Naval warfare during Operation Overlord
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The naval war during Operation Overlord comprised the fighting between German and Allied naval forces in the English Channel from the beginning of June to mid-August 1944 .
Under the code name Operation Overlord , the Western Allies had been planning a military enterprise since the beginning of 1944 to gain a firm base in France and to establish another front ( called Western Front in Germany ) against National Socialist Germany. Sub-operations within the scope of this project were given their own code names: Operation Neptune , for example, referred to the actual invasion, i.e. the approach, the landing and the securing of a beachhead on the beaches of Normandy . For this operation, the Allies set up a large fleet of warships that were supposed to wear down the German units on the beaches and destroy their positions shortly before and during the landing. In addition, it should protect the actual invasion fleet and later the supply transports.
During the naval battles, both sides used not only conventional but also special methods such as micro-submarines, manned torpedoes or missiles . The great losses on both sides were partly due to natural adversity such as storms.
The Allies succeeded in creating important supply facilities (for example, artificial harbors - the so-called Mulberrys - and two pipelines through the English Channel, one on August 12 and one on October 10). In the Battle of Cherbourg (June 14-26, 1944), they captured the port of Cherbourg, which is important for supplies . Through the interplay of naval , air and land forces , the Allies succeeded in establishing and stabilizing a solid base in France and thus ultimately achieving their war goal - the conquest of Germany and the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht .
background
initial situation
Even before the USA entered the war in December 1941 , an involvement in the European theater of war was foreseeable. At the Washington Conference in 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill agreed that a landing on the European continent would be required either via the Mediterranean , from Turkey in the Balkans, or in Western Europe . The attack on the German Wehrmacht was preferred to the war in the Pacific against Japan .
To relieve the Red Army , Joseph Stalin had urged the Western Allies to open a second war front . At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, landings in northern and southern France - operations Overlord and Anvil - were therefore decided. In contrast to Winston Churchill, who - allegedly due to a lack of means of transport - wanted to forego Operation Anvil, Stalin favored the originally planned pincer movement. The Red Army had used this tactic successfully on several occasions. Meanwhile, the Americans thought an invasion of southern France also made sense, since the ports of Toulon and Marseille would offer good supply and supply options for the Allied troops in France. An invasion of southern France (Operation Anvil) was postponed and finally carried out as Operation Dragoon in August 1944, as Churchill feared that the combat force of the Allied forces would be distributed to too many theaters of war at the same time and thereby slow the advance.
At the Casablanca Conference , in the absence of Stalin, it was decided to establish a combined headquarters, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force . The guide as Supreme Allied Commander should Dwight D. Eisenhower accept. Even before his appointment in early 1944, a planning staff was formed under the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) , Lieutenant-General ( Lieutenant General ) Frederick E. Morgan , who carried out the preliminary planning for Operation Overlord.
- Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was given the command of the landing units .
- The naval forces commanded Admiral Bertram Ramsay , and
- the Air Forces Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory .
The aim of the operation was to gain control of the cities of Caen , Bayeux , Saint-Lô and Cherbourg .
Strategic position of the war opponents
The British kept three aircraft carriers , three modern battleships and sixteen other larger warships in reserve off Scotland , on the one hand so that they would not be damaged by mines off Normandy , and on the other hand so that convoys through the Arctic and the coastal area of Great Britain could be protected. Since the repertoire of ships available to the Royal Navy was not sufficient for an invasion, the British withdrew crews from the army, air force and mine-laying flotillas in order to be able to man more important warships. In addition, the British Admiralty withdrew ships from the Mediterranean , halted the transfer of convoys to the Indian Ocean and reduced the number of escort ships for convoys in the Atlantic .
Since Eisenhower and his staff continued to fear that the armada might be too small, US Navy ship units were called in to reinforce it. However, the Americans had to do without ships stationed in the Pacific (→ Pacific War ) - including all aircraft carriers. Because of its location in the Pacific War, the Americans left that this is not persuaded to assurances demanded by the British number of landing craft to send, although the mass production of amphibious units due to the Marshall - Memorandum was in full swing since the 1942nd
After conflicts over the need for additional American ships for the invasion of Normandy, the American decision maker for the Navy, Ernest J. King , dispatched three old battleships and a destroyer squadron as well as numerous landing craft to support the invasion of England. In addition to these ships, 49 warships with French , Polish , Greek , Dutch and Norwegian crews were to leave on June 5, 1944 .
The Allies were able to pull together a total of seven battleships , two monitors , twenty-three cruisers , three gunboats , 105 destroyers and 1,073 smaller warships to support the invasion . Furthermore, they pulled together 4,126 landing craft and landing craft, 736 support vessels and craft, and 864 merchant ships, bringing the total to 6,939 deployed ships.
