Why Was Normandy Selected For D-Day?

[Music] this is the BBC home service and here is a special bulletin read by Simon Clarke d-day has come early this morning the Allies began the assault on the northwestern face of Hitler's European fortress the first official news came just after half-past nine when supreme headquarters of the Allied expeditionary force issued communicate number one this said under the command of General Eisenhower allied naval forces supported by strong air forces began landing allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France the Allied commander in chief General Eisenhower has issued an order of the day addressed to each individual of the Allied expeditionary force in it he said 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 the tide has turned the free men of the world are marching together to victory On June 6th 1944 the world awoke to earth shattering news Allied forces led by Britain and America had begun the invasion of Hitler's Europe by the end of this day 156,000 Allied troops were on French ground supported by 6939 vessels with over 14,000 674 sorties by aircraft throughout the day within five days 54,000 186 vehicles and 104,000 428 tons of supplies were transported on land these factories came together to form perhaps the most audacious invasion in the history of humankind two years of research development and planning culminated in a day that we associate with chaos and violence but little consideration is ever made for the carefully choreographed procedure that made this day in the end an iconic day of success this is the mystics of d-day two years prior to d-day on the 19th of August 1942 allied Canadian forces attempted to land here in Dieppe some 135 kilometers away from the beaches of Normandy and suffered a humiliating defeat the Allies expecting the element of surprise to be enough to win the battle made critical strategic mistakes lack of communication inadequate surveying of the beaches gradient and geology poor planning of routes inland along with little knowledge of German fortifications led to a complete rout of the four thousand nine hundred and sixty-three men that landed on the beaches of Dieppe nine hundred and sixteen Canadian soldiers were killed and around two thousand four hundred and fifty were wounded with many of those also being taken as prisoners of war lack of communication between the commanders at sea and the men on the beach led to additional landing craft have been sent in when there was no space to land the 29 tanks that managed to land were barely able to move in the loose shingle beaches often digging trenches with their tracks and becoming stuck only 15 of these tanks made it into the town where their guns were too weak to take on the strong German fortifications with little to no air support or naval artillery they were doomed to failure but this failure would form the textbook of what not to do in an amphibious assault and lay the groundwork for d-day in this episode of the logistics of d-day we are going to explore the science and logic in choosing the beaches of Normandy as their landing location the Allies controlled the seas giving them immense power in deciding where to begin their attack d-days goal was to create a new western front to ease pressure on the Soviets fighting a bitter war on the Eastern Front and spread the Axis powers even thinner as the Americans pushed up from the south in Italy to do this the Allies needed to open a new Atlantic front coastline stretching from Norway to the South of France were considered and juggling the myriad of factors into choosing a location was never going to be an easy task in an ideal world the allies would have chosen beaches closest to Great Britain like those of Calais and Dunkirk this would satisfy some of the primary requirements for the invasion the short sea crossing would ease the shipment of supplies and personnel across the English Channel and it was within range of even the shortest range of Allied fighters like the Spitfire a vital requirement even though the Luftwaffe was well defeated by DZ air support would play a pivotal role in d-day operations from landing power troopers attacking coastal fortifications disrupting reinforcements patrolling shipping lanes towing gliders and distributing supplies the range of Allied fighters was a major logistical concern and while Calais and Dunkirk were the best locations in terms of distance the Germans were all too aware of this and had erected strong fortifications and focused the brunt of their forces in these areas these areas were avoided for this reason but the defense's stretched far beyond just Calais a vast line of Defense's had been hurriedly built stretching from the Spanish border all the way to the north of Norway consuming 17 million cubic metres of concrete and 1.2 million tons of steel enough concrete and steel to construct over 150 of these gigantic flak towers that the Nazis constructed to protect their major cities this material was used to create thousands of smaller bunkers and trenches up and down the coast with the greatest concentrations been found near vital ports like share Berg Antwerp and Brest because this was the next requirement to ensure success any invasion would be short-lived without a steady supply of equipment and Men the Allies had early contingency plans with massive temporary harbors that were erected directly onto the chosen beaches but as we will learn in future episodes these would not satisfy the needs share Berg was identified as a key port of interest primarily due to its location on the Cotentin Peninsula a peninsula which could be cut off from reinforcements and captured early here Normandy was the clear choice both within Fighter range and in close proximity to shurberg Normandy was quickly becoming the prime contender for Operation Overlord but the job was nowhere near finished and Normandy could have been dropped for alternatives Normandy needed to have suitable geology and terrain and to determine this was going to require an immense information-gathering effort and the Allies used every tool in their arsenal to ensure their strategy would lead to success this sometimes was as simple as requesting holiday photos and postcards from pre-war trips from citizens but this information clearly wasn't enough to plan an invasion and two years before d-day a massive aerial reconnaissance campaign began to survey the Atlantic coast probing for weak points and gathering strategic information the RAF 140 squadron were tasked with high-flying photo reconnaissance missions equipped with Spitfires modified with F 52 cameras fitted just below and behind the wings they were to photograph all coastal defences from Calais to share Berg photographing potential locations for temporary airfields surveying transportation links in France identifying German fortifications and assessing the gradients of each potential Beach on that stretch of coast