D-Day
By: Audie Moore and Noah Edwards
U.S. Troops
Beaches
The battle at Utah beach consisted of the 4th division from the Americans and the 709th division from the Germans. There were two landing zones for the Americans which were Utah Beach and Omaha Beach, Utah being the first. The beach was thought be a good way to get into Europe and English General Bernard Montgomery wanted to seize it. There were two parts of the beach which were called Uncle Red and Tare Green. The Germans had seven main strong points which consisted of 20 batteries. They spanned out across the three mile wide beach that consisted of dunes and many other man made obstacles, consisting of metal posts pointing out towards sea and barbed wire. Behind the front enemy line there was much more firepower, being blockhouses, armored turrets, trenches and underground tunnels. The whole 4th division landed within 15 hours and lost only 197 men, much better than the raid and Omaha. By the end of the night America had 20,000 men and 1,700 vehicles stacked on the beach at Utah.
101st Airborne Unit
The 101st airborne did a lot of dirty work for the ground troops. They landed at Utah beach the night before the raid was supposed to happen and took out the machine guns facing the English canal. After that, they moved to Omaha beach, which was densely populated with German troops making it much more difficult. Once they took over Saint Lo and the two beaches were taken they move towards Caen and closer to Germany.
Sergeant Bob Slaughter
Riffle Sergeant Thomas Valence
Bombardier A. L. Corry
Sources
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/sfeature/sf_voices_04.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/sfeature/sf_voices_05.html
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/06/fact-sheet-normandy-landings
http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-day/d-day-and-the-battle-of-normandy-your-questions-answered