The Royal Navy Chief of Staff reported the number of ships deployed:
“It is a commonplace expression to say that an anchorage is 'full of ships', but in the case of East and West Solent, with an available area of approximately 22 square miles in which to anchor ships, it was literally true. On 18 May, the Admirality offered the C-in-C [Commander-in-Chief] Portsmouth the services of HMS Tyne, but it was only possible to accept her because HMS Warspite was not being sent to Portsmouth till D-Day, which gave us one berth in hand. "
“It is a common phrase to say that an anchorage is 'full of ships', but in the case of the East and West Solents [the anchorages of the Allied Forces on the coast of England], with about 22 square miles of anchorage for the ships, it was literally true. On May 18 [1944] the Admiralty offered the Commander-in-Chief in Portsmouth the support of HMS Tyne , which could only be accepted because the HMS Warspite was not dispatched to Portsmouth by D-Day, which provided us with an anchorage . "
The capabilities of the German Navy against the Allied landing operations were limited (→ German situation in Normandy in 1944 ). In June 1944, the Kriegsmarine had no large surface units in the bases in France (→ Schematic structure of the Wehrmacht on June 6, 1944 # Kriegsmarine ). The entrances to the canal were also protected by strong warship formations of the Allies, who also had air sovereignty over the canal (→ aerial warfare during Operation Overlord ). Obviously, therefore, the Navy had no chance to interrupt the Allied supply lines across the canal. Nonetheless, units of the Kriegsmarine were sent to this endeavor.
On June 6, 1944, the Navy owned only five torpedo boats , 39 speedboats - five of which were not operational - 163 minesweepers and clearing boats , 57 outpost boats ( war fishing cutters ) and 42 artillery ferries in the entire canal area . There were also five destroyers, a torpedo boat, 146 minesweepers and clearing boats and 59 outpost boats that were stationed on the Atlantic coast between Brest and Bayonne . In the central canal - where the invasion took place - they had only four torpedo boats, fifteen speedboats, nine outpost boats and six artillery ferries. The Germans had expected an invasion due to the shorter distance and, misled by Operation Fortitude, rather in the area of Boulogne and Calais.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel inspected the German defenses of the Atlantic Wall in 1944 , some of which were already out of date at that time, and commissioned several innovations before June 1944. He strongly advocated the expansion of the beach fortifications and the nearby hinterland with obstacles and mines . Some of the bunkers were still under construction when the Allied forces landed. In France, the Todt Organization built bunkers for guns of the heaviest caliber with considerable construction costs and the use of thousands of forced laborers .
Operation Neptune - Supporting the Allied Landings on the Beaches
Preparation and planning
On Monday April 17, 1944, the Royal Navy began laying mines on the German-occupied coast of the Canal. From that day until the beginning of June, around 6,800 sea mines were laid at the ports between IJmuiden in Holland and Brest in France. The Allies mostly used smaller ships such as motor torpedo boats to lay mines . The aim was to prevent the Germans from using ships to counter Operation Neptune by means of the mine locks. In the diary of the OKW ( High Command of the Wehrmacht ) it is noted:
- “[…] That the enemy mined the Seine estuary at Le Havre for the first time. It wondered whether it could be concluded from this that he did not intend to land here. But it could also be a question of mines that only remain active for some time [and are then harmless] ”.
British chariots (manned torpedoes) and combat divers were also used in the preparations for the Normandy landings . They examined the waters in which the invasion was to take place, inspected the beaches as far as possible, and removed obstacles, which is why the Allies had good information about the landing area. On June 6, British combat divers destroyed many of the beach barriers that the Germans had set up to stop the attackers.
On May 23, Station X in Bletchley Park intercepted a German naval message instructing German units to lay further mines in the Seine Bay, the Allied area of operations. The Allied Air Force and motor torpedo boats of the Royal Navy were then dispatched to stop the German units and prevent them from placing additional mines in the waters. They also succeeded.
The Allied Landing Fleet was divided into five groups, Force U, O, G, J and S - one for each stretch of beach.
Force U and O should start in Dartmouth and Weymouth and approach the American beach sectors. These two groups were combined to form the Western Naval Task Force under Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk , which should operate together with the 1st US Army under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley at the landing beaches of Omaha and Utah Beach . During the night, Force U (Rear Admiral Donald P. Moon ) with the 4th US Infantry Division and Force O (Rear Admiral John L. Hall ) with the 29th US Infantry Division were to land on the beaches. The convoys for Utah and Omaha Beach consisted of a total of sixteen attack force transports.
The remaining three groups started from Southampton (Force G), Portsmouth (Force J) and Shoreham (Force S) and were supposed to go to the British and Canadian beach sectors. They were also combined into a higher-level group, the Eastern Naval Task Force under Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian , which was to operate on the landing beaches of Juno , Sword and Gold Beach together with the British 2nd Army under Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey . During the night, Force G ( Commodore Sir Cyril Eustace Douglas-Pennant ) with the British 50th Infantry Division, Force J (Commodore Geoffrey Oliver ) with the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, and Force S (Rear Admiral Arthur G. Talbot ) with the British 3rd Infantry Division land on the beaches.
