With the beachhead won, the Allies now had to hold it in the face of German counter-attacks not only on land but at sea and in the air. But the transport ships and craft that carried the Allied combat divisions and logistical support forces from England to France during the weeks after D-Day were protected by an almost impervious shield of naval and air forces. Try as they might, German surface units, aircraft, and submarines did litde to impede the invasion.
On D-Day the German naval command ordered submarine flotillas in Brittany, Norway, and mid-Atlantic to move against the force. A formidable contingent of 16 German U-boats sortied from Brest and La Pallice bound for attack positions south and west of the Isle of Wight. Another 19 submarines formed a defense to contest any Allied move against that strategic peninsula. Even as this occurred. Allied air and sea patrol units were on the hunt for U-boats. Within hours, British aircraft sank U-955, damaged five other boats, and forced the remainder to run submerged, limiting their combat effectiveness. British Sunderland, Liberator, and Mosquito aircraft sent another five enemy vessels to the bottom during the next three days. These losses forced the German naval command to recall to Brittany all but the most capable units, those six equipped with the sophisticated “schnorkel” breathing system. Another five schnorkel boats were dispatched from Norway on June 9. Canadian and British aerial attackers soon sent two of these boats to the bottom. On June 24 and 25, the RAF s Coastal Command and the Royal Navy’s surface forces combined to sink no fewer than three German submarines on the western approaches to the invasion convoy routes.
The German U-boat fleet scored only a few successes during June. On the 15th, U-767 and U-764 each torpedoed a British frigate in the Channel and U-621 sank a US LST at the western edge of Adm. Kirk’s landing area off Normandy. Then, on the 29th off the southern English coast, U-984 torpedoed and sank three Liberty ships bound for France. These victories were a small return for the many brave submariners and boats sacrificed by the German high command in its fruitless attempt to halt the invasion.
German surface units fared little better than the U-boats. British fighters caught three German destroyers bound for Cherbourg off Brittany on June 6 and strafed them so savagely that the enemy force had to put in at Brest. Joined by another destroyer, on June 8 the formation sortied for another attempt to reach Normandy. This time the aircraft that spotted them called in a flotilla of eight British, Canadian, and Polish destroyers guarding the western approaches to the Channel. The battle was joined at 01:25 on June 9 when the Allied force opened fire at 5,000 yards (4,500m), evaded torpedoes and closed with the enemy. The bold Allied dash disrupted the enemy formation and sent the German destroyers fleeing in two directions. The Canadian destroyers Haida and Huron, gave chase to the German destroyers Z-24 and T-24 and heavily damaged Z-24 before both of the hunted ships reached safety of Brest. Meanwhile, the British and Polish units chased down and sank ZH-1. Finally, the Allied force converged on Z-32, set her afire, and forced her to beach. While this latter action was taking place, US destroyers and MTBs encountered a number of German E-boats off Barfleur and drove them away from the invasion forces.
On June 13, British Beaufighter aircraft pounced on a group of E-boats and R-boats of Le Touquet, sinking four of the enemy units. The following night, 325 British Lancaster bombers devastated the German flotilla at Le Havre, destroying 11 E-boats in their concrete shelters and sinking two torpedo boats and 40 other craft in the harbor. Adm. Krancke characterized the Le Havre raid as “catastrophic” to his force. One day later, RAF Bomber Command visited similar destruction on the German light naval units at Boulogne, eliminating the surface threat to the Normandy beachhead for some time. German surface units were only able to sink two LSTs and nine smaller vessels.
The once-vaunted German Luftwaffe did litde to impede the Allied invasion. During the entire month of June, German planes managed only to sink US destroyer Meredith, British destroyer Boadicea, frigate Laivford, and a few small craft.
Greater damage was done to the Allies by German mines laid before and after the invasion. The Americans suffered the most losses to mines early in June but toward the end of the month, British naval forces, operating closer to the enemy’s air and surface minelayer bases in France proper, took a number of heavy hits. German mines sank nine warships and other vessels and damaged seven more, including Adm. Vian’s flagship Scylla, which had to be towed back to England for repairs.
As Gen. Eisenhower and Adm. Ramsay already knew when they arrived off the invasion-beaches in British minelayer Apollo soon after the landing, the great Normandy enterprise would fail if the troops ashore were not reinforced, armed, and supplied on a massive scale. Until “Lightning Joe” Collins US VII Corps seized Cherbourg on June 26, the Allies had to rely totally on the few small ports in the invasion area and over the-beach supplies. The heavy seas made offloading of cargo ships difficult and hazardous during the first few days after D-Day. Over 100 LSTs and other vessels were forced to idle offshore until Adm. Vian and Adm. Kirk took bold action. They directed the LST skippers to beach their ships, even though they realized that the vessels would be caught high and dry with the ebbing tides. Despite its unorthodoxy, this approach worked. The naval leaders also reinforced the ship-to-beach logistic effort by diverting LCTs and similar craft from cross-channel transport duties. In addition, Adm. Vian quickly made use of the harbor facilities of Port-en-Bessin and Courseulles, which had not been damaged badly in the first day’s fighting. And, in short order, hard-working engineering parties had emplaced the Gooseberry boat shelters and Mulberry artificial ports.
Then, in the early morning hours of June 19, a threat arose that was much greater than anything the Germans could pose. The wind from the northeast rose to gale-force strength, whipping up the sea and compelling Allied naval commanders to halt logistic traffic to and from England. They also stopped unloading and transport operations in the invasion areas. For the next three days, the wind and sea of perhaps the worst June storm in the Channel in 40 years pounded the Allied Expeditionary Force. The American Mulberry at St. Laurent was damaged beyond repair. Hundreds of landing craft, small boats, and other light vessels were sunk or smashed on the shore and 800 craft were grounded. The force of the storm dragged ships’ anchors across the bottom and caused cables to part. Sections of partially completed breakwaters broke loose and battered hapless vessels in their path.
Allied forces were bruised but not beaten by the fierce Channel gale. Small boat captains and crews often braved the weather to deliver ammunition and other vital supplies ashore. When this was not possible, the naval units made use of the Gooseberry boat shelters, which proved a godsend, to ride out the worst of the weather. Seamen of many nations kept their ships afloat, protected precious cargoes from damage, and prepared to resume operations. So, when the wind finally died down and the sun shone through the clouds on the evening of June 22, the combined naval force regrouped and resumed the buildup of the Allied armies.
When Adms. Kirk and Vian turned over their commands and returned to England in late June and early July it marked the end of Operation Neptune, the largest and most complex amphibious landing in military history. Cooperation among the Allied naval, air, and ground forces in the monumental effort was extraordinary. In the words of the British official history of the Normandy invasion, “where Neptune will long, and perhaps for ever, remain unique is as a feat of inter-service organization. Never before had so many soldiers, sailors and airmen been assembled and trained to achieve a joint purpose.”
World History
