The tide of the Second World War turned on the 6th of June, 1944, changing the course of history forever. On the shores of Normandy, the Allied forces landed in the largest amphibious landing to have ever been attempted.
One of the largest amphibious landings in history, it took place on the 6th of June, 1944. Since war broke out in 1939, German forces had dominated most of Western and Central Europe, in a seemingly unstoppable course of an aggressive expansion.
The initial landings were far from easy as the Allies stormed ashore on five invasion beaches. The Allies gave them the codenames: Gold, Juno, Sword, Omaha, and Utah.
Taking Omaha Beach was an essential part of the Allies’ strategy, as it would link the troops at Gold with those that landed at Utah, thus securing a continuous beachhead. The geography at Omaha Beach favored the defenders. A bluff rose sharply and overlooked the beach with few exits. American troops were tasked with taking this beach, backed up by Allied naval and air bombardments.
However, they were faced with difficulties before they even reached the shore.
High winds and navigational errors resulted in many of the landing crafts arriving in the wrong places along the beach. These scattered landings added to the chaos as the soldiers landing in the first wave were met with unexpectedly strong German defenses. Beach obstacles included barbed wire, mined stakes, and metal tripods slowed progress across the sand.
When trying to make it across the beach at low tide, the soldiers were under constant machine gun from heavily fortified positions. The beach was also under constant mortar and artillery fire.
Eventually, small groups of US soldiers managed to get up the bluff overlooking the beach and were able to silence the German gunners. This allowed more waves of troops to land and secure and expand the beachhead.
Tragically, roughly 2000 Americans died taking Omaha beach. Many of those are now buried at the American Cemetery at Colleville-Sur-Mer.
Once Omaha and the other beaches had been taken, the battle for the mainland began.
At the time of the landings, mainland Europe was largely under the control of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, following five years of continuous warfare. When the Allies stormed the beaches, in an event now commonly referred to as D-Day, a new and final chapter began in the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of troops fought on both sides, but the invading forces were successful, and France was liberated shortly afterward.
The battle for Normandy marked the start of the Allies’ steady push eastwards towards Berlin. Within a year, Hitler would be dead and the Axis powers in ruin.
To drive the Nazis out of France, a massive number of Allied troops and armor landed in Normandy. Operation Overlord would be remembered as the start of France’s liberation. With the advancing Soviets coming from the east it was the beginning of the end for Nazi regime.
During the battle for the French coastline alone, more than 400,000 troops were killed, wounded or reported missing. Although an Allied victory in the end, the price of their success proved to be a heavy one; to beat back the Germans who defended the beaches, they lost more than 200,000 men.
Even then, though the shore had been secured, the death toll continued to rise after the events of D-Day. Germany’s military wasn’t giving up without a fight, and the struggled raged on inland. The Allies were soon engaging in house-to-house combat to capture numerous fortified towns, paying in blood for every mile they gained.
In this article, we are going to take a closer look at the German side of D-Day. Not many pictures were taken by the Germans on June 6th, so we had to use images from the period before and after the landings. It will give a good idea of the strength of the enemy that the Allies faced in their struggle to retake Normandy and then the rest of Western Europe from Nazi German occupation.
The Atlantic Wall
Aerial view of German beach defenses. Normandy, summer, 1944.Beach fortifications with barbed wire and tank traps. Northern France, 1944. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0Rommel observes the fall of shot at Riva-Bella, just north of Caen in the area that would become Sword Beach in Normandy. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0Czech hedgehogs on the beach near Calais, Northern France. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0Such anti-tank obstacles were all over shores in France and Belgium. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0A German Soldier on a watch. A common sight on beaches of the Atlantic Wall, 1944. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0One of the many propaganda photographs of Rommel on inspection tours of the Atlantic wall. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0German soldiers in northern France, 1944. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0
Bunkers and Radars
German MG42 machine gun bunker at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France – 1944.The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 A soldier poses next to one of the German coastal guns captured by the Canadians at Cap Gris Nez, 1 October 1944.Part of the Atlantic Wall. Battery gun during setup, June 1943, Northern France. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0A part of the Atlantic Wall in Northern France, 1944. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0A German MG34 medium machine gun emplacement.Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0Allied Soldiers Doing the Laundry in a Captured German Pillbox.Damaged German radar near the beach in Normandy.
Infantry Inland
Fearsome Fallschirmjager, considered elite soldiers.Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0Heavy gunner with MG42, Caen, France, 1944.Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0German soldiers on the lookout in Normandy, 1944.Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.021 June 1944. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0During their first week of action in Normandy, these three soldiers of the Hitlerjugend Division earned the Iron Cross. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0Soldier of Wehrmacht with Karabiner 98k. 21 June 1944.Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0German infantrymen scan the skies for Allied aircraft in Normandy, 1944. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0An abandoned Waco CG-4 glider is examined by German troops.Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0Rommel inspecting 21st Panzer Division in May, 1944.Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0German Fallschirmjager Trüppen in Normandy, the German Parachute forces fighting in an infantry role were very effective in the Normandy campaign. These machine guns would cause most of the casualties on D-Day and were one of the most feared weapons on the battlefields of World War Two. June 1944. Bundesarchiv – CC-BY SA 3.0
Sounds of the destroyers of men -the murderous German MG34 and MG42 machine guns.