In addition, it was planned that supply group L should set sail from the Thames estuary at Felixstowe and supply group B from Plymouth and arrive on the Normandy coast towards the evening of June 6th and the morning of June 7th.
All groups were to go to a point Z, which was thirteen kilometers southeast of the Isle of Wight , where the fleet should be within a circle of eight kilometers, which was called "Piccadilly Circus". From there, mine sweepers would head south to secure the five stretches of coast from mines and to demine them. 102 Allied minesweepers and 16 buoy- layers were assigned to the Western Task Force and 102 minesweepers and 27 buoy-layers to the Eastern Task Force .
On the morning of June 4, two Allied mini-submarines reached the Juno and Sword Beach target areas. They assumed the invasion had started. They hadn't noticed that it had been stopped again. Since they were under water and near the Normandy coast, they had also stopped the radio communication and thus did not receive the news of the postponement of the invasion. On June 5, at 12:55 a.m., the two boats appeared and received the news. In addition to the two submarines, 120 LCTs were also put to sea, which were 40 kilometers south of the Isle of Wight around 9:00 a.m., but were stopped there by two destroyers and informed of the new orders, whereupon they returned .
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay , the commander of the Allied Naval Forces, briefed the Naval Forces prior to the upcoming operation as follows:
“Our task in conjunction with the Merchant Navies of the United Nations, and supported by the Allied Air Forces, is to carry the Allied Expeditionary Force to the Continent, to establish it there in a secure bridgehead and to build it up and maintain it at a rate which will outmatch that of the enemy. "
"It is our task, together with the merchant navies of the United Nations and supported by the Allied Air Forces, to bring the Allied expeditionary forces to the continent, to guarantee it a safe bridgehead there and to expand it so quickly that the enemy no longer comes along."
Admiral Theodor Krancke , Naval Commander West, started his inspection trip to Bordeaux on June 5, but previously reported to the Commander-in-Chief West that “the outpost boats cannot leave their bases because of the rough seas”, which is why the Germans made their other reconnaissance trips on 5 June . June and the night of June 6th did not take place. Krancke later also reported: "[...] according to the available weather reports [...] an invasion in the night of June 5th to 6th hardly seemed possible".
execution
Arrival of the Allied Armada
At 9:00 a.m. on June 5, the Allied Armada - with the exception of Forces U and O - set sail. Groups U and O did not start until 4:00 p.m. on the same day. The journey and the clearing of the mines went according to plan; only one American minesweeper sank. The first Allied ships to anchor off the Normandy coast in the assigned positions (see map of the ship fire on the coast) were the USS Bayfield at 2:29 a.m. 21 kilometers off Utah Beach with General J. Lawton Collins at Board and the USS Ancon at 2:51 a.m. 20 kilometers from Omaha Beach . Little by little, the other 5,300 ships of the invasion fleet also reached their positions, with the battleships anchored around 9,900 meters and the destroyers around 4,500 meters off the coast. Many of the soldiers on board suffered from seasickness after hours of sailing in heavy seas . At 4:15 a.m., the landing forces began to transfer to the landing craft .
At around 4:30 a.m., 45 minutes before dawn, the first landing craft were on their way to the beaches of Utah and Omaha. They had to struggle with high waves, currents and strong cross winds, which repeatedly took them off course. The landing craft had to drive about 17 kilometers towards the beach at Omaha Beach. They were guided by patrol and command boats equipped with radio and radar.
The American Captain Anthony Duke remembered the Allied Armada:
"By God, I'll never forget the feeling of power - power about to be unleashed - that welled up in me as I viewed the long, endless columns of ships headed toward Normandy."
"By God, I'll never forget the feeling of strength - strength waiting to be released - that welled up in me as I saw the long, endless columns of ships heading for Normandy."
First German reactions
The German group command West left reconnaissance patrols at 4:35 a.m. The 5th Torpedo Boat f lottille that 15 Vorpostenflottille and the 38th minesweeping flotilla ran out of his mouth out. The 5th and 9th speedboat flotilla crossed on both sides of the Cotentin Peninsula. Corvette captain Heinrich Hoffmann left Le Havre with the three operational boats of his 5th torpedo boat flotilla ( T 28 , Jaguar , Seagull ) at 4:15 a.m. and at 5:15 a.m. he found himself with his boats directly in front of the British ships in front of Sword Beach . Hoffmann decided to attack and fired 16 torpedoes at 5:35 a.m. The allied ships around HMS Warspite reacted immediately with evasive maneuvers and were able to escape the approaching torpedoes. Only the Norwegian destroyer Svenner received a hit amidships and sank. In the meantime the German boats had turned and escaped in the fog.
