438 : The Atlantic 



boxes, barbed wire entanglements, barricades and ditches against 

 tanks, a man-trap to catch parachute troops, etc. 



The growing strength of these German preparations demanded 

 speed from the AlHes if their invasion was not to face insurmounta- 

 ble obstacles. At the same time the invasion could not be undertaken 

 without enormous increases in amphibious trucks and specialized 

 landing craft. Also, before the invasion could be undertaken the 

 American participating forces together with all their supplies and 

 equipment had to be ferried across the Atlantic. 



This operation commenced toward the end of the year 1943 and 

 proceeded at the rate of 150,000 men a month together with food, 

 weapons and supplies; not only those that were immediately needed 

 but those that would be required in the final invasion itself. By June 

 1944 1,500,000 American soldiers together with all their arms and sup- 

 plies had been landed on the British Isles. The only elements of the 

 invasion force that did not have to be shipped across the Atlantic 

 were the planes which were ferried over by way of Newfoundland, Ice- 

 land and Scotland. However, this ability of the planes to get them- 

 selves to Europe was far from relieving the pressure on ocean trans- 

 port, for large fleets of tankers had to transport the gasoline that those 

 planes were to use and cargo ships had to carry the bombs that they 

 expected to drop on the enemy. 



On top of this the convoys of tankers and of cargo ships required 

 naval protection. General Dwight Eisenhower was the supreme com- 

 mander of the Allied Expeditionary Force while Admiral Sir Bertram 

 Ramsey of the Royal Navy was in charge of the naval operations 

 including the American naval contribution which numbered over 

 100,000 officers and almost 2,500 warships and landing craft. 



The prelude to the operation was some days of intensive aerial 

 bombing of the German installations in France. The operation itself 

 began at 2 a.m., June 6, 1944, when three air-borne divisions were 

 landed in Normandy with orders to disrupt all types of communica- 

 tions serving the Germans in that area. An hour later heavy bombers 

 began flying over the beaches dropping high explosives and clearing 

 the way for the landing. Mine sweepers moved in to clear the Channel 

 and the approaches to the beaches so that the naval vessels could move 

 in and commence bombarding the coast. At dawn the actual landing 

 operations commenced. The warships supplied shellfire and rocketfire 

 to protect the landing, to which was added a continuous cover of 

 fighter planes. 



Despite the huge scale of the plan, preparation and execution the 



