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Posted on 11/25/2003 12:00:30 AM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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The Seaborne Assault While parachutists attempted to assemble in the labyrinth of the Normandy hedgerows and marshes, troops aboard transports prepared to transfer into landing craft for the assault on the beach. At 0430 (H minus 2 hours) detachments of the 4th and 24th Cavalry Squadrons under Lt. Col. E. C. Dunn landed on the Iles St. Marcouf to capture what was suspected to be a hostile observation post or casemate for mine-field control. Prior to the landing four men armed only with knives swam to what was supposedly an enemy-held shore to mark the beaches. No enemy was encountered, although both islands were found to be heavily mined and some casualties were suffered. All elements of the detachment (numbering 132 men) were ashore and the island occupied by 0530.  Enemy Forces - Estimated In the meantime the unloading of troops into assault landing craft proceeded uneventfully. After the transfer, LCVP's circled the transports awaiting the order to rendezvous. At H minus 40 minutes (0550) warships of the bombardment group of Task Force 125 began firing on enemy shore batteries. A few minutes later 276 Marauders of the Ninth Air Force dropped 4,404 250-pound bombs on 7 objectives on the beach, extending from les Dunes de Varreville to Beau Guillot. The effectiveness of this attack is difficult to assess. Les Dunes de Varreville seems to have received more bombs than any other target, possibly because the conspicuous tank ditch surrounding the area persuaded pilots to unload on it when briefed targets could not be located. About one-third of all bombs fell between high and low tide water marks. As assault craft started for the beach, the fire support group, consisting of thirty-three variously equipped craft, began the process of beach drenching. Seventeen of these craft mounted rocket launchers and discharged their rockets when the first waves of assault craft were still 600 to 700 yards from shore. One of the earliest mishaps caused the immobilization of one of the control vessels. At approximately 0455 the Green Beach primary and secondary control vessels and the Red Beach primary control vessel left the Transport Area for the beach. The secondary control vessel for Red Beach fouled her screw on a dan buoy and was unable to proceed. An hour later, while still more than 7,000 yards from the beach and already 10 to 15 minutes late, the Red Beach primary control vessel was sunk, probably by a mine. Shortly thereafter an LCT behind the Green Beach primary control vessel also hit a mine and sank. The run into shore was already behind schedule, and these sinkings caused some of the landing craft to slow down. The Green Beach secondary control vessel therefore turned about to bring the landing craft in closer to the beach and announced that it would lead all amphibious tanks in. The tank-carrying LCT's were supposed to launch the tanks at 5,000 yards, but to save time they were brought to within 3,000 yards of the beach and then discharged.  Enemy Forces - Actual The first wave consisted of 20 LCVP's, each carrying a 30-man assault team from the 8th Infantry. The 10 craft on the right were to land on Tare Green Beach, opposite the strong point at les Dunes de Varreville. The 10 craft on the left were intended or Uncle Red Beach, 1,000 yards farther south. The entire operation was timed against the touchdown of this first assault wave, which was scheduled to take place at 0630. Eight LCT's, each carrying 4 duplex drive (DD ) amphibious tanks, were scheduled to land at the same time or as soon thereafter as possible. The second wave comprised another 32 LCVP's with additional troops of the 2 assault battalions, some combat engineers, and also 8 naval demolition teams which were to clear the beach of underwater obstacles. The third wave, timed for H plus 15 minutes, contained 8 more LCT's with dozer tanks. It was followed within 2 minutes by the fourth wave, mainly detachments of the 237th and 299th Engineer Combat Battalions, to clear the beaches between high and low water marks.  The first wave arrived at the line of departure on time and all twenty craft were dispatched abreast. Support craft to the ear were firing machine guns, possibly with the hope of exploding mines. When the LCVP's were from 300 to 400 yards from the beach, the assault company commanders fired special smoke projectors to signal the lifting of naval support craft fire. Almost exactly at H Hour the assault craft lowered their ramps and six hundred men walked into waist-deep water to wade the last 100 or more yards to the beach. The actual touchdown on the beach was therefore a few minutes late, but the delay was negligible and had no effect on the phasing of the succeeding waves. Enemy artillery had fired a few air bursts at sea, but otherwise there was no opposition at H Hour. The morale of the assault troops was excellent. The men waved their rifles as they reached the dry beach, some of them shouting, "Goddam, we're on French soil." They were obviously relieved and happy that this was not another "dry run." The first troops to reach shore were from the 2d Battalion, 8th Infantry. The 1st Battalion landed a few minutes later. Both came ashore considerably south of the designated beaches. The 2d Battalion should have hit Uncle Red Beach opposite Exit 3 . The 1st Battalion was supposed to land directly opposite the strong point at les Dunes de Varreville. The landings, however, were made astride Exit 2 about 2,000 yards south.  