Opening of the Allied and German gunfire and sinking of the USS Corry
After the Allied destroyers Fitch and Corry were shelled by a German battery from the coast, Rear Admiral Morton Deyo , Commander of the Western Task Force Bombardment Group , gave all ships the call at 5:36 a.m., twenty minutes ahead of schedule Order to fire. The Eastern Task Force ships had started firing earlier at 5:10 a.m.
British Major John Howard , who had glided over Normandy that night during Operation Tonga , reported the following about the ship artillery fire:
“The barrage coming in was quite terrific. It was as though you could feel the whole ground shaking toward the coast, and this was going on like hell. Soon afterward it seemed to get nearer. Well, they were obviously lifting the barrage farther inland as our boats and crafts came in, and it was very easy, standing there and hearing all this going on and seeing all the smoke over in that direction, to realize what exactly was happening and keeping our fingers crossed for those poor buggers coming in by sea. "
“The barrage that started was just great. It was like feeling the whole ground shake towards the coast, and it went on like hell. A short time later it seemed to be getting closer. Well, they obviously shifted the fire further inland as our boats and vehicles landed, and it was very easy, when we stood there and heard everything go on and saw all the smoke going that way, making out what exactly was happening, and fingers to keep crossed for those poor fellows who landed there from the sea. "
Holdbrook Bradley, a correspondent for the American newspaper Baltimore Sun , who went to Omaha Beach on board a dropship and reported on various theaters of war and wars, later described the ship bombardment:
“The sound of battle is something I'm used to. But this [the opening bombardments on D-Day] was the loudest thing I have ever heard. There was more firepower than I've ever heard in my life and most of us felt that this was the moment of our life [...]. "
“Combat noise is familiar to me. But that [the opening bombing on D-Day] was the loudest thing I've ever heard. There was more firepower there than I've ever heard in my life, and most of us felt that this was the [most important] moment of our lives [...]. "
The artillery position at Longues-sur-Mer opened fire on the destroyer USS Emmons off Omaha Beach at 5:37 a.m. The fired ten shots missed the American ship. The battleship USS Arkansas was targeted by the battery as the next target . Again, no hits could be recorded. In return, the USS Arkansas opened fire on the battery at 5:52 a.m. and shot 130 rounds at it, but without hitting it. When closer targets appeared, the German battery aimed their tubes at them.
Allied planes were supposed to put a wall of smoke between the Allied armada and the German positions to block the view of the Germans. Some of these planes also appeared on Utah Beach at 6:10 a.m. and laid the said smoke wall. The aircraft, which was supposed to cover the US destroyer USS Corry , was shot down by German flak before it could lay the smoke screen. For a few moments the USS Corry was therefore the only allied ship visible to the Germans, which led to the German guns concentrating their salvos on the American destroyer. The ship began to maneuver to avoid the bullets, which was dangerous in the still heavily mined section. The Machinist Mate G. Gullickson remarked:
“All of a sudden, the ship literally jumped out of the water! As the floor grates came loose, the lights went out and steam filled the space. [...] It was total darkness with steam severely hot and choking. "
“Suddenly the ship literally jumped out of the water! As the grids fell, the lights went out and steam filled the room. [...] It was completely dark because of the steam, which was burning hot and suffocating. "
The ship had hit a mine amidships and was beginning to sink. Gullickson, who was already up to his waistcoat in the water at this point, reported further: “ At this time, there was another rumble from underneath the ship ”. (German: “At this point there was another rumble from below the ship.”) - The USS Corry had run into a mine for the second time and broke in two. Many of the crew members drowned or suffered burns and suffocation.
At 6:30 a.m., 30 minutes after sunrise, landings began at Utah and Omaha Beach. The ships lying off the coast stopped their fire shortly beforehand and some of them moved their targets further into the hinterland so as not to endanger the soldiers on the beaches.
Ian Michie, a Royal Navy soldier aboard the British cruiser HMS Orion , said: “ Our shooting was very good and direct hits were soon beeing recorded. We scored thirteen direct hits on the battery before shifting target. ”(German:“ Our fire was very good, and we soon had several direct hits. We got thirteen direct hits on the battery before we changed targets. ”) The batteries in Longues-sur-Mer, Pointe du Hoc and others Sites were only slightly damaged by the ship's artillery, but not destroyed, and some of them are still there today. Stephen E. Ambrose's book D-Day lists on a report by the Royal Navy:
“An official report from the Royal Navy admitted that 'no serious damage either to the concrete structures or the guns in the strong points' was achieved, but pointed out that the shelling' effectively neutralized the positions by terrifying the enemy personnel in them and by preventing them from manning their weapons and firing on the troops during the landings'. ”
An official report from the Royal Navy recognized that 'neither the concrete structures nor the guns in the fortified positions could be seriously damaged', but pointed out that the bombardment 'practically eliminated the positions by wearing down the enemy crews therein and thereby, that they could be deterred from manning their weapons and bombarding the units during the landing '. "
However, according to Ambrose, this was more wishful thinking, because various German gun crews were able to man their positions again after the ships had shelled the coast. However, due to the Allied precautions, such as the use of artificial smoke walls, the batteries were unable to identify any or only a few targets and shoot them specifically.
