Invasion Date
June 6, 1944
The Invasion Area
The Allied code names for the beaches along the 50-mile stretch of Normandy coast targeted for landing were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Omaha was the costliest beach in terms of Allied casualties.
Allied Forces
Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day, made up of major forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and 12 other Allied nations. Some 23,400 airborne troops jumped into Normandy from 822 aircraft and gliders. Over 34,000 Americans came ashore at Omaha alone on June 6.
Casualties
The Allies suffered over 10,300 total casualties (killed, wounded, or missing), of which approximately 2,400 were on Omaha Beach.
The Armada
Over 7,000 naval vessels; including 4,000 landing craft and 1,200 warships. About 12,000 aircraft supporting the invasion.
The Commanders
United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley
United Kingdom: Bernard Law Montgomery, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Arthur Tedder, Miles Dempsey, Bertram Ramsay
Germany: Erwin Rommel, Gerd von Rundstedt, Friedrich Dollmann
The Outcome
By the end of June, the Allies had landed more than 850,000 troops, 570,000 tons of supplies, and nearly 150,000 vehicles across the beaches of Normandy. There would be months of hard fighting in Europe before the Nazis finally surrendered in May 1945, but the D-Day invasion gave the Allies the success they needed to initiate the campaigns that would lead to the liberation of occupied Europe.
A note on numbers:
It is important to note that many of the numbers associated with D-Day assault forces and their casualties are approximations, and some sources vary widely. As Stephen Ambrose observed, “No exact figures are possible, either for the number of men landed or for casualties, for D-Day alone.” (Ambrose, 576n)
In the US Army’s official history, Cross-Channel Attack, Gordon Harrison noted that the various numbers of American soldiers killed are estimations, since not all the reports agree. Concerning the number of just those killed on Omaha Beach, not to mention those wounded, Harrison assessed: “Under the Army's present casualty reporting system, it is unlikely that accurate figures of D-Day losses by unit will ever be available. The V Corps History gives D-Day losses as 2,374, of which the 1st Division lost 1,190, the 29th Division 743, and corps troops 441. The after-action report of the 1st Division and the 29th Division history both scale down their own losses slightly.” (Harrison, 330)
Some sources for further exploration:
Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
Chandler, David G. and Collins, James L. Eds. The D-Day Encyclopedia. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, World War II: D-Day, The Invasion of Normandy.
https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/world-war-ii-d-day-invasion-normandy
Harrison, Gordon A. Cross-Channel Attack. Washington, D.C.: USGPO, 1993.
Symonds, Craig L. Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
U.S. Army Center of Military History, U.S. Army Campaigns in World War II: Normandy.
https://history.army.mil/brochures/normandy/nor-pam.htm
U.S. Department of Defense. D-Day: The Beaches. (2016)
https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/features/2016/0516_dday/docs/d-day-fact-sheet-the-beaches.pdf
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