June 6
Nine thousand white crosses and Stars of David overlooking Omaha Beach. Each cross, each star represents a fallen American in uniform June 6, 1944, when Allied forces landed in Normandy.
Tuesday, June 6, 1944. (Week 23). Operation "Overlord" is launched. The Allies land in Normandy. This is D-Day, the day of disembarkation. In the early hours, three airborne divisions, the 82nd and 6th 10lème U.S. and UK are parachuted behind the beaches to destroy enemies and forces to cover the deployment of the assault troops arrived by sea 6:30, under cover of intense naval and air bombardment, six U.S. divisions, British and Canadian land during the largest amphibious attack in history. While their comrades landed at Utah Beach on the west, seized the cliff without a fight and in the east, the English (at Gold and Sword) and Canadians (Juno) established their head bridge limiting losses, trampling those of Omaha. At Omaha Beach, one of the most heavily defended beaches of the Normandy coast, the allies face the firepower of the German army. The human losses are enormous. Of the 34,000 men landed, Americans account for about 4,720 losses over the beach strip, whose name became "Bloody Omaha".
Today, above Omaha Beach, is the largest American cemetery in France. 9386 U.S. soldiers (including 307 unknown and four women) are buried in military cemetery, located near the town of Colleville-sur-Mer (Calvados, France).
Covering 70 hectares, the cemetery was arranged by landscape architect Markley Stevenson, who made sure that any angle, we see a row of crosses. The graves are those of soldiers killed on Omaha Beach June 6, 1944, but also of men killed in Normandy. First buried in temporary cemeteries, like that of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, their bodies were found several years after the war and transferred to the symbolic site of Omaha. Most of the dead were repatriated at the request of their families at the end of the war. But 10,000 remained in Normandy.
France gave, in a perpetual concession, Colleville-sur-mer, which is now a U.S. territory. England has its soldiers buried where they fell, faithful to its tradition. The Germans, they combined their dead in La Cambe (Calvados) in 1961 in a former American cemetery.
On June 6, the American and French presidents are gathered in this symbolic place.
Saturday, June 6, 2009, will mark the 65th anniversary of Allied landings in Normandy. For the occasion, Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama participate in memorial ceremonies. The two presidents will gather at the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer (cemetery conceded by France in the U.S.) earlier this afternoon, near Omaha Beach, one of the landing beaches. Nearly 7,000 guests will attend, including U.S. veterans, "for they see that the whole French people are not forgotten," said the French president during his speech in St-Tropez in the Var May 8, 2009.
Utah Beach - the first wave
- D-Day, Operation Overlord: Allied landing of eight divisions of the 22nd Army Group Montgomery in Normandy.
- The first U.S. Army General Bradley is responsible for the right device, the second British army of General Dempsey to the left.
- 00:10 - Parachuting scouts
- pérations commandos de la 6e division britannique aéroportée sur les ponts de la Dives et sur la batterie de Merville 0:20 / 0:40 - O perations commandos of the 6th Airborne Division British bridges on the Dives and the Merville Battery
- 03:14 - Bombing for landing begins.
- 03:30 - The troops of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Division U.S. are dropped from Sainte-Mère-Église and Carentan.
- 04:30 - The 505th Regiment of the 82nd is the Holy Mother Church.
- At dawn, airborne troops also take a bridge over the Orne and the Caen bridge. They also control a bridgehead at Ranville, the area between Saint-Martin-de-Varreville and Pouppeville.
- 05:00 - The new operations triggered by the Allies managed to Berchtesgaden, but nobody dares to wake Hitler.
- 5:50 - Bombardment of coastal defenses by warships escort.
- 06:30 - The 7th U.S. Corps of General Collins, transported by ships of Admiral Moon, landed in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, on the beach of La Madeleine, renamed Utah Beach.
- 06:30 - Landing of the 5th Corps of the U.S. General Gerow, carried by ships of Admiral Hall, Omaha Beach, between Vierville-sur-Mer and Saint-Honorine-des-Loss. The German resistance was strong.
- 07:30 - The landing of British troops under General Dempsey Gold (30th British Corps of General Bucknall, led the 50th Infantry Division and 8th Armoured Brigade) between Arromanches and Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, and Sword (the 3rd Infantry Division and British 27th Armoured Brigade, and several naval commandos led the assault), between Lion-sur-Mer and the mouth of the Orne, under the protection of vessels of Commodore Oliver.
- 08:00 - Landing of the 3rd Canadian Division of the 1st British Corps of General Crocker at Juno, between Gold and Sword.
- 09: 33 - The headquarters of Eisenhower announces to the world the Allied landings on the northern coast of France.
- 10: 15 - Rommel, who is in his villa Herrlingen, Germany, is notified of the landing by his Chief of Staff General Speidel.
- 12:00 - Churchill announces the invasion of Normandy in the House of Commons.
- In the late afternoon, Rommel arrives at his headquarters of the Roche-Guyon.
- The fighting ceased all along the front at dusk, without which the Allies have achieved their goals.
- In the area of Caen, the progress of British troops is stopped by the 22nd regiment of Panzers, and the 192nd Regiment Panzergrenadiers pushes up sea Allied troops between Juno and Sword.
- The troops of the 30th British Corps progressed to Bayeux, the 101st Airborne had its junction with the U.S. 7th Corps, while the progression of the 5th Corps on Omaha Beach is blocked by the fierce resistance of the German 352nd Infantry Division.
150,000 troops landed.