The German batteries were mostly switched off by other means. The artillery battery near Merville was destroyed by British paratroopers during Operation Tonga . US ranger units tried the same at the battery at Pointe du Hoc , but after conquering the site they discovered that the guns had been moved further into the hinterland. After a short search, however, some rangers were able to find the guns unguarded in the hinterland and render them harmless.
Battles in the canal area, on the Normandy coast and in Brittany
June 1944
In the following days, German torpedo boats tried to disrupt the landing operations by torpedo attacks and mine locks, but this was largely unsuccessful.
The German 5th and 9th speedboat flotillas set sail from Cherbourg on the night of June 7th. Already on the outflow route, two speedboats were lost in front of Cap Barfleur on a mine block previously laid by the British 64th motor torpedo boat flotilla. In contrast, four speedboats broke through the defensive lines of the Allied coastal forces and sank two landing ships off St. Vaast.
On the same night off Le Havre there was a battle between the German 4th Räumbootsflotille and the British 55th motor torpedo boat flotilla and the Canadian 29th motor torpedo boat flotilla , in which a German and two Allied ships were badly damaged. On the same day, the 2nd and 8th Schnellbootflotillen from Ostend carried out an unsuccessful reconnaissance expedition into the southern North Sea.
At 5:15 a.m. on the morning of June 8, the Allied frigate HMS Lawford sank , possibly after being hit by a Henschel Hs 293 radio controlled glider bomb dropped by a Dornier Do 217 .
Also in the night of June 7th to 8th, there were battles in which both Allied landing craft and German speedboats were sunk. The Germans also sank some of their ships themselves to prevent them from being taken over by the Allies. The Allies, for their part, suffered several casualties from sea mines, including two destroyers. Other ships were destroyed by German air or artillery attacks, mostly ships that had previously been immobilized by mines.
Between June 6 and 30, 1944, the Germans deployed several submarines to counteract the Allied naval forces. In the majority of cases, however, these submarines were damaged or destroyed by Allied aircraft and could only inflict losses of around five ships on the enemy.
On the night of June 8th to 9th, the Kriegsmarine attempted to advance from Brest into the invasion area with four destroyers, the last larger ships lying in France. The German Admiral Theodor Krancke , commander of the Marine Group West, had ordered this, but the Allied intelligence service learned about it. The Royal Navy's 10th destroyer flotilla was dispatched to attack the German unit. To the north-west of the Isle de Bas , at around 1:30 a.m., a battle broke out between the German and the Allied destroyer flotilla, which consisted of four British, two Canadian and two Polish destroyers. After four hours of fighting, the Allies sank the German destroyer ZH 1 and damaged the Z 32 so badly that it had to be set aground. The two remaining destroyers returned to Brest, also badly damaged. On the allied side, the HMS Tartar was badly damaged.
On the night of June 14-15, 234 Lancaster bombers of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command attacked the French city of Le Havre . One plane was lost in the action. On the other hand, the Germans recorded losses of three torpedo boats, sixteen speedboats, two escort boats as well as two clearing boats, seven minesweepers and eight outpost boats. In addition, an artillery ferry and several smaller auxiliary warships and port vehicles were destroyed. The following night, June 15-16, 297 Allied bombers attacked Boulogne . The German losses amounted to three clearing boat escort ships, six clearing boats, three minesweepers and two outpost boats, two artillery ferry boats, three tugs and five harbor protection boats . Furthermore, two clearing boats were badly damaged. In addition, the German tanker Sonderburg was sunk as a block ship on June 15 in the port of Cherbourg .
In the period that followed, there were repeated battles between auxiliary warships, in which speedboats, motor boats, clearing boats and similar ships, but sometimes Allied destroyers and frigates, were used and were damaged several times. These battles took place off Normandy and Brittany until at least the end of July . In addition, the German Air Force attacked the Allied Armada from the air with bombers, fighters and the dropping of mines.
