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0100
The invasion begins.Glider and paratroop units begin landing behind the German beach defenses. Because of the darkness and the German AA fire, many units are dropped far off the intended drop zones. They took up the fight wherever they landed. British 6th Airborne Division(northeast of Caen, near mouth of Orne River) anchored the eastern flank by securing bridges over the river and Canal. The U.S. 101st and 82d Airborne Divisions dropped near Ste.Mere-Eglise and Carentan to secure roadjunctions. -
0558
As dawn came the entire horizon off Normandy between Caen and Vierville-sur-Mer had filled with the invasion armada. Allied battleships and other warships begin to pound the German shore positions. "They came, rank after relentless rank, ten lanes wide, twenty miles across, five thousand ships of every description," wrote one reporter that morning: "Coast Guard cutters, buoy-layers and motor launches," and "a formidable array of 702 warships." -
0630
The troops could hear the steady beat of enemy fire on the ramp as they approached the beach. Most landing craft grounded on a sand bar 50 to 100 yards out and the men waded in. The water was whipped by automatic weapons fire as the men struggled through the neck deep water. Some dove under water or went over the sides to escape the fire of the machine guns. When they finally did reach shore they faced another 200 yards or more of open sand to cross before reaching cover at the sea wall. -
0730-1200
Inch by inch the troops on Omaha moved forward, up through the bluffs and onto the flatland above. In the absence of much room to maneuver, their attack had been unoriginal, a straightforward frontal attack. Not in any grand coordinated assault, but by squad and platoon they climbed the bluffs under murderous fire. As the troops reached the top of the bluffs they took on the German fortifications in small groups, one-by-one, and gradually began to knock them out. -
1430
The Germans made use of the maze of communications trenches and tunnels and emerged from dugouts to reoccupy emplacements already neutralized. Snipers reappeared along the bluffs in areas where penetrations had previously been made. Above all, artillery from inland positions kept up sporadic harassing fire on the beach flat.
Working inland, the American units advanced in pockets, still uncoordinated in a single front.Stubborn enemy resistance, both at strongpoints and inland,had held the advance -
1930
As evening finally approached,the beach was a shambles of burning and disabled vehicles,but the German positions along the beach were in Allied hands.By nightfall,Allied power had prevailedacross Normandy beachheads.The Americans had yet to secure a front far enough inland to keep enemy artillery from hitting supply dumps. Men dug in for the night wherever they could,some in the sand or on the bluff slopes. All through the shallow beachhead and in the transit area,sniper fire continued all night -
0330
The assault waves begin loading in the landing craft. The seas are rough and the climb down the nets in the predawn darkness is a hazardous journey.The troops are in for a rough ride to the beach. The cold sea spray soaks everyone, and the flat-bottomed LCVPs are tossed around like corks. The high seas would swamp some landing craft during the ten-mile run from mother ships to shore.To assist the pumps, many of the troops bailed with their helmets. Survivors would reach land seasick and wobley. -
0400
Two panzer divisions to move immediately toward Caen to guard against Allied amphibious operations in support of the airborne attack. Informed of the order, Rundstedt's superiors at OKW placed it on hold until Hitler himself could concur. Since he was asleep and disliked being awakened, approval took many hours to come and stalled what might have been a powerful German response. The few officers of Rommel's staff present in the area were more energetic. -
0700
As the second wave touched down at Omaha the conditions were unbearable. Enemy mortar and artillery batteries, unscathed by Allied fire, poured destruction upon the attackers while German machine gunners raked the beach with fire. More than one-third of the first wave of attackers had reached dry land. Lacking most of their heavy weapons, those survivors had to huddle behind sand dunes and a small seawall. Many soldiers were killed, but some were unable to move and drowned as the tide moved in. -
1335
The German 352d Division inaccurately advised Army HQ that the Allied assault had been hurled back into the sea; only at Colleville was fighting still under way they said, with the Germans counterattacking. This reassuring view was sent on to Army Group. (At 1800 the Division corrected it's report. There was more bad news: Allied forces had penetrated through the strongpoints, and advance elements with armor had reached the line of Colleville-Louvieres-Asnieres.)
