What You're Going To Do Today Will Be A Prayer In Itself
With those words, Lt. Joseph Lacy, chaplain to the 2nd and 5th U.S. Ranger Battalions, told his men that he would take over the praying as the units waited to go ashore on D-Day. It wasn't a sure thing. The German defenses meant the Allied landing troops would have that much more open beach to cover, exposed to German fire. Also, some of Eisenhower's advisers had warned him that the paratroopers probably would be slaughtered. Ike felt their mission was vital, but privately he was worried sick.
Medics attend to a battered GI on the invasion beach. In the month of June, the Allied forces would suffer 60,000 casualties, including 8,500 killed. By the Normandy campaign's end, there would be 36,976 Allied dead.
Chronology Of Events
00:16 a.m.:
The first Allied soldiers - gliderborne forces of the British 6th Airborne Division - touch down in France.
01:20 a.m.:
The German Army's LXXXIV Corps reports wide spread airborne landings.
01:30 a.m.:
The German Seventh Army puts out a general alert.
02:27 a.m.:
American paratroopers begin jumping behind Utah Beach.
03:00 a.m.:
The chief of staff of the German Seventh Army concludes that the long-awaited invasion has begun. His superiors do not share his point of view.
04:00 a.m.:
Hitler's headquarters, reached by phone, refuses to release the armored reserves to the Seventh Army. Hitler himself is sound asleep.
04:05 a.m.:
The GIs of the 4th Infantry Division begin loading into landing craft for the choppy, 11 1/2-mile run into Utah Beach.
04:30 a.m.:
A detachment of 132 GIs lands on the Iles St. Marcouf off Utah Beach - the first Allied soldiers to set foot on the beaches of Normandy.
In the battle for France, the Germans suffered 450,000 casualties, killed, wounded or missing. Among them was their co,,ander, Field Marshal Rommel, wounded in an attack by a British fighter-bomber.
05:00 a.m.:
The Germans' Army Group B releases its own reserve, the 21st Panzer Division, to the Seventh Army. The division will counterattack against the British, keeping them from Caen but failing to push them back into the sea.
One of Hitler's aides refuses a general's request to awaken the Fuehrer.
05:36 a.m.:
Naval shelling of Utah Beach begins.
05:50 a.m.:
Naval shelling of Omaha Beach begins.
06:00 a.m.:
Heavy bombers arrive over Omaha Beach. But as a safety precaution because of the thick clouds, they drop their 1,285 tons of bombs well inland, killing mainly dairy cattle.
06:30 a.m.:
Company E of the U.S. 4th Division's 8th Infantry begins landing at Utah Beach - the first of five beaches to be assaulted.
Shortly afterward, regiments of the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions wade into the hell of Omaha Beach
07:00 a.m.:
Berlin radio announces the landings.
07:26 a.m.:
The British 3rd Division begins landing at Sword Beach.
07:30 a.m.:
Hitler's headquarters countermands an order releasing two armored divisions held in reserve. By the time the divisions are finally free, they are forced to plug holes in the defensive line.
A soldier lies, where he fell, next to a beach obstacle set up by Germans to halt American landing craft at the water's edge.
07:35 a.m.:
The British 50th Division begins landing on Gold Beach.
07:45 a.m.:
The Canadian 3rd Division begins wading ashore on Juno Beach.
08:15 a.m.:
Col. George A. Taylor lands in the chaos of Omaha Beach to spur his 16th Infantry: "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach - the dead and those who are going to die. Now let's get the hell out of here!"
08:30 a.m.:
The Navy's beachmaster on Omaha Beach temporarily halts landings of the vehicles that are clogging the beach.
09:00 a.m.:
Brig. Gen. Norman D. Cota pushes and prods GIs of the 29th Infantry Division off Omaha Beach and onto the bluffs overlooking the killing zone: "They're killing us here! Let's move inland and get killed!"
09:32 a.m.:
The British Broadcasting Corp. flashes the first word of the invasion: one minute later, word reaches the West Coast of the United States.
In the weeks following the invasion, Omaha Beach continued to, serve as a main supply point. These LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) are part of the, vast Allied armada: 2,727 ships and, 2,606 landing craft aboard the ships. The "barrage balloons" were meant to snag low flying enemy planes in their cables.
10:00 a.m.:
Hitler is finally awakened.
11:00 a.m.:
The day's first high tide laps at Omaha Beach, where slowly, the Americans are turning the situation in their favor.
11:30 a.m.:
Naval gunfire from destroyers knocks out a key pillbox at a draw on Omaha Beach, and vehicles finally begin to move inland.
12:10 p.m.:
Churchill tells the House of Commons that the Allies have landed on the continent.
13:30 p.m.:
In his command ship, Gen. Omar Bradley is reassured that his soldiers on Omaha Beach are moving off the sand and up the bluffs.
13:35 p.m.:
The German division along Omaha Beach reports in error that it has repulsed the assault.
16:00 p.m.:
Twelve hours after the first request, Hitler finally releases the armored reserves in Normandy.
Nightfall:
Rommel finally arrives back in his headquarters in La Roche Guyon, on the Seine.