the Allies were determined not to make the same mistakes as Dieppe and this would require the beaches geology to be assessed to ensure their tanks and equipment could be transported inland for the first wave of attacks their work was cut out for them avoiding German anti-aircraft fire and fighters was just one challenge getting the incredibly specific conditions needed to determine the gradient of the beaches was another in order to determine the gradient of the beaches several photos had to be taken one with an average low tide one with an average high tide and four pictures at various points between the two extremes this would give several elevation data points to inform us of the beaches gradient if this wasn't hard enough winds could not be greater than 37 km/h to avoid surge tides interfering with results they needed to take the photos during sunset or so rise in order to get decent contrast between the water and the beach and they needed a clear day with no clouds obscuring the view these photos were combined with title information to create detailed charts of beach gradients and lence along with high and low water marks and thankfully Normandy's beaches were found to have a favorable gradient Normandy had a lot going first it was relatively poorly defended was within range of Allied fighters had a short sea crossing which would allow for a quick turnaround of supply ships the English Channel had only two relatively narrow entry points which would be more easily defended from u-boats and the beaches would be shielded from the worst of strong Atlantic winds by the Cotentin Peninsula Normandy was quickly becoming the primary contender for the invasion now it was time for fine detail planning Beach gradient info was not enough the chosen beaches needed to be capable of bearing the load of heavy tanks and vehicles that would eventually land there this could not be done with planes this needed men on the ground about six months prior to d-day on a moonless New Year's Eve major Logan Scott Bowden and Sergeant Bruce Ogden Smith of the Royal Engineers boarded a boat that would bring them within a quarter mile of Gold Beach one of the final British landing sites from there they swam ashore where they quickly took samples of the beach using a metal augur and swam back through heavy surf to return the samples for analysis the Allies knew ahead of time that these beaches would be suitable characterized by medium grain sand to fine-grained sand or mud would result in the heavy equipment sinking and to course a grain made it difficult to maneuver medium was just right these samples however ultimately let the British know that provisions would need to be taken to overcome the softer than expected scent many of the tanks on d-day came with modifications to allow them to deal with the terrain they would encounter many Churchill tanks were fitted with these carpet lane spools that would lay over soft sand to increase the surface area over which the pressure was being exerted they could also be used to lay over barbed wire defenses others were fitted with simple rolls of wood which could be dropped into anti-tank trenches to allow traversal much more cost-effective than these early tests wasting two tanks to fill a ditch this wasn't the only geology the Allies needed to consider suitable locations for temporary runways needed to be identified this would require long stretches of flat firm ground with excellent drainage very close to the original landing sites the Calvados plateau located here consisted of limestone covered in sand deposited by the last ice age over a thousands of years acidic rainwater created thousands of underground drainage holes sinkholes and caves allowing any rainwater to drain quickly this area was perfect and several airstrip sprang up within days of the first landings like some Pierre Duma which began construction on d-day plus one and finished construction on d-day plus to the 8th of June it witnessed a constant stream of aircraft coming in for fuel ammunition and repairs while also serving as an evacuation zone for the injured in the month that followed d-day the front line progressed only 19 kilometers from this point and it was a vital supply point for the advancing army this was just one of many advanced landing grounds that were created over the course of the campaign each serving as a valuable forward base to allow the Allies to gain air superiority in the immediate vicinity patrolling roads and attacking German strongholds to allow the progress of the frontline these supply line logistics will be fleshed out more in a future episode ultimately Normandy was chosen because it had the right mix of geology had the port of shurberg close enough to capture but also had suitable alternative supply options until those days came the English Channel made it easier to defend against German u-boat ports in Norway Germany and along the west coast of France this may have been heavily defended too but as we will see in the next episode of the logistics of d-day which is available exclusively on nebula a lies deception tactics would play a vital role in making the Germans doubt Normandy as the chosen location the next three episodes of this series is now available for you to watch Anna episode 2 deals with deception tactics episode 3 with the methods the Allies used to blow a hole in the wall of fortress Europe and episode 4 explores the landing craft that landed hundreds of thousands of men vehicles and supplies directly onto the beaches there are many more episodes to come over the next couple of months and the best way to watch them is by signing up to curiosity stream which is now only $11.99 for the entire year for that $11.99 you will get access to all the fantastic award-winning documentaries on curiosity stream and get access to nebula bundled with it for free uh nebula you will get access to this series along with many more original series from Wendover productions tears ooh and City Beautiful my new favorite is Tom Scott's fantastic new game show money nebula started just a few months ago and is now transformed into a legitimate streaming platform that has allowed creators like me to experiment more freely with our videos without worries of punishment from the YouTube algorithm if that sounds like something you want to support head on over to curiosity stream comm Ford slash real engineering to get your year-long access for just 1199 you

Channel: Real Engineering

Views: 1,537,304

Rating: 4.8849511 out of 5

Keywords: engineering, science, technology, education, history, real, d-day, ww2, normandy

Id: sYXYG_F1EK0

Length: 14min 53sec (893 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/OpanaPointer]

https://history.army.mil/html/books/007/7-4-1/CMH_Pub_7-4-1.pdf

[u/andersostling56]

Thank you for the link!

[u/[deleted]]

These reports are great. Long reads but well worth it if you have the interest. The Okinawa report is one of my favorites.