D-Day was here. Every soldier, sailor, airman, and general were sick to their stomachs. Hitler was asleep, and Rommel was celebrating his aniversery with his wife. Many field generals were at map reading exercises. Nobody suspected the invasion.
This invasion would either be the turning point of the war, or a complete, bloody failure at the hands of Allied generals. As the unexperienced soldiers came into sight with the beaches, they were met by a hail of unforgiving bullets, as well as millions of mines, morters, and other hellish attacks.
But the seaborne invasion wasn't the only bloody part of D-Day. 15% of the paratroopers died before they ever hit the ground. Many others drowned in the marshed with over 80 pounds of equiptment weighing them down. The inexperienced piolets flew far too low and fast, and the pathfinder missions (paratroopers that marked landing areas with becons) had gone horribly.
The French resistance program tried to help the allied invaders, claiming they could cause more damage with less civilian casualties. But most generals of this time believed that guerillia warfare was unorthadox, so the resistance was ignored.
Omaha was the worst. It was nicknamed "Bloddy Omaha for it's extreme losses. Amoung the many reasons for near-failure was the fact that intellegence failed to locate the reserve troops furthur inland, and much of the support fire from ships never materialized.
Although losses were not low on any of the beaches, they all acomplished their goals. The Germans attempted only on counterattack the entire day, and it was humiliatingly thwarted. Also, the French city Cean was ocupied by Germans, so it was bombed three times over the course of the invasion.
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