My Favorite Things About Angelfire
My Favorite Web sites
Angelfire Home Pages
Free Web Building Help
Angelfire HTML Library
htmlGEAR - free polls, guestbooks, and more!
Meanwile the allied troops alread reaching shore were finding that The german defences were tough.First there were bands of under water obstacles.Some of the landing craft founderd on these others Were blown up by mines just under water at the shortline.the beaches them selves were coverd with barbed wire,while land mines were strewn all around just under the sand.many of the concrete forts and machine guns emplacesments behind the beaches hab been knocked out,but some were still full of fight. They began tosend withering streams of bullets sweeping over the sand.in sone places the attackers managed to crawl or run past these beach defences to find anti tank walls and in there painstaking preparations for the attack,the allied planners had figured every conceivable way of getting the greatest possible Number of men and and supplies onto the beaches in the shortest Possible time. They had even carried out British Prime Minister Winston chirchills suggestion of building artificial harbors to speed up the unloading and protect the beach landing areas from the pounding surf.Right after d-day,they towed from England several old ships and a number of specially built concrete barges.They sunk these near the beaches in such a way as to make breakwaters And docks.
There were two artificial harbours,one at omaha beach for the American area,the other near Arromanches for the british.Mulberry Was the code name for this secret plan,and so the two harbours Were called Mulberries.
The mulberries played an important in the feverish race between the the allies and the germans to build up forces in the beach land area.The allies had a great disadvantage in this race,as the weather experts had prodicted,a nunber of storms swept through the english channel duringthe week after d-day,
Error! Filename not specified.seriously slowing up the movement The beach heads.One of these storms completely Wrecked the American mulberry at omaha beach.Fotunately,the british mulberry survived the storm.Both armies used it for several months.
The germans to were,having serious troubles.In the firist place,alliedplanes swept continuously over northern france and prevented the germans from moving during the day.Secondly the secretly organized french resistance forces having learned that the allies had landed,rose against the germans.The resistance forces blew up the bridges,railroad lines trains and trucks making it difficult for the germans to move men or supplies.Finally,hitler had been fooled completely by a prevented allied attack against german defence further northeast,oppiosite the narrow strait of dover.For more than six weeks he kept almost haIf of german army group b the northeast france waiting for an attack that never came.
For June 12 the build up in Normandy had reached the point where both sides realized that the allies could no longer be driven back into the sea. But the germans had built a chain of entrenchments and fortifications around the beachead, and reinforcements were now arriving from Germany and else were in france. OVERLORD had succeeded, but wouid the allies be able to push their way out of normandy!
British and american losses were terribly heavy.It seemed impossible for men to survive and fight under the appaling that now existed on the beaches.The troops had known what they wouid find,and they had been trained to work their around the beach defences and fortifications.They called on the supporting navel vessels to shoot at the german gun enplacements.Allied fighter planes swept across the english chanel to drive=bomb the most stubborn defenders and then to strafe them with machine gun fire.The planes then returned to britain to get more fuel,more Bombs and more bullets for another run back to help the ground soldiers.
The advance preperations had worked out well.The allied naval and aerial bombardments of the defences had been so intense that even when the forts had survived,the german soldiers inside them were still groggy when the first wave of allied troops hit the beach;the defending fire was neither accurate nor heavy as it wouid have other wise have been.Meanwhile the airborne troops had concentrated in small groups and begun to attack the german defences from the rear and harass the german artillery.
By nightfall of june 6 the british attacks on the east had established a beach head nearly 20 miles and about 5 miles deep they had pushed to the outskirts of the city of caen.On the west at (utah) beach,the American v2 corps held an area almost ten miles wide with spearheads more than 4 miles inland.
Only in the center,at the american Omaha beach had there been really serious trouble.Here frowning cliffs overlooked norrow beaches,and the german defenders were unexpectedly numerous. The American vcorps however mananged to seize two narrow strips of beach and cliff.It held on to them through to the day and into the night.Then,as reinforcements came to ashore the attackers pushed out again.
The Allies were now advancing at all the beachheads. Their nitial footholds were secure. But could they stand up under the expected German counterattacks?
BUILD-UP ON THE BEACHES In their painstaking preparations for the attack, the Allied planners had figured every conceivable way of getting the greatest possible number of men and supplies onto the beaches in the shortest possible time. They had even carried out British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's suggestion of building artificial harbours to speed up the unloading and protect the beach landing areas from the pounding surf. Right after D-Day, they towed from England several old ships and a number of specially built concrete barges. They sunk these near the beaches in such a way as to make breakwaters and docks.
There were two artificial Harbours, one at Omaha Beach for the American area, the other near Arromanches for the British. MULBERRY was the code name for this secret plan, and so the two harbours were called 'Mulberries'.
The Mulberries played an important part in the feverish race between the Allies and the Germans to build up forces in the beachhead area. The Allies had a great disadvantage in this race, As the weather experts had predicted, a number of storms swept through the English Channel during the week after D-Day, Seriously slowing up the movement of men and supplies to the beachheads. One of these storms completely wrecked the American Mulberry at Omaha Beach. Fortunately, the British Mulberry survived the storm. Both armies used it constantly for several months.
The Germans, too, were having serious troubles. In the first place, Allied planes swept continuously over northern France and prevented the Germans from moving during the day. Secondly, the secretly organized French Resistance Forces, having learned that the Allies had landed, rose against the Germans. The Resistance Forces blew up bridges, railroad lines, trains, and trucks, making it difficult for the Germans to move men or supplies. Finally, Hitler had been fooled completely by a pretended Allied attack against German defence further northeast, opposite the narrow Strait of Dover. For more than six weeks he kept almost half of German Army Group B in northeast France, waiting for an attack that never came.