At 4:30 a.m. on 6 June, the S formation arrived at the transfer area, and at 5:30 a.m., the Germans attacked the S formation with four torpedo boats from Le Havre and sank the Norwegian destroyer "Svennell".

At 7:30 a.m., the first echelon brigade began to go ashore, and because of the very effective preparation of aviation fire and naval artillery fire, and the fact that 32 of the 40 amphibious tanks in the first echelon had successfully landed, it provided effective fire support for the landing force, so that the landing force proceeded very smoothly and rapidly, and almost did not encounter much stubborn resistance.

At 10 o'clock the second echelon brigade went ashore, and at 13 o'clock the reserve brigade of the division went ashore. With the exception of the first minor casualties, everything went smoothly and unexpectedly, but overwhelmed the soldiers, who were expected to fight bloodily on the beach, and did not take advantage of the victory, but stopped to dig trenches and hold on. Only the 1st Special Service Brigade continued its advance, soon capturing Cauleyville, and at thirteen:30 reached the Orne River to join the British 6th Airborne Division. At 15:50 a.m., Major General Talbot, commander of the S Formation, went ashore to inspect and found that the personnel and vehicles on the beach were in disorder, and immediately ordered a beach control group to go ashore to rectify the order on the beach.

At 21 p.m., the 3rd Division had advanced 6.4 kilometers inland and seized the bridge over the Orne near Benoville to join up with the 6th Airborne Division. The 171 Free French soldiers assigned to the 3rd Division became the first French troops to liberate their homeland, and when they sat on tanks and greeted the residents on the roadside in pure French, the people who had suffered for several years under the German occupation were greatly surprised. The level of enthusiasm even affected the advance of the troops.

Looking at the overall situation on D-Day, the Allied forces were successful on all five beaches, with a total of 132715 landing personnel, 11,000 vehicles, 12,000 tons of supplies, and the casualties were much lower than expected, only 10,300. On the day of the landing, the navy lost a total of 4 destroyers and 1 frigate, gunboat, and minesweeper due to German coastal artillery and mines.

However, the situation is not rosy. The Allies did not complete the day's mission. The areas intended to be occupied were not occupied, in particular Caen and Bayeux, and of the five beaches, only the beaches of Gold and Juno were connected. There are quite a few gaps between the rest of the beachheads. In particular, there is a large gap of 12 kilometers between the US and British forces. You must know that only withstood the subsequent counterattack of the German army. And after connecting the five beachheads and expanding them into a unified landing field, we can talk about victory!

In the early hours of June 6, 1944. Samuel? Fuller, as a corporal in the 16th Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, took part in the landing battle at the Omaha beachhead in Normandy. For his bravery in battle, Fuller was awarded the Silver Star Medal. After the war, he devoted himself to the film career in Hollywood, USA, as a director and then as a playwright, and now lives in Paris, France.

"Before we landed, the sky began to break. Many American soldiers jumped into the sea. Some were swept away by the sea. We could not stay there, because we had an operational schedule: a group of landing craft arrived every 5 minutes.

At first, it seemed that everything was going well: we had fog cover, and we could move forward in a step-by-step manner. According to intelligence from the French Resistance, the Germans in front of us were no more than 150 young Germans equipped with bicycles. However, we did not expect that we were facing the German 352nd Division. No sooner had we landed on the beachhead than we came under heavy German artillery fire from the fortified positions.

My God! In front of us is such an elite army! Our plans were all disrupted. Our situation is precarious. We couldn't get past the beach, climb up the hills, and go as planned. We were held back by the Germans, and behind us was the sea. We advanced only 7 yards on the beach without cover of fire. At that time, the highest place in the vicinity was a reef. ”

"The only way we can get out of the beach is to blow up the scrap tank that is blocking our path. Finally, one of us managed to blow the tank away with explosives. The squad leader ordered me to go to our commander George? Colonel Taylor, tell him we've crossed the beach. So, I stood up and prepared to run.

It's hard to keep your balance when you run past soldiers who are wounded or lying in pools of blood. Since there was no place to stay, we had to run in the sea. The waves crashed against the corpses, one moment to the shore, the other to the sea. The limbs of the fallen are everywhere - a testicle here, a head there, an ass here, what a mess of flesh. Guts, guts, guts, that's what Omaha Beach is like. ”

"When I found Taylor, he was taking a cigar off his mouth. He handed me a cigar and said, 'Do you want to smoke?' Then he said, "I don't think there's any heroism, I believe in miracles."

He stood up and told us that very famous sentence. He said, 'There are two kinds of people on this beach, one is dead and the other is dying. To hell with it. Then he began to crawl and then he ran. He led us all through the beach under artillery fire. It's not bravery, it's a feeling of anger and a sense of purpose.

Whatever you say, don't say anything heroic, heroic, fearless, strong. We are American infantry, this is our business, and no one is a hero. ”

Kenneth? Buckman participated in the Normandy landings as a corporal in the 2nd Special Battalion of the 5th Army Corps of the U.S. Army. He and his comrades successfully launched an assault on a 30-meter-high cliff at Cape Hawke and captured it.

Their mission: to eliminate the 155-mm heavy artillery positions that controlled Utah Beach and Omaha Beach. To the surprise of the senior commanders of the D-Day campaign, there were also many artillery pieces planted near the coast, and the Rangers had to search for and blow them up.

As a result, the casualties were heavy: by the end of the landing, less than a third of the battalion's 255 men were still fighting, and the battalion was soon withdrawn. On 7 June, Buckman was captured by the Germans. After the war, he received his military insurance benefits and became an investment businessman. He now resides in Kensington, Maryland, USA.

"Whoever tells me that he is not afraid is either an idiot or a liar. You're going to be scared. You can't get close to this 100-foot cliff. In the absence of fire cover, the enemy shoots at you, and you are not afraid at all, this is impossible.

A poorly equipped landing craft had no fire cover, and a landing craft was a basic landing unit carrying more than 30 people, at most only two sailors. It doesn't have a keel, so whenever there's wind and waves, you'll feel it. (To be continued......)