'D' Day - The Normandy Invasions - 6th June 1944
On 6 June 1944 _(a)_ Western Allies landed in northern France, opening the long-awaited "Second Front" against Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. It had _(b)_ four long years since France had been overrun and the British compelled to leave continental Europe(1940), three since Hitler _(c)_ attacked the Soviet Union (1941) and two and a half since the United States had formally entered the struggle (1942). After _(d)_ often seemingly hopeless fight, beginning in late 1942 the Germans had been stopped and forced into slow retreat in Eastern Europe, defeated _(e)_ North Africa and confronted in Italy. Allied navies had contained the German submarine threat, making possible an immense buildup of ground, sea and air power in the British Isles.
Schemes for a return _(f)_ France, long in preparation, were now feasible. Troops were well-trained, vast numbers of ships accumulated, and local German forces battered _(g)_ the air. Clever deceptions had confused the enemy about just when, and especially where, the blow would fall. Commanded by U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Normandy assault phase, code-named "Neptune" (the entire operation was "Overlord"), was launched when weather reports predicted satisfactory conditions on 6 June. Hundreds of amphibious ships and craft, supported _(h)_ warships, crossed the English Channel. They arrived off the beaches _(i)_ dawn. Three divisions of paratroopers (two American, one British) had already been dropped inland. Soldiers of six divisions (three American, two British and one Canadian) stormed ashore in five main landing areas, named "Utah", "Omaha", "Gold", "Juno" and "Sword". After hard fighting, especially on "Omaha" Beach, by day's end _(j)_ foothold was well established.
As German counterattacks were thwarted, the Allies poured men and materiel into France. By late July these reinforcements and constant combat, made possible a break out from the Normandy perimeter. With the Russians advancing from the east, Hitler's armies were pushed back toward _(k)_ homeland until the final, bloody siege of Berlin. Hitler committed suicide on 30th of April 1945 and _(l)_ German army surrendered 8 days later.
'D - Day' in Numbers
Allied Troops involved: 156,000 (American 73,000, British 61,715, Canadian 21,400)
German Troops involved: 700,000
Allied casualties: 10,000 (2,500 dead)
German casualties: 4,000 - 9,000 (exact figure unknown)
Exercises
1. Find words from the text to match the definitions below (the number of the paragraph is given in brackets).
a. got off boats (1) _________________ i. gathered (2) _____________________
b. conquered (1) __________________ j. 'golpeado' (2) ____________________
c. forced (1) ______________________ k. 'trucos' (2) ______________________
d. 'Lucha' (1) _____________________ l. 'golpe' (2) _______________________
e. 'Sin esperanza' (1) ________________ m. 'lanzado' (2) ____________________
f. gathering (1) ____________________ n 'asaltaron' (2) ____________________
g. plans (2) _______________________ o 'punto de apoyo' __________________
h. possible (2) _____________________ p defeated (3) _____________________
2. Complete the text by filling the blanks (1-12) above with pronouns, articles, auxiliary verbs or prepositions.
a. e. i.
b. f. j.
c. g. k.
d. h. l.
3. Answer the following questions with a full, grammatical sentence.
a. Why was the attack launched on the 6th of June?
b. When did 'D-day' take place?
c. Who was the overall commander of the allied forces in Normandy?
d. Which were the first allied troops in Normandy?
e. What was the code name given to the operation?
f. Where was the hardest fighting on 'D-day'?
g. When did World War II end?
4. Are the following statements about the personal accounts true (T) or false (F)?
a. Beryle and Branham both survived 'D-Day'.
b. Beryle and Branham were both paratroopers.
c. Branham thought his leader was a coward.
d. Beryle was captured by the Germans on .D-Day'.
e. Neither soldier was wounded on 'D-Day'.
f. Branham landed on 'Sword' beach.
g. Beryle was on 'Utah' beach on 'D-Day'.
Personal Accounts of 'D-Day' (1)
Joseph Beryle
This story is the stuff of legend. Thought to have been killed in the airborne landings of D-Day, Beryle relates his captures and his escapes before he finally linked with the oncoming Russian army.
"The invasion of Normandy was on. We flew approximately 90 minutes from England when we hit the Normandy Peninsula. We started taking AA and ground fire, flying at approximately 700 feet. Several planes were hit and exploded or crashed.
We got the stand-up and hook-up, red light, green light, and jumped at 400 feet and I landed on the church roof at Ste. Come Du Mont, taking fire from church steeple, slid down and made my way through a cemetery surrounding a church, over a wall and headed toward our objective, which was two wooden bridges over the Douave River behind Utah Beach.
The Germans had torched a house in the area where I jumped and were firing at the planes that followed us. Tracer bullets were criss-crossing the sky. Many troopers were hit before landing. I was loose for almost 20 hours in which time I blew a power substation in Ste. Come Du Mont.
Again on Highway 13, I threw grenades into groups of Germans. As I was trying to make my way to the bridges, I crawled over a hedgerow and landed in a German machine gun position manned by 10-12 Germans and was captured".
Personal Accounts of 'D-Day' (2)
Felix Branham
Felix Branham went ashore in the second wave at Omaha Beach as a demolition man for the 29th Division. In this story he tells his experiences on the beach, losing his comrades and surviving
"We were in the second wave. When we got to the beach, there were 2nd and 5th Rangers piling in with us at the same time. We had a regimental commander named Charles D. Canham and he went in leading us. He was our colonel. There he was firing. He got his rifle shot out of his hand and he reached down and used his .45. He was about 55 years old and was the bravest guy and one of the finest leaders. We had lots of leaders. Our platoon leaders, our platoon sergeants, we had good leaders. There's no question. If we hadn't had good leaders, we would have never made it off of Omaha Beach.
My boat team was the first one to go over the sea wall; I saw some of my friends die. In my boat team of thirty men we had only lost about five or six men. We were lucky. God knows we were. We followed the line that the engineers had laid out and we got through. We went up the hill then went parallel to Omaha Beach through this little town. Mingled in with us were the 2nd and 5th Rangers. They were scattered about and so forth. Of course, there was a lot of scattering about on Omaha Beach".