v D DAY--France's day of liberation June 6, 1944

...D DAY--France's day of liberation
June 6, 1944

THE GERMAN ATLANTIC WALL HAS BEEN BREACHED

Early in the morning of Tuesday, June 6, thousands of American, Canadian and British soldiers, under cover of the greatest air and sea bombardment of history, broke through the "impregnable" perimeter of Germany's "European Fortress" in the first phase of the invasion and liberation of the continent. Despite underwater obstacles and beach defenses, which in some areas extended for more than 1,000 yards inland on the Normandy beachhead, the landings were made with a minimum of casualties. Most of the German coastal batteries in the invasion area were silenced by 10,000 tons of bombs and by shelling from 640 naval ships. The two naval task forces that led the invasion were commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian, who won fame while commanding the destroyer Cossack early in the war, and Rear Admiral Alan Goodrich Kirk of the United States Navy. The two naval forces included one 16-inch gun battleship, the British Warspite; an American battleship, the Nevada, a veteran of Pearl Harbor; the U. S. cruisers Augusta and Tuscaloosa; the British cruisers, Mauritius, Belfast, Black Prince and Orion; and shoals of destroyers flying the Stars and Stripes and the White Ensign. Steaming through the English Channel, swept by 200 British minesweepers, the men o' war escorted thousands of landing craft, transports and assault craft bearing General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's landing forces to the beaches on the Cherbourg peninsula and other points along the Normandy coast. The large air-borne forces that were dropped and landed in the night were already assembling behind the Atlantic Wall as the first troops (some of whom are seen in this picture) scrambled up the beaches. Dawn was the climax of the first phase of the invasion. Wave after wave of American bombers took up the task of flattening the German defenses and silencing guns—the battle to liberate Europe from the Nazi oppressors was on in earnest.

AIRBORNE INVASION OF SOUTHERN FRANCE

For several weeks prior to D Day, the Allies had followed the same tactics which preceded the Normandy landings. Bombers hit bridges and road junctions surrounding the landing area until it was virtually isolated, duplicating their work elsewhere to avoid giving away the exact spot for the attack. Every railroad bridge across the Rhone below Valence was knocked out. Then, just before the assault, the huge Allied armada moved close to shore points and shelled the most important defense installations. Parachutists and airborne troops were dropped and landed behind beaches to secure important road junctions and bridges. Then the landings began. Prime Minister Winston Churchill watched the operations from the bridge of a British destroyer and shortly the beaches were swarming with men, vehicles and tanks. In this picture, parachutes fill the sky over Southern France after the 12th USAAF troop carrier air division's Douglas C-47's carried men and supplies to dropping zones over the new beachhead in the vicinity of Nice.