Troops wade ashore at Utah Beach, June 1944. This unidentified sector is protected by eight balloons. Details include a DUKW driving along the shoreline (middle left), as well as the LCVP with its open ramp dominating the foreground, complete with life vests strewn everywhere and a bored-looking coxswain standing at right. It is difficult to pinpoint the cause for this error. Both Red Beach control vessels had been lost, and one of the Green Beach control vessels had gone back to bring in the LCT's carrying DD amphibious tanks. Guiding the initial assault waves to the proper beaches was therefore the sole responsibility of one control vessel. The possibility of error was increased by the strong tidal current as well as by the beach drenching administered by naval fire support craft, which threw up a tremendous cloud of smoke, dust, and fine sand, obscuring the beach for many minutes just prior to and after the jump-off from the line of departure. Potentially this error was very serious, for it might have caused great confusion. In fact it did not. The original plans, in which each assault section had a specific mission, could not be carried out in detail, of course. Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., assistant commander of the 4th Division, had volunteered to coordinate the initial attack on the beach strong points until the arrival of the regimental commander, Colonel Van Fleet, and had landed with Company E. When it was realized that the landings had been made at the wrong place, he personally made a reconnaissance of the area immediately to the rear of the beach to locate the causeways which were to be used for the advance inland. He then returned to the point of landing, contacted the commanders of the two battalions, Lt. Cols. Conrad C. Simmons and Carlton O. MacNeely, and coordinated the attack on the enemy positions confronting them. These impromptu plans worked with complete success and little confusion. The errors in landing actually proved fortunate. Not only was the beach farther south less thickly obstructed, but the enemy shore defenses were also less formidable than those opposite the intended landing beaches. Such clearing of beach obstacles as was necessary was the mission of a special engineer force which was scheduled to land directly after the 8th Infantry. The engineer elements were organized as a Beach Obstacle Task Force, commanded by Maj. Herschel E. Linn of the 1106th Engineer Combat Group. They were to clear four 50-yard gaps in the obstacles on each beach from the high water mark seaward by hand-placed charges and tank dozers. Naval demolition teams were to destroy all obstacles under water and Army engineer teams were responsible for those above water. Army combat engineers were from the 237th Engineer Combat Battalion. The detachment of eight tank dozers was from the 612th Light Equipment Company and 70th Tank Battalion.  The plan contemplated the simultaneous landing at H plus 5 minutes of eight naval teams to clear eight s0-yard gaps in the first band of obstacles. This wave was to be followed in 10 minutes by 8 LCT's carrying, in addition to other tanks, 8 tank dozers. Immediately behind the tanks were to come 8 engineer combat demolition teams to clear obstacles above water. A reserve of 3 naval teams and 4 engineer teams was included in the fourth and fifth waves. Like many other D-Day operations, this plan was not executed as conceived. Two LCT's were sunk while approaching the beach. One LCM, with an engineer demolition team, was hit by shell fire just as it lowered its ramp on Green Beach, and six men were killed. Both Army and Navy demolition teams beached almost simultaneously, together with the four reserve engineer teams which landed on Green Beach. These discrepancies between plan and performance in no case seriously hindered the operation. The parties left the LCVP's and LCM's in three feet of water and waded ashore, each man carrying sixty pounds of explosives. Aerial photos had indicated three bands of obstacles in depth. Since H Hour was timed for a rising tide favorable for landing craft, it was expected that one band would be either in or near the edge of the water. Actually all obstacles were found dry. The Navy teams, however, proceeded as instructed to x explosives on the seaward band and the engineers moved to the next band. After the first gap at the junction of the beaches was blown, it was decided to proceed at once to the clearing of the entire beach. The landing craft heading for the initial gap were bunching so dangerously, and the obstacles were so much more sparsely distributed than expected, that the original plan of clearing only 50-yard gaps was abandoned.  