Normandy: Breaching the Atlantic Wall: From D-Day to the Breakout and Liberation

At 9:30 PM, a tense meeting took place in the library of the maritime prefecture at Southwick House, the headquarters of Adm. Sir Bertram Ramsay. Reporting to Eisenhower and the top commanders assembled about him, the meteorologist was certain of inclement weather: the coming four days would be marked by strong winds, low clouds, and fog. Despite this discouraging information, Eisenhower gave the order for Allied Task Forces U and O, stationed farthest to the west along the coast at Devonshire and Portland, to launch. On Sunday, June 4, at 4:15 AM, two hours before the preponderance of the fleet was scheduled to weigh anchor, Eisenhower convened the high command. With no improvement in the weather, the supreme commander, despite the disagreement of Montgomery, decided to wait for twenty-four hours. The entirety of Allied Task Force U, commanded by Rear Adm. Alan Goodrich Kirk, and part of Task Force O, who were already on their way, received the order to turn around and head back. At 9:00 PM of the same day, Eisenhower convened another meeting at Southwick House, attended by Montgomery, Air Chief Marshal Arthur William Tedder (Eisenhower’s deputy in the Mediterranean and Northwest Europe), Leigh-Mallory, Ramsay, Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (Eisenhower’s chief of staff during his tenure at SHAEF), and others. If the order to go was not given before June 5 at dawn, the entire mission would have to be postponed for fifteen days, entailing serious consequences. The chief meteorologist reported, however, that there would soon be a break in the storm, predicting decreasing winds and clearing skies for June 5 and the night of June 5–6. Eisenhower asked for the opinions of those in the room. Leigh-Mallory and Tedder remarked that clear skies were an absolute necessity for the success of preliminary bombings. Bedell Smith said that to postpone the operation again carried the real risk of calling the entire operation into question, while Ramsay insisted on the urgency of making a decision in order to give the navy sufficient time. Eisenhower then questioned Montgomery, who again categorically opposed any postponement. The immense responsibility of the final decision weighed squarely on Eisenhower’s shoulders. After weighing the pros and cons, he gave the order after a long silence: “OK. Let’s go!”

Even before the first bombers took off from England to attack the Normandy coast, the German high command knew the invasion had begun. Through their usual means of spying and treason, the German military espionage agency, the Abwehr, had succeeded in surreptitiously infiltrating the Allied network: Overlord was no longer a secret. No one— not an officer of the German general staff, not a commander in the field, not a single soldier—was surprised on June 6 by the invasion. Nevertheless, the invasion came to pass. The Allied high command had succeeded in establishing a vast organization of spies and saboteurs in France. Capable leaders were in charge of operations for the principal sections, including the impeccably functioning Alliance des Animaux (Animal Alliance), so called because its members knew each other only by call names taken from the animal kingdom. Extending throughout all of France, it consisted of thousands of members, led by district chiefs or commandos. The alliance sent information to the Allies by radio or carrier pigeon, and spied and organized acts of sabotage on a grand scale. The organization had two missions: to sabotage and destroy the preparation of German defenses and, even more importantly, to prepare for mass action at the decisive moment of invasion. It was largely unknown, for example, that a mere ten grams of sugar, tossed opportunely into a cement mixer, sufficed to render a hundred kilos of cement devoid of strength. A single Resistance member in the Obligatory Work Service, posted handily close to the cement mixer, could thus easily wreak havoc on elements of the German fortifications by introducing relatively tiny portions of sugar into either the dry mixture or the water used to make the cement.

• Paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division in a landing craft have just received their copies of General Eisenhower’s order of the day for June 6.
• Long lines of infantrymen wait to embark on landing craft, assault (LCAs); landing craft, vehicle, personnel (LCVPs); and landing craft, infantry (LCIs).
• Vehicles chained to the deck were parked in position to back out of an LCVP. Trucks, jeeps, and other vehicles were brought in as support on the second wave.
• Stormy weather caused General Eisenhower to rescind his original departure orders, delaying D-Day until June 6. Meanwhile, thousands of troops remained in wait.
• Troops about to embark from southern England attend a religious service. Here, a Catholic chaplain blesses the men about to participate in the “Great Crusade.”
• Rangers tasked with the mission of assaulting the rocky cliffs of Pointe du Hoc are ready to take to the sea in an LCVP.