The landing craft were forced to unload personnel, vehicles and supplies between the obstacles flooded by the tide, and fortunately the losses were not large at the time of landing, but many of the landing craft were sunk by mines laid in the obstacles when they returned home after unloading, and 20 of the 24 landing craft transporting a battalion were sunk, a loss rate of 83 per cent. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Due to the bad weather when aviation fire and naval artillery fire were prepared, there was little damage to the German fortifications, so when the Canadian infantry came ashore, it was suppressed by the German army for a time.

Fortunately, the allied naval guns were very timely and accurate, and with the active cooperation of the amphibious tanks, they finally broke through the German defense line and made progress.

It was only the landing craft that transported the sappers that arrived very late, and the work of removing underwater obstacles did not begin until after the climax, which made the beach have few roads, resulting in a large number of vehicles crowding on the beach, and later opened 12 roads with the support of special tanks, which quickly dredged the beach and ensured the landing and advance of the follow-up troops.

The unit with the greatest casualties at Juno Beach was the 48th Landing Strike Group of the British Marine Corps, whose mission was to open up contact with the British forces on Sword Beach on the east side.

Because the landing craft they were riding was wooden-hulled, it was seriously damaged when it hit an obstacle, so the team members had to jump off the landing craft in the deep water area and swim ashore, with the result that many team members drowned because the equipment they were carrying was too heavy, and finally landed ashore and was under German machine-gun fire, suffering heavy casualties, and finally gained a foothold on the east side of the beach with the support of tanks.

By evening, the vanguard of the Canadian army had advanced 11 kilometers inland, and some of the armored units had even reached the Bayeux-Gangcheng road, but they had retreated without infantry cover.

In the evening of the same day, the Canadian army had advanced to a distance of 5 kilometers from Gangcheng and joined the British army's Golden Beach, so that the two landing sites were two into one, forming a large landing field of 19 kilometers in front and 10 kilometers in depth. Throughout the day, the Canadian army landed about 20,000 people from Juno Beach, with about 6,000 casualties.

Sword Beach is the easternmost of the five landing beaches of the coalition forces, located on both sides of the mouth of the Orne River and the Caen Canal, and due to the continuous reefs on the seabed, the area available for landing is very narrow, so the landing front is only 4.8 kilometers, and only one brigade can be deployed.

The Germans built concrete forts in this area, equipped with coastal artillery units including 406mm heavy guns, and the defense force was relatively strong.

Due to the narrowness of the landing front, the first echelon of the 3rd Infantry Division of the 1st British Army landed here was only one brigade. Transporting the 3rd Division was the S-formation under the command of British Rear Admiral Talbot.

In order to ensure that the landing formation would not deviate from its navigation, the British army specially sent the X-23 pocket submarine to lurk here for two days and two nights to surface to guide the course during the landing.

At 4:30 a.m. on 25 August, the S formation arrived at the transfer area, and at 5:30 a.m., the Germans launched four torpedo boats from Le Havre to attack the S formation, sinking 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 of the roadside in pure French.

The news of the French landing spread immediately, but the French did not receive a very warm welcome along the way, and the French were not too interested in these French troops who cooperated with the British.

In fact, this was all the result of Churchill's order to exterminate the French fleet, and of course Rommel's liberal national policy revitalized the French economy. In France, under German occupation, the common people had a good life.

Judging from the overall situation on D-Day, the coalition forces were successful on the five beaches, with a total of 132715 landing personnel, 11,000 vehicles, and 12,000 tons of supplies, but the casualties of the Anglo-American coalition were not small, and the Anglo-American alliance suffered more than 50,000 casualties in the landing on Japan.

On the day of the landing, the navy lost a total of 4 destroyers, 3 frigates, gunboats, and minesweepers due to German coastal artillery and mines, and the losses of the navy were not small.

However, the situation was not optimistic, and the coalition forces did not complete their tasks for the day and did not occupy the areas they were intended to occupy, especially Caen and Bayeuux.

Moreover, among the five beachheads, only Golden Beach and Juno Beach are connected, and there is a considerable gap between the rest of the beachheads, especially a large gap of 12 kilometers between the US and British forces.

You must know that victory can only be achieved after withstanding the subsequent counterattack of the Germans and connecting the five beachheads into one piece and expanding them into a unified landing field!

But will the Germans fight back? After all, Rommel wanted to lead the Anglo-American forces into the encirclement to annihilate them, and now landing these more than 100,000 people is not a dish at all! But if the Anglo-American coalition does not fight back, it will be suspicious, so Rommel will definitely order a counterattack, but the strength of this counterattack will not be too strong.

……

Regarding the landing of the Anglo-American coalition troops, according to the recollections of eyewitnesses:

In the early hours of August 25, 1941, 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.

Fuller was awarded the Silver Star for his bravery, and after the war, he devoted himself to the film career in Hollywood, first as a director and then as a playwright, and now lives in Paris, France.

"Before we landed, the sky began to break and many American soldiers jumped into the water, some were swept away by the water, and we couldn't stay there because we had a combat schedule and a group of landing craft arrived every five 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.

…… (To be continued.) )