 a.m., paratroopers of the British 82nd Airborne and more men from the American 101 were dropped into their landing zones.

Starting point is 00:04:36 This was the largest airdrop in military history at that time. Approximately 20,000 paratroopers were dropped on D-Day. However, everything didn't go perfectly. Many paratroopers missed their target and had to form ad hoc groups with other paratroopers until they could find their units. Already, at this early hour, skirmishes were starting to take place with the Germans. Paratroopers were attempting to seize bridges. Some Germans were sending radio notifications of a massive fleet off the coast and of

Starting point is 00:05:06 paratrooper activity all over Normandy. Admiral Carl Hoffman, outside of Paris, sent notification that he believed that the expected Allied invasion was now underway. At 150 a.m., 1,198 bombers of the U.S. 8th Army Air Force began taking off from England. At about 2.30 a.m., jamming units in England began to broadcast to interfere with German radio communications. At 250 a.m., Marshall von Rundstadt, located in Berlin, responded to the German 7th Army in Normandy, informing them that he did not believe that this was the main invasion. Hitler was adamant that the main Allied invasion would take place in Calais, much closer to the English mainland.

Starting point is 00:05:49 Around 3 a.m., infantry off the coast of Normandy began embarking into their landing vessels. Most of the 5,33 Allied ships began dropping their anchors to prepare for the upcoming landings. bombers began attacking their targets near the French city of Khan, as well as other inland targets. Around 4 a.m., paratroopers liberated the town of St. Maryglese, the first town in France to be liberated from German occupation. As all of this activity was taking place behind enemy lines, a little after 5 a.m., the main invasion group was starting to get ready. At 5.10 a.m., the first naval guns started bombarding German positions along the shore. The bombardment of coastal defenses was designed to soften and hopefully eliminate many of the obstacles that the landing forces would encounter.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Over the next hour, more ships began opening fire on their respective landing beaches that they would be supporting. Many of the bombers flying over the area also began dropping their bombs as the sun was starting to rise and targets became visible. As the bombings and bombardments were happening, men in the landing ships were preparing to land on the beaches that were currently being bombed. 5.58 a.m. was sunrise, although no one could see the sun because of heavy cloud cover. Shortly after 6 a.m., the first wave of landing ships began making their way to the beaches. Five beaches were selected for landing. The Americans would land at the two westernmost beaches, which were given the code names Utah and Omaha. British and Canadian forces would be landing at three beaches to the east. The British landed at gold and sword, and the Canadians landed between

Starting point is 00:07:26 them at Juno. The men in the first wave of landings had one of the most unenviable jobs of the entire war. They would be sitting ducks as they exited their landing crafts and worked their way across open beaches with no defenses, attempting to take heavily fortified German cement bunkers. The bombardment stopped at exactly 627. This phase of the operation had to be scheduled with precision. The last thing the Allies wanted was for their soldiers to be hit with friendly fire, as they attempted to make their landing.

Starting point is 00:07:58 The first landings took place just minutes after the bombardment ended. Each beach presented a unique challenge. Some were relatively flat and others had sea cliffs that had to be scaled. The first men could hit the beach at the time dubbed H-hour. They faced landmines, barbed wire, anti-tank barriers, and a host of other natural and man-made obstacles. Omaha Beach saw the first soldiers exit their landing craft at about six 29, and Utah Beach had landings a few minutes later. Landings on Sword, Gold, and Juno

Starting point is 00:08:32 beaches began at approximately 7.25 a.m. The differences in the landing times was due to the tides. For the next several hours, there were continued landings on all of the beaches, and success was very uneven. By 9 a.m., the Canadians reported success on Juneau Beach. However, Omaha Beach didn't begin to report success until about 11 a.m. By noon, most of the beaches, were in the Allies control, say, for Omaha Beach, which was the most stubborn and heavily defended. Fighting continued around the beaches for most of the day, but the beaches were mostly secure by the early afternoon. By 3 p.m., British and Canadian forces were able to link up, and by 5 p.m., British airborne forces had linked with their ground forces on Sword Beach. By 6.30, Utah Beach was

Starting point is 00:09:19 considered secure, as was Omaha Beach, finally, by 8 p.m. Despite the heavy German fortifications. The Germans simply didn't have the reinforcements or ammunition to continue to hold off the onslaught. The first wave that landed in the morning was just that, the first wave. As the first wave and subsequent waves were able to take out the German defenses and establish a beachhead, it allowed more and more troops to land unmolested. Around 9 p.m., Operation Elmira began, with the landing of 176 gliders, bringing more supplies and more important. importantly, artillery. Unlike the gliders, which landed earlier in the morning, these were all able to land in a secured area. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel,

Starting point is 00:10:06 the commander responsible for the Atlantic Wall, arrived in Normandy at 9.30 p.m. after driving 800 kilometers non-stop to get there. At 11 p.m., a group of Germans attempted a counterattack at Pont du Hocque near Omaha Beach, and the counterattack was still ongoing by the end of the day. Not all the objectives the Allies set out to achieve were accomplished on D-Day, but the landings in the first day of the invasion were largely successful. By the end of June 6, 1944, 156,000 Allied soldiers had been transported to France by Sea and Air, approximately 73,000 Americans, 61,700 British, and 21,400 Canadians. In addition to the Allied forces, French resists, and French resists.

Starting point is 00:10:53 resistance fighters also began a campaign of sabotage blowing up railway lines and German communication channels. The success of D-Day came at a tremendous cost. There was an estimated 10,000 allied casualties, including 3,400 killed or missing. At least half a dozen towns and villages were liberated on D-Day alone. The amount of territory captured on the first day was relatively minor, but it was enough to begin the real work of bringing over the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in England. Artificial harbors were created, as were landing strips, all to facilitate the round-the-clock transfer of personnel, equipment, vehicle, supplies, and fuel. In just the first week after D-Day, 326,000 troops, 50,000 vehicles, and over 100,000 tons of equipment such as ammunition and food,

Starting point is 00:11:43 had been brought to France. In less than a year after D-Day, the war in Europe would be over, and Hitler would be dead. The events that took place on June. June 6, 1944, can still be felt along the shores of Normandy today. If you ever have a chance to visit Normandy, and I highly recommend it, there are a plethora of museums in the area that commemorate the events of D-Day and the Liberation of Europe. There are probably more than two dozen D-Day and D-Day-related museums in Normandy, some of which are public and some are private. The largest museum is the Memorial de Kahn in the city of Kahn.

Starting point is 00:12:19 There is also the Airborne Museum in Saint-Marie-Glis, the Overlord Museum in Colle v. de Samir and museums near all of the landing beaches. An entire liberation route was created that follows the Allies route from Southern England to Normandy to the Netherlands, ending in Berlin. There's also, of course, the American Normandy Cemetery, outside of Colle Avey de Semer, which is the resting place for 9,388 Americans who died in the liberation of Europe. I'll close by noting that before Dede began, despite all of the planning and preparation that went into it, no one was sure if it would actually work.

Starting point is 00:12:58 In fact, if Allied forces had become stranded in France, the entire operation could have been a disaster, setting back the Allied cause by months or possibly even years. In the event of such a disaster, the Supreme Allied commander, Dwight David Eisenhower, had a letter written before the invasion for just such an eventuality. It read, quote, Our landings in the Cherbourg Harve area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops.

Starting point is 00:13:27 My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine and mine alone. End quote. Thankfully, it was a letter that he never had to send. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon,

Starting point is 00:14:01 including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - D-Day

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