D-Day - 6 June 1944 - Simplified Timeline

Operation Neptune – D-Day

D-Day:

The Allied landings in Northwest Europe, codenamed Operation Overlord, were a pivotal decision made on June 4, 1944, by General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

Operation Neptune, the code name for the naval operations or assault, constituted the first crucial phase of Operation Overlord.

Before D-Day, Operation Neptune included meticulous preparation to ensure the success of the Allied landings during the Battle of Normandy.

D-Day Preparations

D-Day 75th Anniversary Commemorations - British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-mer - Gold Beach — D-Day 75th Anniversary Commemorations – British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-mer – Gold Beach

June 4

11:00 PM: Submarines X23 and X24, as part of Operation Gambit, take up positions off the beaches of Ouistreham Riva-Bella and Le Hamel, in the area reserved for Commonwealth forces.

June 5

Early afternoon: Minesweepers clear the channels leading to the beach, allowing the Navy to set sail a few hours later, starting at 9:15 PM.
The BBC broadcasts coded messages.
11:30 PM: The first air raid begins.

D-Day – June 6, 1944

Operation Tonga - Pathfinders getting ready on D-Day — Operation Tonga – Pathfinders getting ready

12:15 AM: Scouts tasked with marking the American drop zones on the right bank of the Orne River are deployed as part of Operation Tonga.
12:20 AM: Six Horsa gliders from Operation Deadstick (also known as Operation Coup de Main) launched an airborne assault on Pegasus Bridge, located 8 kilometres inland from Sword Beach. Under the command of Major John Howard, 181 British troops aimed to capture two strategic bridges: the Bénouville Bridge over the Caen Canal (codename: Ham) and the Ranville Bridge over the Orne River (codename: Jam). These bridges provided the only access to Caen, and their capture was essential to facilitating the advance of troops landing on Sword Beach. Their capture was crucial to the success of the Normandy landings.
The Bénouville Bridge was renamed Pegasus Bridge after the emblem of the British airborne troops, and the Ranville Bridge was renamed Horsa Bridge.
12:50 AM: 400 RAF aircraft, primarily Dakotas and Albemarles, took off from southern England towards the Orne estuary, dropping 2,000 paratroopers from the Pegasus Division onto the drop zones of Ranville, Merville, Trouffeville, and Troarn, as part of Operation Tonga. Their objectives were to neutralise the Merville battery, southeast of Cabourg, destroy the bridges, and occupy the Troarn ridge to prevent German reinforcements from reaching the nearby beaches of Ouistreham, Colleville, and Hermanville during the infantry landing.
1:30 AM: The first paratroopers of the US 101st Airborne Division were dropped inland, on Veys, not far from Utah Beach.
2:10 AM: The first paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division (Boston Mission) land west of the road connecting Sainte-Mère-l’Eglise to Neuville-au-Plain.
3:00 AM: The assault begins with an aerial bombardment of German defensive positions and artillery. The naval bombardment will begin later, at 5:50 AM.

Landing ships putting cargo ashore on one of the invasion beaches, at low tide during the first days of the operation

3:30 AM: The 6th Airborne Division, under the command of Major General Richard Gale, lands at Ranville, liberated at 2:30 AM.
4:30 AM: The 3rd Battalion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd U.S. Airborne Division enters Sainte-Mère-l’Église and launches the assault.
4:45 AM: The Merville battery is neutralised.
5:00 AM: Sainte-Mère-l’Église is liberated by the 505th PIR.
5:30 AM: An American commando reaches the Saint-Marcouf Islands, surprisingly free of any enemy occupation.
5:50 AM: The 137 Allied warships begin bombarding the Normandy coast.
5:58 AM: The sun rises.
6:00 AM: The British air raid on the ten German batteries that posed the greatest danger to the troops landing between the Orne and Vire rivers is over.

D-Day’s first assaults started at 6.30 AM

6:30 AM: The first American troops land on the Great Dune (at the far western end of Utah Beach) and on Omaha Beach.
7:10 AM: The American Rangers land at La Pointe du Hoc.
7:30 AM: British and Canadian forces land on the Gold, Juno, and Sword sectors, taking advantage of the rising tide from Le Hamel in the west to Ouistreham, near the Orne estuary in the east.
7:50 AM: The French 177th Commando, under the command of Captain Kieffer and part of Lord Lovat’s brigade, lands on Sword Beach. Their objective is to capture the German positions along the beach and the casino.
9:30 AM: The Canadians take control of Meuvaines (inland, near Gold Beach) and the British take control of Hermanville (Sword Beach).
10:00 AM: Two breaches have been opened on Omaha Beach.
11:30 AM: A third breach has been opened at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.
12:00 PM: Congestion on Juno Beach.
1:30 PM: British commandos and paratroopers have linked up at the Bénouville bridge (Pegasus Bridge).
2:00 PM: Engineers have cleared a path on Omaha Beach for the tanks and other vehicles to leave the beach and advance inland.

Infantry of 50th Division moving forward near St Gabriel, 6 June 1944

4:00 PM: Rommel hurried back to La Roche-Guyon on the Seine. He had celebrated his wife’s birthday, believing that an Allied landing was unlikely given the intelligence he had gathered and the weather conditions.
The British (2nd King’s Shropshire Light Infantry) retreated, their access to Caen blocked by German tanks at the edge of Biéville, thus preventing the liberation of Caen planned for June 6. They did, however, manage to capture the coastal village of Le Hamel on Gold Beach.
7:00 PM: Omaha Beach was under American control, Vierville was liberated, but Saint-Laurent remained occupied.
8:00 PM: British patrols (56th Brigade) entered Bayeux, and the 151st Airborne Division took control of the Caen-Bayeux road, allowing the 69th Airborne Division to position itself 9.5 kilometres farther south, inland. General de Gaulle delivered his speech from the BBC in London: “The supreme battle has begun.”
9:00 PM: The British had complete control of a 3-kilometre coastal strip and the town of Arromanches.
11:30 PM to 3:00 AM: The Germans launched a counterattack against the American Rangers at Pointe du Hoc.

D-Day – The following hours

Night of June 6/7

12:30 AM: Caen was subjected to heavy bombing and reduced to ruins. The situation remained critical, with the bombing continuing to cause significant damage.