Landing virtually unopposed, men of the U.S. 4th Division wade ashore at Victor sector. Amphibious "DD" tanks are lined up at the water's edge. Major Linn and the executive officer of the 237th Engineer Combat Battalion, Maj. R. P. Tabb, had both planned to direct operations from their M-29's (Weasels) on the beach. Major Linn's craft was sunk and Major Tabb's vehicle sank as it left the landing craft. Major Tabb saved the crew and a radio and made for the beach, where he got in touch with General Roosevelt. There was little of the expected excitement and not much confusion. Control during the landing was never a serious problem because it was decentralized. The fortuitous simultaneous landings of Army and Navy demolition teams made possible the setting and blowing of charges for all three bands of obstacles at once, and consequently saved time. As expected, obstacles consisted mainly of steel and concrete pikes, some steel tetrahedra, and hedgehogs. Tank dozers worked effectively against some of the piling and pushed the obstacles up onto the beach, but hand-placed charges accounted for most of them. Only a few mines were found on the beach, attached to the obstacles. Belgian Gates were found in small number, a few on the beach and a few blocking the roads leading from the beach. The four reserve teams which landed on Green Beach blew these gates and assisted in blasting additional gaps in the sea wall. The entire beach was cleared in an hour, and by that time elements of the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion, the 3d Battalion of the 8th Infantry, and the 3d Battalion of the 22d Infantry were moving across the beaches, while engineer units were arriving to organize the beach operation. The Beach Obstacle Task Force was occupied with odd jobs for several hours more, but before noon had completed its task and reorganized. Of the 400 men involved, 6 were killed and 39 wounded.  Clearing the beach was only the first of the tasks assigned to combat engineers. One platoon of engineers was attached to each assault company of the 8th Infantry to blow gaps in the sea wall, destroy barbed wire in front and to the rear of the wall, and clear paths inland through the sand dunes. These tasks completed, they were then to perform normal assault missions against fortifications. For their initial missions they were equipped with bangalore torpedoes, mine detectors, explosives, and pioneer tools and markers. The demolition of the sea wall and clearance of paths through the sand dunes were accomplished very early. Company A, 237th Engineer Combat Battalion, blew two gaps in the wall on Red Beach, and Company C blew two on Green Beach. In addition Company A blew two Belgian Gates at the entrance to Exit 2 and picked up several prisoners from the pillboxes along the beach wall. The engineers then accompanied the infantry, removing mines and "dozing" roads across the dunes. As enemy artillery began to interdict the entrance to Exit 2, a trail was broken through the fields to the south and joined with the road which paralleled the coast and led back to Exit 2 south of la Madeleine Many of the fields back of the beach marked Miner were free, but the pattern was such that all were suspect and had to be cleared.
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Thank you for another great thread. Meetings this morning - so I'll need to savor this one again over lunch.
The obstacles were laid out similar to this on most of the possible landing beaches.
All of WWI in Europe after 1914 was a quagmire. Thousand of lives wasted charging MG nests for no gain or to move the front a few yards forward at a time.
Battle of Passchendaele (third battle of Ypres)
31 July-6 November 1917
Allied dead and wounded at Passchendaele totalled 245,000, of which 66,000 were killed. The German casualties were probably 400,000. Allied plans to strike at German held territory beyond Passchendaele were postponed.
That's what I'm here for, the resident Foxhole student. Do I get an A?
free dixie,sw
free the southland,sw
Behind them was a great invasion armada and the powerful sinews of war. But in the first wave of assault troops of the 29th (Blue and Gray) Infantry Division, it was four rifle companies landing on a hostile shore at H-hour, D-Day -- 6:30 a.m., on June 6, 1944. The long-awaited liberation of France was underway. After long months in England, National Guardsmen from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia found themselves in the vanguard of the Allied attack. In those early hours on the fire-swept beach the 116th Infantry Combat Team, the old Stonewall Brigade of Virginia, clawed its way through Les Moulins draw toward its objective, Vierville-sur-Mer. It was during the movement from Les Moulins that the battered but gallant 2d Battalion broke loose from the beach, clambered over the embankment, and a small party, led by the battalion commander, fought its way to a farmhouse which became its first Command post in France. The 116th suffered more than 800 casualties this day -- a day which will long be remembered as the beginning of the Allies' "Great Crusade" to rekindle the lamp of liberty and freedom on the continent of Europe.
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