American airborne troops
The West stormed by the Americans
To secure the landing on Utah Beach and facilitate the advance toward Cherbourg, the Allies decided to send in American airborne troops. They decided to drop the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions over the Cotentin Peninsula on the night of June 5-6, 1944. Their mission was to capture the roads leading to Utah Beach, the bridges over the Douve and Merderet rivers, as well as strategic points such as Sainte-Mère-Église.
Flak causes a significant dispersion of paratroopers. This is explained by:
- the lack of experience of the pilots
- The flooding of the marshes
But the paratroopers managed to disorganize the Germans.
Sainte-Mère-Église was liberated at 4:30 a.m. by the 82nd Airborne, and links were made with the forces landed on Utah Beach in the following hours and days.
Despite confusion and heavy losses, the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secured the beach exits and advanced toward the bridges over the Douve River. At 4:30 a.m., the 506th Regiment reached Brévands Bridge, and shortly afterward, the 501st Regiment captured the Barquette Lock. West of Merderet, where the airdrops were most chaotic, the 82nd Airborne Division managed to capture key positions, including the Fière Bridge. Prominent figures in this fighting were Captain Lillyman, the first American to set foot in Normandy, and John Steele, hanging from the bell tower of Sainte-Mère-Église, became a symbol of the paratroopers' sacrifice. These crucial operations ensured the success of the landings and hampered German counterattacks.
British Airborne Troops
The East is stormed by the British
The capture of the Bénouville (Pegasus Bridge) and Ranville bridges was a key D-Day operation. The 6th Airborne Division's mission was to secure the eastern flank of the landings on Sword Beach. Under the command of Major John Howard, 120 men from D Company, 2nd Battalion, Ox and Bucks, moved in by glider. The assault was swift and precise, capturing the strategic bridges.
The operation, although marked by losses, succeeded in thwarting German plans, despite the dispersal of some troops. The airborne effort also included the destruction of the bridges over the Dives and Divette rivers by British and Canadian paratroopers, thus limiting enemy reinforcements. These actions, combined with the neutralization of the Merville battery by the 9th Parachute Battalion, played a vital role in the success of the first hours of the D-Day landings.
Beyond the military operations, emblematic figures such as Major Howard and Lieutenant Brotheridge, the first British soldier killed that day, made their mark on history. Ranville was the first village liberated thanks to the paratroopers, while General Gale established his headquarters there. The junction between the paratroopers and Lord Lovat's commandos, accompanied by the famous bagpiper Bill Millin, was a symbolic and strategic milestone. Operation Tonga, conducted from midnight to dawn, enabled the deployment of thousands of men and equipment, consolidating the Allied beachhead. By the evening of June 6, nearly 9 combatants firmly held this sector, ensuring an advance towards Caen and contributing to the overall success of the landings.
Latest diversion operations
On the night of June 5-6, the Allies launched the diversionary operation "Glimmer" on the Pas-de-Calais coast, designed to convince the German command of the imminence of the Allied landings in this sector: dropping "windows," small strips of aluminum, over a period of 3 and a half hours by RAF bombers off the coast of Calais and Cap d'Antifer. The objective was to jam German radars and give the impression of an approaching invasion squadron. Fictitious radio communications and armadas gathered off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Fécamp, massed behind curtains of artificial fog, finally gave the illusion of an invasion fleet. German coastal batteries opened fire on these fictitious armadas.
At the same time, Operation Titanic was launched: around forty British planes dropped several hundred decoy dolls in different sectors as part of a decoy maneuver. 200 "Rupert" dolls were dropped in the Saint-Lô sector, 50 east of Dives, 50 southwest of Caen, 200 near Yvetot with SAS (Special Air Service) paratroopers tasked with operating the devices hidden in the dolls and broadcasting sounds of gunfire and combat.
