Normandy 1: Beginning of the End

At first glance, the reasoning behind my visit to Normandy seems simple and obvious. My grandfather was there in WWII, I’m a US veteran, le voilà! While it is obvious, I would argue against it being simple. The significance of my classic US veteran’s pilgrimage to Normandy was threefold: to pay personal honors to the sacrifices made before my service generation (including my grandfather), to experience the special relationship the US has with France, and to deepen my knowledge of Operations NEPTUNE and OVERLORD, widely known as the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.

There were several factors/tasks that went into deciding when and how to shutdown Germany’s plans for a new world order. First, the Allies had to amass enough troops and equipment for a large-scale offensive. Second, they had to distract, deceive, and defend against Germany to create a weak point in Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, surprise the Nazi forces, and prevent a Nazi invasion of the UK. Third, they had to successfully cross the English Channel and re-seize territory in France. Finally, they had to do it as quickly as possible, again to surprise Germany, but more critically to maintain the fragile alliance with Russia. The Allies had to juggle and grind through these tasks almost concurrently to maximize their chances of success.

Amassing troops and supplies started in earnest in 1942, after Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor. This is also when Hitler began to fortify the Atlantic Wall. He knew the US would enter the war. As discussed in my Glasgow series, the bulk of Allied aid from across the Atlantic came into Europe through Glasgow and then flowed to the southern end of the UK, specifically the Isle of Wight. This is where my grandfather’s AAF unit held their position from roughly late February through late June of 1944.

While amassment was ongoing, the Allies started to give Germany the ol’ flim flam flummox (fool and fracture ‘em!) with Operations POINTBLANK, BODYGUARD, and FORTITUDE. POINTBLANK was the pre-invasion air campaign that targeted the Luftwaffe and German strongpoints. This served as both a defense of the UK and to weaken the Atlantic Wall. BODYGUARD was the complex ground force deception plan that included several sub-operations. It's highlight was a fake Army division set up in the eastern UK, complete with inflatable tanks and wooden aircraft silhouettes. BODYGUARD was designed to convince Hitler of an Allied attack across the narrowest part of the English Channel, to take the port at Calais rather than Cherbourg. The cherry on top was they put General George Patton in command of it. This assignment irked Patton beyond measure but was perhaps the most convincing aspect that sold the Germans on Calais. FORTITUDE, one of BODYGUARD's sub-operations, was a radio misinformation campaign that fed reports to the Germans about attacks in Norway and again Calais. There was even a double agent, Mr. Juan Pujol Garcia, feeding British-generated misinformation to the German High Command. These combined operations were so successful, the Germans thought the Normandy attack in June was the deception operation and remained convinced a main attack was imminent at Calais for an entire month… until the Allies released Patton from command of his Ghost Army on 6 July.

Wooden aircraft on the left, inflatable tank on the right. Patton commanded 1,100 personnel that maintained this epic 7-month ruse.

Once amassment was complete and deception was at its peak, it was time to cross the English Channel and enter Normandy. Reference my D-Day Special post for interesting details on the conditions they faced while crossing. As for entry into Normandy, that was covered by Operations NEPTUNE and OVERLORD.

Operation NEPTUNE was technically only the first phase of Operation OVERLORD. NEPTUNE was the first day of the invasion, what everyone one refers to as D-Day. The general objective was to get forces across the English Channel en masse and gain an initial foothold in France. The Allies assessed that to successfully gain a foothold, they needed to seize and control the towns of Sainte-Mère-Église, Carentan, Isigny, Bayeux, and Caen. These towns became the five major objectives of D-Day.

Orange points indicate the five objectives for Operation NEPTUNE.

Operation OVERLORD was larger in both time and space. The general objective was to establish a secure lodgment; in other words, to recapture enough enemy-free space to put 2 million troops and all the supplies required to equip and sustain that large of a force. This included everything from “beans, bullets, and blankets” to trucks, tanks, artillery, and fuel. The Allies assessed that successful logistics at such a monumental scale would require linking all five code-named beach heads—Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, and Utah—as well as control of the deep-water port at Cherbourg and the crossroads at Saint-Lo. These 50 contiguous miles of the Normandy coast and two logistics hubs became the three main objectives of OVERLORD’s follow-on phases.

Orange points show NEPTUNE objectives. Purple points show OVERLORD objectives. Ignore the rest of this map for now, I'll go into it more later in the Normandy series.

Finally, neither NEPTUNE nor OVERLORD would have been possible without Russia holding the eastern front. In addition to ensuring an "Allied surprise", Eisenhower’s timeline to invade was tight because Russia was on the verge of cutting a separate peace deal with Germany. Joseph Stalin had been pressuring Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to open a western front for years. Churchill had agreed to assist the Russians as early as July 1941, when Germany first invaded Russia. Only six months later, Russia had already suffered 3 million casualties. Over the next two years, Stalin increasingly felt the Allies were unwilling to commit and dealing in bad faith. Meanwhile, Roosevelt and Churchill wanted to ensure there was reasonable hope for success before invading; they felt the Allies didn’t have enough troops, equipment, or supplies to do so in 1942 or 1943.

The Allied recapture of Italy in September 1943 was likely the good-faith gesture that kept Russia in the fight until 1944. It wasn’t until November 1943, during the Tehran Conference, that all three parties agreed to having a full-fledged western front open by a specific date: 1 Jun 1944. Strictly speaking, the US and Britain were 5 days past their deadline by the time Allied ground forces landed in France. By D-Day, total Russian war casualties exceeded 9 million. By V.E. Day, Russia’s losses totaled 11 million and accounted for roughly 86% of Allied losses in Europe. As a comparison, American, British Commonwealth, and Canadian casualties combined didn’t even break 1 million and accounted for only 8% of Allied losses in Europe. While the UK and US were correct in waiting until they had the right numbers, it’s easy to see why Russia was ready to call it quits and take a side deal with Germany.

At their core, Operations NEPTUNE and OVERLORD represented years of Allied planning, innovation, and grit. I think people forget these were not just military operations; they were distinct proof of what is possible with the complete mobilization of multiple national war machines. The American, British, and Canadian governments achieved a comprehensive and integrated effort to successfully focus all four instruments of their national power—diplomatic, information, military, and economic—against the Axis forces. I think Americans also tend to forget the total Allied force that invaded Normandy included contributions from Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Poland. An impressive feat, considering all but two of these nations were occupied by Axis forces in 1944.

Map of Axis-held territory in 1944.

Fun closing fact: The German High Command thought General Patton was the pinnacle of Allied military leadership in both skill and personality. Patton (a tank man) was allegedly the only Allied leader that famed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (also a tank man) actually feared. Patton had just sent Rommel packing in Africa. This, in combination with Allied questions about Patton’s self-discipline after he slapped the living daylights out of two young enlisted men suffering from PTSD, is why he was chosen to command the Ghost Army.

Stay tuned for the rest of the Normandy Series! Tango Sierra out!