On June 19, 1944, the command boat flotilla 211 arrived with ten command boats and twenty-four explosive devices in Bolbec east of Le Havre and was transferred to an advanced base near Honfleur on the night of June 20 to 21 . The first attack by this flotilla was to take place on the night of June 25th to 26th. For this attack, eight command and nine explosive boats were dispatched that evening, which had been towed by clearing boats . However, one of the explosive devices hit the side wall of a clearing boat, exploded and sank the clearing boat and two command boats. Despite the accident, the voyage was continued, but the operation was disrupted a little later by bad weather and the ships returned. After two more attempts in June had failed due to accidents and material defects, Adolf Hitler ordered the use of explosive boats to be stopped in the Seine bay and to use miniature Marder- type submarines instead. From June 28, the 361 command flotilla arrived in Trouville with 60 of these micro-submarines that had been transported overland from Germany. The unit was then moved to a forest near Villers-sur-Mer in order to prepare for its missions there.
Between June 25 and 27, allied ship formations supported the attacks in the Caen area (→ Battle of Caen ) and Cherbourg (→ Battle of Cherbourg ). On June 25, a small submarine of the type Biber arrived in Rouen , which had been transported from Kiel via Aachen and Paris . From there, the bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne were to be attacked by boat . However, instead of using the beaver, the operation was carried out by German combat swimmers and failed. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the boat.
By June 25, the Western Naval Task Force had lost three destroyers, one escort destroyer, two mine clearance boats, and various smaller ships and landing craft. In addition, various ships, including two destroyers, were badly damaged.
July 1944
When some speedboats arrived in Le Havre, the torpedo workshop in the port there exploded on the night of July 5th to 6th for reasons not known exactly: 41 torpedoes were destroyed, and speedboat operations had to be severely restricted due to the subsequent torpedo shortage become.
On the night of July 5th to 6th, 26 of the one-man torpedoes of the " Marder " type stationed in Villers-sur-Mer were used against the Allied landing area. The operation was considered a success by the Germans. Eleven of the boats reported successes, although only two Allied minesweepers and one destroyer escort had actually been sunk. In contrast, however, only sixteen of the micro-submarines returned. During a renewed mission the following night, the Germans deployed 21 "Marder" and were able to destroy a mine sweeper and damage the old Polish cruiser ORP Dragon so badly that it could only be used as a breakwater in "Mulberry B". None of the submarine crews returned.
In addition, there were combat operations by German and Allied warships throughout the month, in which mostly speedboats or motor torpedo boats were destroyed, but sometimes Allied destroyers were also destroyed.
August 1944
From August 1 to August 27, 1944, allied sea units fought in the canal area and on the Biscay coast against several German submarines, eleven of which were sunk. Only one ship was lost on the Allied side. In mid-August, a new wave of German submarines arrived in the canal area, which managed to sink six Allied ships with the loss of four submarines and to damage another so badly that it was unfit for combat. On August 27, the five remaining German submarines were recalled to Norway . On the way back, one of the submarines, the U 218 , put a mine lock at Start Point on August 20 , on which the British trawler Kned was lost on July 10, 1945 .
At the beginning of August, the command boat flotilla 211 arrived in Houlgate to carry out a combined "marten" and " lens " operation with the simultaneous participation of speedboat flotillas. The operation took place on the night of August 2nd to 3rd, combined with an air raid . A group consisting of sixteen commandos and 28 explosive vessels of the “Lens” type and a second group with 58 one-man torpedoes of the “Marder” type were involved. The Germans managed to sink the destroyer HMS Quorn , a trawler and a landing craft and damage two freighters . At least six of the “martens” were destroyed by the Allies, and another was captured undamaged. For the last time, 42 "martens" were used on the night of August 16-17. They sank an Allied school boat, a landing craft and the freighter Iddesleigh, which was damaged by a speedboat attack . Only sixteen “martens” returned from the mission.
Between August 5 and 30, 1944, while clearing the ports, the Germans sank various ships of their own in Le Verdon, Nantes, Brest, Saint-Malo , on the Seine and near Paris, as well as in Saint-Nazaire , on the Gironde and in Bordeaux . In total, a barge, a destroyer, a supply tanker, two freighters, two auxiliary minesweepers, three mine sweepers, four motor torpedo boats, six barrier breakers, nine tankers, nine evacuation boats, fifteen outpost boats, twenty-one merchant ships and numerous smaller ships were affected.
Natural hazards - storms and swell
Dangers to Allied or German ships, however, did not only threaten during battles with ships of the respective opposing side. Both sides lost ships through nature. For example, the British destroyer Fury was damaged by a mine hit on June 21 off Sword Beach. After he was taken in tow, torn in a storm the ropes . The destroyer ran aground and was lost.
Due to the swell and high wind speeds , some smaller Allied ships sank during the crossing on June 5th and 6th. In addition, most of the army soldiers who were not used to shipping suffered from nausea. Some of the tanks made buoyant (→ DD tank ) sank due to high waves.
From June 18 to 22, 1944, there was a severe storm in the canal area, which made deployment of the armed forces on both sides impossible. The Allies stopped the supply of supplies from England to France and interrupted the unloading and transport operations at the landing head. For the next four days, the Allied Expeditionary Force was exposed to perhaps the most violent storm in the English Channel in 40 years. In the storm, the allied artificial harbor “Mulberry A”, which was located in front of Omaha Beach near St. Laurent , was largely destroyed and unusable (→ cf. The Mulberrys ).
