Very little went as planned during the landing at Omaha. Difficulties in navigation caused the majority of landing craft to miss their targets throughout the day. The defenses were unexpectedly strong, and inflicted heavy casualties on landing US troops. U...

Paratroops from 101st Airborne were dropped beginning around 01:30, tasked with controlling the causeways behind Utah Beach and destroying road and rail bridges over the Douve River.The C-47s could not fly in a tight formation because of thick cloud cover,...

The objective of the attacking American forces was consolidation of the U.S. beachheads (Utah Beach and Omaha Beach) and establishment of a continuous defensive line against expected German counterattacks. The defending German force attempted to hold the c...

On June 18, the US 9th Infantry Division reached the west coast of the peninsula. Within 24 hours, the 4th, 9th and 79th Infantry Divisions were driving north on a broad front. There was little opposition on the western side of the peninsula and on the eas...

In two days, the American divisions were within striking distance of Cherbourg. The garrison commander, Lieutenant General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, had 21,000 men but many of these were hastily drafted naval personnel or from labour units....

Sottevast was a Nazi Germany storage and servicing bunker for V-weapons. The site was captured by the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment...

The US Forces started to push south into the German front lines from Carentan on July 3rd and also started attacks to push forces into the German eastern flank over the River Bridge at Airel, about ten miles (16km) north of St Lô (see Map "XIX Corps west o...

Hill 192, the dominant terrain east of St. Lô, had to be taken in order for the American forces to liberate St. Lõ and establish an organized front line from which to launch Operation Cobra.The 741st led the 2nd Infantry Division’s assault on Hill 192 on 1...

The town of St Lô in the west of the landing zones was as important to the Americans as the town of Caen was to the Anglo/Canadian Forces in the east. Both towns were the main crossroad towns into Normandy through which all major road led. Without these to...

After the one-day postponement, Cobra got underway at 09:38 on 25 July, when around 600 Allied fighter-bombers attacked strongpoints and enemy artillery along a 300 yd (270 m)-wide strip of ground located in the St. Lô area.For the next hour, 1,800 heavy b...

The town of Mortain was taken by the US 3rd Armoured and 1st Infantry Divisions at the beginning of August. The occupation of the town was handed over to the 30th Infantry Division on 6th August, with the troops taking up the exact same positions,but witho...

The Falaise gap is closing. The German 7th Army has begun its withdrawal from Normandy. Having only limited escape routes, Panzers and Tiger tanks are called in to keep the escape routes open as long as possible. Capt. Shultz and the remains of his elite T...

After the failure of Operation Lüttich, the Germans were forced to retreat to the city of Chambois. On August 17, the 1st Canadian Army had captured the city of Falaise, so the Germans were entrapped within the city of Chambois by Polish, American, and Can...

Col. Roy Lindquist, commander of the 508th PIR, was left in charge at Manoir de la Fière and led an assault at noon that eradicated the German defense, effecting a link up with an isolated group on the west bank. Through miscommunication and poor assumptio...