battlesproject

Operation Neptune

The Beaches

Utah (American) Omaha (American) Gold (British) Juno (Canadian) Sword (British)

Juno Beach

The Juno landings were judged necessary to provide flanking support to the British drive on Caen from Sword, as well as to capture the German airfield a Carpiquet west of Caen. Taking Juno was tasked to the 3 rd Canadian Infantry Division and commandos of

the Royal Marines. Close support on the beaches was to be provided by the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade, but due to bad weather, only a handful made it to the beach, the others were sunk. The landings initially encountered heavy resistance from the German 716th Division; the preliminary bombardment proved less effective than had been hoped, and rough weather forced the

first wave to be delayed until 07:35. The Beach had been taken in 42 minutes, this was the first of the 5 beaches taken by the allies. Those of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the Queens own Rifles of Canada, took heavy casualties in the first minutes of the

first wave. On June 6th 1944, the Canadians got the furthest inland with taking 359 casualties, 574 wounded and 47 captured. We were Victorious

Facts- Omaha beach was the most fortified beach of the landings.

- The only bunker destroyed from naval fire was just off of Gold beach.

- 43000 men were sent to Omaha beach

- When the allies were bombing bunkers, Germans put telephone poles in unfinished bunkers to make the allies bomb away from their real guns.

- The allies suffered 120 000 casualties while the Germans suffered 113 059.

- The D-Day operation was originally planned for June 5th but due to bad weather it was postponed to June 6th.

- Black and white markings on allied aircraft from WW2 indicate that they took part in the D-Day operations.

- Men from different races, were forced to fight for the Germans. (eg. Koreans)

Why was D-Day Important?

D-Day was important because it was the advancement of allied forces moving into Nazi occupied France and eventually moving further into Europe making their way to Germany. This had been attempted before by the British and Canadians in August of 1942, but were defeated by the Germans due to poor planning and underestimating the Germans.

The Battles

- Liberation of Bayeux

- Battle for Caen

- Battle for Pegasus Bridge

Battle for Caen

Whilst the Americans headed for Cherbourg, a unit of troops led by the British moved towards the city of Caen The first wasoperation perch which attempted to push south

from Bayeux to villers-bocaqewhere the armour could then head towards the Orne and envelop Caen but was halted at the Battle of Villers-Bocage. After a delay owing to the

difficulty of supply because of storms from 17 June until 23 June, a German counterattack (which was known through ultra intelligence) was forestalled by operation epsomoperat

Caen was severely bombed and then occupied north of the River Orne in operation charnwood from 7 July until 9 July. An offensive in the Caen area followed with all three British armoured divisions, codenamed operation goodwood from 18 July until 21 July

that captured the high ground south of Caen while the remainder of the city was captured by Canadian forces during operation atlantic A further operation, operation spring from 25 July until 28 July, by the Canadians secured limited gains south of the city at a high cost.