Welcome D-Day Online

On the day of battle and the weeks that followed the accounts of heroism are too numerous to mention. Below is a small collection of historic events of bravery and courage.

Pegasus Bridge
A daring night raid deep into enemy territory to capture two vital bridges by the British Parachute regiment (6th Airbourne), click here for more..

Pegasus Bridge (named after the flying horse Pegasus, which was on the soldiers badge which liberated it) was the objective of the British 6th Airborne glider infantry, six of whose Horsa gliders landed noiselessly shortly after midnight on D-Day (i.e., six to seven hours before the actual seabourne landings started). Their mission was to block the Germans from crossing the rivers from the city of Caen, and thus prevent German reinforcements from the invasion area, all the while keeping the bridges intact for later expansion of the invasion.
Horsa glider

The 150-odd men rapidly overwhelmed the sleeping German defenders and managed to hold off counterattacks for over 12 hours - until Lord Lovat's commandos arrived (to the tune of Bill Millin's bagpipes). An old tea house stands at one end of the bridge, this was the first house to be liberated by the Allies and is still in use as a tea house today. The original bridge can still be seen a few meters from the almost identical new one.

Omaha Beach
Landing under a hail of bullets, US troops fought all day to conquer the beach, click here for more..

Omaha Beach was the most intensely fought beach on D-Day. Omaha Beach was six miles wide - the largest of all the five beaches. The whole of the beach at Omaha was overlooked by cliffs which made attacking the area very difficult. The Americans were given the task of doing just this.
The Atlantic Wall defenses were well planned and the invasion here was not helped by American bombers missing their targets.

Landing Craft

The Americans suffered 2,400 casualties and by nightfall broke through the Germans defenses by fighting there way up the cliff face and taking the beach.

Click here to see a point of view run up Omaha beach recored on my field trip.

Point Du Hoc
With less than half of the men needed the US Rangers climbed up a steep cliff face while being shot at from above, click here for more..

On the French coast the cliffs form a sheer towering point. This is the Pointe du Hoc. The Germans had built a heavy artillery battery capable of shooting a wide stretch of coastline including the two beaches where American troops were going to land: Utah Beach and Omaha Beach.
Aware of the danger represented by the guns at the Pointe du Hoc, the Allies tried to destroy the position through heavy naval and air pounding. As a precaution, the decision was taken to attack the position at dawn on D-Day by sending 500 US Rangers up the cliff using ropes and ladders.
Looking down the cliff face

Of the 500 soldiers only 170 landed in the correct cliff base, against all odds they fought there way to the top to take this important gun position. When reaching the top and fighting back the Germans it was realised that the big guns were no longer there and had been moved to a saffer location while dummy pieces of wood were used instead.

Merville Battery
British Paratroopers, with less than a quarter of the men that set out, against all odds captured the gun battery, click here for more..

The Merville battery was a huge threat to the British landing on Sword Beach.
Under the cover of darkness the small number of soldiers fought there way through two fences of barbed wire and mine fields with machine gun nests and anti-aircraft guns firing at them. The 150 men took on the 160 defending German soldiers and blew up the guns with anti-tank bombs instead of the specialist explosives, as the were with all the other men and special equipment previously lost. After the fighting died down only 6 of the 160 Germans were still standing, of the attacking 150 British 65 were killed.