England, June 4th, 1944. The men of the armies march toward
the southern ports. Equipment rolled down the roads. Men and machines took their
places in the waiting ships. The men were British, American, Canadian.
Some of them veterans of Africa,
Sicily, and Italy. Some new to battle. They lay in the harbors of the south coast
a day longer than planned. The invasion had been scheduled
for June 5th, but bad weather in the channel
had caused a postponement. From the air, the German coastal defenses
were hit by every type of Allied aircraft. As a climax to the terrible punishment of
the German power dealt by our air forces, in the months leading up to D-Day,
pillboxes, minefields, coastal guns,
bridges, ammunition dumps, radar stations,
tank depots, road convoys, railroad trains going to and coming from Normandy
were pounded without pause. The weather was still bad on the 6th. The
sea promising to be choppy and dangerous, but the order was given and the ships
put out of the ports toward France. On board, the men were quiet,
tense, grimly elated. The long years of training and waiting
were behind them. Just over the horizon was the beginning
of the final battle against the Germans.
They could look around them and see
the overwhelming strength that had poured from the Allied docks,
factories, and arsenals. General Eisenhower's, Order of the Day
was distributed to every man on board the invading armada: "Soldiers, sailors, and airmen
of the Allied Expeditionary Force,
you are about to embark upon the great
crusade toward which we have striven these many months. In company with our
brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about
the destruction of the German war machine. The elimination of Nazi tyranny
over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves
in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped,
and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944.
Much has happened since the Nazi
triumphs of 1940 and '41. The united nations have inflicted
upon the Germans great defeats in open battle,
man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced
their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war
on the ground. I have full confidence in your courage,
devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than
full victory." A screen of naval vessels
from battleships to PT boats guarded the convoy across the Channel. Back in Britain, paratroopers
marched out to their planes and embarked for the trip to Normandy. The planes took off
while the invading convoys were still far from the French coast. As the ships moved toward the opposite
shore, the men on them could see a procession of aircraft preceding them
in the early light. Offshore, the combined fleets swung into
battle stations and marched up and down the coast, softening the surviving German
installations with a murderous barrage. Our losses were not as heavy as expected. While this was going on, other airborne
troops in gliders and towplanes prepared to take off from Britain. One by one, the towplanes lifted the
heavily laden gliders into the sky. Now the shock troops of the invasion
swung down the nets to the landing craft. Bombers continued their assault
on the beach. In a duel with the shore battery,
at point-blank range of a mile, US destroyer Corry was sunk. A moment later, the battery that had
hit it was itself put out of action by a salvo by the destroyer Fitch. Overhead the glider army headed
toward its objective as the boats went in. From the air, ships could be seen
stretching for miles in the choppy water along the coast. Back and forth across the Channel,
the air traffic continued without halt. Rocket ships added their weight
to the destruction of the beach defenses. The landing craft made their drive
toward shore through lanes cleared during the night by minesweepers. Until the last possible moment, our
planes hit at the enemy on the shoreline. Landing craft of all descriptions
negotiated the last dangerous stretch of water. The air forces did not
neglect targets inland. Everything that could hinder our advance
was subject to attack from the sky. The moment when Allied soldiers
were going to put foot on French soil was close at hand. To make the foot soldiers' job easier,
our planes struck at roads and transport leading up toward the threatened coast. From the ships, field artillery pieces
joined battle while waiting to disembark. The men in the landing craft
tensed for the impact of the moment when they hit the beach. Inland, our fighters made sure that
the Luftwaffe stayed on the ground. A few hundred feet ahead lay France. Seagoing tanks were brought up
quickly to meet German armor. More men stepped onto the continent,
into the fire of enemy guns that had survived the
preliminary bombardment. Two of the architects of the operation
kept a watchful eye on proceedings. And a well-known soldier boarded
a naval vessel early in the affair. The Luftwaffe was not entirely absent. Heavy supplies were landed quickly
on the beaches. And men kept pouring in. The unloading went on swiftly. The air forces, flying low, continued
to find targets on the roads and railway lines. On fields inland, the gliders had landed
and discharged their cargo. More and more men were put ashore.
More material. German fire brought down Allied soldiers,
but others kept on. Craft sank in the rough sea, and many
rescues were effected. Fires dotted the battlefield, but the work
of securing the beach head went on. In from the coast, the infantry pushed
ahead, forcing the enemy back. Tanks rolled up to support the advance. Civilians came out from their shelters
to greet the liberating army. Savage street fighting took place
at many points. This was part of the West Wall and these
were some of its defenders. The troops worked their way in, collecting
prisoners on the roadside. The war was over for these Germans. And things obviously had begun
well for this soldier. German troops seem to come
in all qualities. They were herded back to the beach
to await transport to Britain. Our own wounded were collected early
and treated, and prepared for transfer to hospitals in Britain. Back across the Channel, survivors picked
from wrecked craft in the sea were checked and cared for. The first dead to return were a symbol
of the price we paid to enter Europe. German officers seemed downcast
and sullen. The prisoners were sent to their new homes
to wait for the end of the war. On the French side of the Channel,
the work of consolidating the beach went on. And reinforcements arrived
in a constant stream. Engineers worked on clearing the beaches. Heavy supplies came off
the ships in trucks. And tanks in ever-increasing numbers
came ashore and started work. Foot soldiers moved in from
the beaches after the enemy. Toward Berlin.