Supply of the Allies
The Mulberrys
The planning of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force envisaged the construction of two large landing stages for transport ships as part of Operation Neptune after the successful landing in Normandy . One port, "Mulberry A", was to be built by the Americans in front of Vierville - Saint-Laurent , and a second, "Mulberry B", by the British before Arromanches . The individual parts were prefabricated in England and assembled off the Normandy coast.
In the first phase of the construction of the Mulberrys, on June 9, 1944, 53 old Allied merchant and warships were sunk by the Allies about 1,400 meters off the Normandy beach to form a four-mile basin. On land, the Allies built large warehouses, old streets were widened and new ones laid out to allow goods to be transported to the front more quickly.
"Mulberry A", which was located in front of Omaha Beach, was largely destroyed and unusable in the storm. Many landing vehicles were also thrown on the beach and destroyed during the storm, which severely disrupted the landing of Allied supplies. The Americans waived the repair, so that the parts that could still be used could be used to complete the more lightly damaged port "Mulberry B". At Vierville-Saint-Laurent, however, the Americans still unloaded transport ships on land, which later turned out to be even more effective than unloading at sea.
The British port "Mulberry B" went into full operation shortly afterwards. A total of 628,000 tons of supplies, 40,000 vehicles and 220,000 soldiers were able to go ashore here by October 31.
Cherbourg harbor
After the city commander of Cherbourg surrendered to the Americans on July 26th, the city's port fell into Allied hands. It was blocked by numerous shipwrecks, mined and largely destroyed. First the Allies cleared the mines with minesweepers and divers , after which the sunken ships were salvaged to make the port navigable again. In addition, rubble and destroyed buildings had to be removed or repaired.
After fifteen days, the port was repaired to the point that it could partially be used again. However, the entire port was only fully repaired after three months of work day and night.
Gilles Perrault described the port as "the most important supply line for the Allied forces". On September 7th, 23,000 new American soldiers landed in Cherbourg to be transported to the front. From October 15, more than 20,000 tons of equipment were handled every day , after which the port became the largest transshipment point in the world on November 2, with 133 ships docking and with one million gross registered tonnes , which, however, already in February 1945 of two million gross registered tonnes in the same port could be exceeded.
Operation PLUTO (Pipe-Lines Under The Ocean)
The Operation Pluto ( P IPE L ines U Direction T he O cean) was an operation by British scholars, by extending under the sea pipeline oil to be transported from England by the English Channel to France. The plan was developed by AC Hartley, chief engineer of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company , after it was conceived by Admiral Louis Mountbatten .
Prototypes of the pipeline were successfully tested in May 1942 over the River Medway and in June over the Firth of Clyde . Then production started.
The first pipeline was laid on August 12, 1944 between the Isle of Wight and Cherbourg ; it was 70 nautical miles (about 135 kilometers) long. Later other pipelines were laid at Cherbourg and later also through the Dover Strait . Tugs pulled huge drums across the canal and unwound the cables, connected the sections together and laid them. The operation was completed within ten hours due to careful preparation.
The pipeline was still pumping 300 tons of fuel per day in January 1945, after which the output quickly grew to more than 4,000 tons per day. A total of 172 million gallons of fuel had been pumped through the pipeline by the day of the German surrender . Alongside the Mulberry ports, PLUTO is considered to be one of the greatest military engineering feats in history.
aftermath
Due to the large number of ships deployed, the construction of the pipelines under the canal, the artificial harbors and the conquest of the port of Cherbourg, which is important for the supply, as well as the interaction of naval, air and land forces, the Allies succeeded in establishing a firm To establish a base in France and thereby finally achieve their war goal of conquering Germany. In addition, it was possible to control the airspace and most of the canal area.
The Allies were then able to concentrate on other locations for their ships. For example, the Americans could turn more to the Pacific War , even though German submarines continued to pose a threat.
In October 1944 the Allies captured the port of Antwerp , one of the largest North Sea ports. However, they could only use this after Canadian forces had cleared the peninsula north of the port in the Battle of the Scheldt estuary (October 2 to November 8, 1944). From then on the supply flows changed considerably; the Red Ball Express was discontinued on November 16, 1944.
Processing and further information
Movies
- The documentary feature film D-Day - Decision in Normandy of the British television broadcaster BBC documents the events during the preparatory phase “ Exercise Tiger ”, D-Day and the following period.
- The 1962 feature film The Longest Day , produced by Darryl F. Zanuck , depicts the bombing of the beaches by ship artillery and the landing there. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Cornelius Ryan . The film also shows other operations of the Allied landing in Normandy.
