D-Day secured a bridgehead, but the fighting into Normandy would only become more brutal fighting in the weeks ahead. In grinding attrition resembling the Eastern Front (many German units in Normandy were veterans of said theater) both sides would engage in vicious fighting through the hedgerows, towns, and heights surrounding the Allied zones.
Nazi fanaticism and Allied reprisals contributed to an escalating pattern of brutality on both sides. For example, Wehrmacht soldiers deliberately targeted Allied medics, and would feign surrender to lure American soldiers into the open, only to mow them down with machine guns. Consequently, many American units began to take no prisoners.
By the time the Falaise Pocket collapsed in late August, the Wehrmacht had suffered 440,000 losses including 200,000 men captured. The Allies would lose 225,000 soldiers and aircrew. For reference, German losses on the Eastern Front averaged 1,000 men a division per month; in Normandy, the average was 2,300 per division. Red Army casualties averaged 1,500 per division per month, while Allied casualties in Normandy approached 2,000 per division per month.
>When the ramps were dropped, the German machine-gunners concentrated their fire on the opening. In some places men leaped off and found the water over their heads. “Many were hit in the water, good swimmers or not. Screams for help came from men hit and drowning under ponderous loads… There were dead men floating in the water and there were live men acting dead, letting the tide take them in.”
A staff sergeant in the 1st Division saw a direct hit on the neighbouring assault boat. Several of the men on board were blown “fifty or sixty feet in the air”. There were cries in all directions: “I’m hit! I’m hit!” Machine-gun fire criss-crossed the beach and, “as it hit the wet sand, it made a ‘sip sip’ sound like someone sucking on their teeth”.
One soldier saw a fellow GI running from right to left, trying to get across. An enemy gunner shot him as he stumbled. “He screamed for a medic. An aid moved quickly to help him and he was also shot. The medic lay next to the GI and both of them were screaming until they died a few minutes later”.
A member of the 1st Battalion watched the fate of a devout non-com, Sergeant “Pilgrim” Robertson. He “had a gaping wound in the upper right corner of his forehead. He was walking crazily in the water without his helmet. Then I saw him get down on his knees and start praying with his rosary beads. At this moment the Germans cut him in half with their deadly crossfire.”
The first soldier through the wire was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire. “Medico!” he yelled. “Medico I’m hit. Help me!” He moaned and cried for a few minutes. “Finally he died after sobbing ‘Mama’, several times.”
* Antony Beevor, *D-Day: The Battle for Normandy*, on the nightmarish chaos of Omaha Beach
I don’t get how they just rushed the beach knowing it was suicide.
Thanks to all the brave soldiers who liberated my country
Babe wake up, the latest Iron_Calvary dump just dropped
The story behind the Robert Capa photos and why we don’t have a lot more is really fascinating
“Lafayette, we are here!” (Wrong world war, but applicable nonetheless).
Many of the images made by Capa ‘got lost’ during that day…which results till today in questions why those roles of film went lost.
Reading about the glider men in those Horsa gliders and the shit show those were at Normandy and especially Market Garden was sobering.
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Between June 6 to June 20, the Americans lost [24,162 men ](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LU9eX5ZEwJQ/YbGhsS7HB9I/AAAAAAAAhcI/mlcnRR29zrsBjlU0LTSuw_SJQwMGizjDwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/d-day-rare-photographs%2B%252844%2529.jpg)including 11,041 killed or missing; the British lost 13,572 including 4,973 killed or missing; and the Canadians lost 2,815 including 1,456 killed or missing. The Germans would lose 47,070 men including 6 generals in the same time period. These numbers would double by July 1.
Casualties for D-Day itself were over [10,000 ](https://content.magnumphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/cortex/par77862-teaser-xxl.jpg)for the Allies: [7,000 Americans ](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-daw6SvO7UU4/YbGhszuDOmI/AAAAAAAAhcM/IG6TxNDbIPoYmPFjOp7FFUfPKpwTXSYWwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/d-day-rare-photographs%2B%252845%2529.jpg)and [3,000 British/Canadians](https://preview.redd.it/photos-of-d-day-v0-4cdo6kvmglue1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=a7e4a646664f9897f856a1a25d7310cb24574258). The Germans lost roughly [half that number](https://preview.redd.it/photos-of-d-day-v0-4qg68hvehlue1.png?width=320&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=afb573124384fcf3f984e2856b4eb56a9292f363). 3,000 French civilians died in the crossfire on Day One.
D-Day secured a bridgehead, but the fighting into Normandy would only become more brutal fighting in the weeks ahead. In grinding attrition resembling the Eastern Front (many German units in Normandy were veterans of said theater) both sides would engage in vicious fighting through the hedgerows, towns, and heights surrounding the Allied zones.
Nazi fanaticism and Allied reprisals contributed to an escalating pattern of brutality on both sides. For example, Wehrmacht soldiers deliberately targeted Allied medics, and would feign surrender to lure American soldiers into the open, only to mow them down with machine guns. Consequently, many American units began to take no prisoners.
By the time the Falaise Pocket collapsed in late August, the Wehrmacht had suffered 440,000 losses including 200,000 men captured. The Allies would lose 225,000 soldiers and aircrew. For reference, German losses on the Eastern Front averaged 1,000 men a division per month; in Normandy, the average was 2,300 per division. Red Army casualties averaged 1,500 per division per month, while Allied casualties in Normandy approached 2,000 per division per month.
>When the ramps were dropped, the German machine-gunners concentrated their fire on the opening. In some places men leaped off and found the water over their heads. “Many were hit in the water, good swimmers or not. Screams for help came from men hit and drowning under ponderous loads… There were dead men floating in the water and there were live men acting dead, letting the tide take them in.”
A staff sergeant in the 1st Division saw a direct hit on the neighbouring assault boat. Several of the men on board were blown “fifty or sixty feet in the air”. There were cries in all directions: “I’m hit! I’m hit!” Machine-gun fire criss-crossed the beach and, “as it hit the wet sand, it made a ‘sip sip’ sound like someone sucking on their teeth”.
One soldier saw a fellow GI running from right to left, trying to get across. An enemy gunner shot him as he stumbled. “He screamed for a medic. An aid moved quickly to help him and he was also shot. The medic lay next to the GI and both of them were screaming until they died a few minutes later”.
A member of the 1st Battalion watched the fate of a devout non-com, Sergeant “Pilgrim” Robertson. He “had a gaping wound in the upper right corner of his forehead. He was walking crazily in the water without his helmet. Then I saw him get down on his knees and start praying with his rosary beads. At this moment the Germans cut him in half with their deadly crossfire.”
The first soldier through the wire was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire. “Medico!” he yelled. “Medico I’m hit. Help me!” He moaned and cried for a few minutes. “Finally he died after sobbing ‘Mama’, several times.”
* Antony Beevor, *D-Day: The Battle for Normandy*, on the nightmarish chaos of Omaha Beach
I don’t get how they just rushed the beach knowing it was suicide.
Thanks to all the brave soldiers who liberated my country
Babe wake up, the latest Iron_Calvary dump just dropped
The story behind the Robert Capa photos and why we don’t have a lot more is really fascinating
“Lafayette, we are here!” (Wrong world war, but applicable nonetheless).
Many of the images made by Capa ‘got lost’ during that day…which results till today in questions why those roles of film went lost.
Reading about the glider men in those Horsa gliders and the shit show those were at Normandy and especially Market Garden was sobering.
Is there a bigger operation in military history?
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