Beachheads of Normandy
The fateful battle for Europe is joined by sea and air
Americans crawl ashore through gun and artillery fire onto a French beach. Many were knocked down by the waves, lost their guns and ammunition.
The weather was not good for invasion last week along the coast of Normandy. Rain soaked the streets of the lovely old city of Caen, capital of the Norman Empire, and splashed against the gray walls of the cathedral at Bayeux. Along the beaches from Cherbourg to Le Havre fog blew in with the west wind.
But in spite of the heavy surf, troops and supplies came in by sea as paratroops and glider-borne infantry came by air to drop inland. Whenever the skies cleared, if only for an hour, Allied planes attacked the German airfields, railroads and troop concentrations. By the end of the week, the American beachhead at the mouth of the Vire had been consolidated with the British beachhead to the west of the Orne, Bayeux and Isigny had been captured and there was heavy fighting near Caen. Within four days after the first landings, U.S. Thunderbolts and RAF Spitfires were flying from airfields in France.
By week’s end, too, the first strategic objectives of the campaign had emerged. The Allies were trying to take Cherbourg as fast as possible. According to the Germans, from whom most news of the actual fighting was still coming, the Allies had made three new tank landings and had dropped paratroops near Lessay in an attempt to sever the Cherbourg Peninsula. Meanwhile, also according to the Germans, who threatened to stop giving out news unless the Allies gave out more news, the Allies were fighting east of Montebourg, less than 15 miles could be crossed, the Allies would have one of France’s best ports – used extensively by Americans in the last war – where supplies could be landed and whence an attack on Paris could be mounted.
While the weather was still had, the whole attack, supplies and all, moved slowly. Gen. Montgomery, field commander for the U.S., British and Canadian armies, moved his headquarters to France. Gen. Eisenhower called a council of war on a battleship off the French coast. By prearrangement, Gen. Marshall, Gen. Arnold and Adm. King turned up in London to get a closer look at what was going on. The fighting grew more desperate, the tempo of thrust and counterthrust more furious. Caen held out stubbornly against British attacks. The success of the invasion was still not certain. The Germans had 50 divisions at their disposal in France and their Luftwaffe had still not thrown in its strength, whatever its strength might be. The Allies had other armies to throw into the battle for Cherbourg or into landings on other beaches along the invasion coast.
The pictures were taken by LIFE photographer Robert Capa who went in with the first wave of troops. Although the first reports of landings indicated little opposition, his pictures show how violent the battle was and how strong the German defenses. His best pictures were made when he photographed the floundering American doughboys advancing through the deadly hail of enemy fire to goals on the beaches of Normandy.
The first wave of U.S. assault troops race through boiling surf to the beach. From the higher ground tapping machine guns have brought down several men in the water. This landing was one of the U.S. seaborne attacks made on June 6 between Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and Isigny.
Troops crouch behind shallow-water obstacles installed by Germans. Tanks out of camera field to the right move up to silence German fire. These men waited for second wave of boats, then followed the tanks up the beach. Two landing craft may be dimly seen at left.
Crawling through the water, U.S. soldier edges toward the beach. Immense excitement of moment made photographer Capa move his camera and blur picture. The Germans were still pouring machine-gun and shellfire down on the beach, apparently from concrete pillboxes.
Men in the second wave also take cover until all their boats have come in. Behind them men are jumping into water to their necks. Their heads can be seen just above surface. Combat engineers cleared lanes through obstacles farther offshore so that boats could get in.
Thin black line of invasion force assembles on the beach for push against German positions on heights, obscured by haze and battle smoke. Men pause on beach to get water out of their equipment and to make sure that another wave is following so they will not be cut off.
Loaded with four vehicles, a U.S. LCT cruises easily toward shore. Plume of white smoke drifting across beach is from smoke shells laid down by naval guns to screen landing forces outlined against the smoke at right is an LCT (Landing Craft, Infantry).
The scene of battle was overhung by dark, heavy clouds, dirty weather, which hampered Allied air cover, whipped up six-foot waves in the Channel. During the crossing, many of the men became violently ill. But despite their illness, they were quietly and effectively heroic. The ships shown in this picture are only the forward fringe of enormous armada which carried the landing force to France. Larger craft offshore were unloaded by smaller boats. Some were unloaded by giant “rhino” rafts made of rectangular steel chambers bolted together.