- The film Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg recreates the Allied landing on Omaha Beach . Especially the longer opening sequence shows relentlessly and realistically the horrors of war.
literature
Some of the books are available in German, English and other languages. Books that were published in German are only listed in the In German language section . Specific literature on the landings on the beaches or on individual operations etc. can be found in the respective articles.
In German language
- Tony Hall (Ed.): Operation "Overlord". Motorbuch Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-613-02407-1 - Comprehensive work by international authors on the aspects of Operation Overlord. The book is structured thematically.
- Janusz Piekalkiewicz: Invasion. France 1944. Munich 1979 - The book describes the events of the operation in detail, is well illustrated and also contains correspondence, original reports, press reports, etc.
- Will Fowler: D-Day: The First 24 Hours. Amber Books Ltd., London 2003, ISBN 3-85492-855-6 - Fowler's book only describes Operation Neptune, but with good illustrations and lots of maps.
- Walter Lohmann and Hans H. Hildebrand: The German Navy 1939-1945. Bad Nauheim 1956–64 - Work on the history of the German navy during the Second World War.
- Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1944–1945. Part 1, ISBN 3-7637-5933-6 - Annotated edition of the war diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, consisting of eight volumes, one of which deals with the situation on the Western Front in 1944.
In English
- Anthony Hall: Operation Overlord. D-Day Day by Day. New Line Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84013-592-1 - Diary of the planning, preparation and execution of Operation Overlord, but only until about fifteen days after D-Day.
- Samuel Eliot Morison : History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: 1944–1945. University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-07062-3 - Work by Marine Reservist and historian Morison describing the role of the US Navy between 1944 and 1945.
- Stephen E. Ambrose: D-Day. Simon & Schuster, 1994, ISBN 0-7434-4974-6 - This book is based on various interviews with contemporary witnesses and deals exclusively with D-Day, the day before and after (D-1 and D + 1). In addition to this book, Ambrose wrote various other books, such as the book Band of Brothers , which was the model for the television series of the same name .
- Robin Niellands: The Battle of Normandy - 1944. Weidenfeld & Nicholson military, 2002, ISBN 0-304-35837-1 - Nielland's book on the Battle of Normandy deals with various aspects of Operation Overlord, including the naval war.
- John Prados: Neptunus Rex - Naval Stories of the Normandy Invasion. June 6, 1944. Voices of the Navy Memorial. Presidio Press, Novato CA 1998, ISBN 0-89141-648-X .
Web links
- Sea War 1944, June including the canal area , Württemberg State Library
- Sea War 1944, July including the canal area , Württemberg State Library
- Sea War 1944, August including the canal area , Württemberg State Library
- Summarized information , Württemberg State Library
- Information at the US Navy (English)
- Information about naval warfare during Operation Neptune (English)
- Information about naval warfare during the aftermath of Operation Neptune (English)
- combinedops.com for naval warfare during the operation Overlord (English)
- Information at ibiblio.org (English)
- The Royal Navy to naval warfare during Overlord (English)
- Information on the use of the Mulberrys u. a. (English)
- Information on the US Coast Guard (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Anthony Hall: Operation Overlord: D-Day Day by Day. New Line Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84013-592-1 , p. 89.
- ↑ Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1944–1945. Part 1, ISBN 3-7637-5933-6 , p. 290.
- ↑ Buoy layers marked the fairways and lake sections cleared of mines with special buoys.
- ↑ D-Day 70th anniversary on royalnavy.mod.uk; accessed on August 8, 2016.
- ↑ Janusz Piekalkiewicz: Invasion. France 1944. Munich 1979, p. 121 ff.
- ↑ Tony Hall (Ed.): Operation "Overlord". Motorbuch Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-613-02407-1 , p. 72.
- ↑ Stephen E. Ambrose: D-Day. Simon & Schuster, 1994, ISBN 0-7434-4974-6 , p. 258.
- ^ Anthony Hall: Operation Overlord: D-Day Day by Day. New Line Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84013-592-1 , p. 129.
- ↑ Stephen E. Ambrose: D-Day. Simon & Schuster, 1994, ISBN 0-7434-4974-6 , p. 263.
- ↑ Stephen E. Ambrose: D-Day. Simon & Schuster, 1994, ISBN 0-7434-4974-6 , p. 266 ff.
- ↑ a b Stephen E. Ambrose: D-Day. Simon & Schuster, 1994, ISBN 0-7434-4974-6 , pp. 269, 270.
- ^ Anthony Hall: Operation Overlord: D-Day Day by Day. New Line Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84013-592-1 , p. 171.
- ↑ Tony Hall (Ed.): Operation "Overlord". Motorbuch Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-613-02407-1 , p. 79.
- ↑ Yves Lecouturier: Discovery Paths . The Allied Landing beaches. ISBN 3-88571-287-3 , p. 96.
