The people that made D-Day possible

Sign up to World of Warships with our link for a free starter pack worth €25: wo.ws/3YW2PoX
On 6 June 1944, Allied forces launched the largest combined land air and sea operation in the history of warfare - Operation Overlord. The landing was one of the most important events of the Second World War and marked the beginning of a long and costly campaign to liberate north-west Europe from German occupation.
Our new three-part series, we’ll cover all the elements of D-Day with episodes exploring the fighting at sea, in the air and on land. In this first episode IWM Curator Nigel Steel examines the naval operations that made D-Day possible. Why did the Allies select the Normandy beaches? How did Allied naval guns turn the tide of the battle? And why did the Allies almost cancel D-Day altogether?
Discover IWM's D-Day 80 programming: www.iwm.org.uk/events/d-day-80
HMS Belfast and D-Day | A Guided Tour: www.iwm.org.uk/events/hms-bel...
What did HMS Belfast do on D-Day?: www.iwm.org.uk/history/hms-be...
How D-Day was fought from the sea: www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-d-...
What you need to know about the D-Day beaches: www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-y...
Explore and licence the film clips used in this video from IWM Film:
film.iwmcollections.org.uk/co...
Follow IWM on social media:
/ i_w_m
/ imperialwarmuseums
/ iwm.london

[@andrewcombe8907]

The naval commandos and divers who recce’d the beaches in advance were amazing. Imagine canoeing or swimming on to an enemy beach at night, taking samples and surveying all while on enemy territory.

[@robcrane3512]

When they did Gold Beach it was comparatively poorly defended (December 1943) but the Ver-sur-Mer lighthouse was in operation and they had to keep throwing themselves down onto the beach when the beam went over them. At Omaha as they swam ashore they got caught in the beam of a sentry's torch but they were in the surf and were able to slowly inch back out as the tide came in. The sentry didn't come to investigate - suspicion is he was prevented from doing so by barbed wire.

[@billyredtail]

A friend of mine's grandfather (or similar relation) was a commando on one of these raids in Normandy in 1942. He was killed on the operation and is buried with another commando by the sea in France. Can't give any more detail than that unfortunately but it was hugely interesting to hear from them.

[@billyredtail]

OK here's the information. Operation Aquatint. Private Richard Leonard

[@jugbywellington1134]

One of them left a tool behind by mistake. A local Frenchman used to walk on the beach at low tide and spotted it. He knew what it was and what it meant. He managed to pick it up and hide it. It would have been a death sentence if he'd been caught. A very brave man. D-Day was only successful because of the many personal acts of bravery.

[@RobertEHunt-dv9sq]

All I can say is “Big Balls”.

[@paulbriggs3072]

Another surreal D-Day fact was that the USS Nevada, a large battleship commissioned way back in 1916, which had served in around the British Isles during WWI, was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941and was the only battleship able to get underway during the 7th of December 1941 Japanese raid. Nevada was the object of intense attacks by Japanese aircraft. Left in a sinking condition after receiving one torpedo and several bomb hits, she had to be beached. Vigorous salvage work and temporary repairs enabled her to steam to the U.S. west coast in April 1942. She spent the rest of the year receiving permanent repairs and improvements, including a greatly enhanced anti-aircraft gun battery. Transferred to the Atlantic in mid-1943, her 14" and 5" guns were actively employed during the Normandy Invasion on D-Day, resurrected as it were from the dead.

[@ZER0ZER0SE7EN]

The History Guy made an excellent video of the Nevada on DDay.

[@lawrieflowers8314]

Landing over 150,000 men on the beaches in risky sea conditions with complete surprise (along with a mind-boggling tonnage of supplies) then pouring more in until there were 2,000,000 fighting men on enemy territory within a couple of months. What a stunningly stupendous operation it was…

[@winstonsmith8482]

for an pretty stupid cause... which only exchanged nazi tyranny over most of europe for soviet tyranny over most of europe..

[@RK-cj4oc]

You have a better idea i assume?

[@goodshipkaraboudjan]

Each ship tells an amazing story of the time but it's such a shame HMS Warspite wasn't preserved. As an Aussie, she's a legend in every Commonwealth Navy. Not to mention she fired the first shot of Overlord while limping along with a turret out of commission. She later broke up a Panzer Division counter attack.

[@tomriley5790]

Absolutely, she's not all gone, some of her keel can still be scuba dived off Cornwall.

[@mithridateseupator3492]

At 14:21 I can see my father standing on the fo’c’sle of LCI 135 on Juno Beach. He had his camera and took some pictures.

[@andrewsoboeiro6979]

The Belfast truly has an incredible history; I encourage anyone who visits London to tour her!

[@peterwright4647]

Belfast and Diadem saved many Canadian lives that day on Juno beach.

[@dbolt6543]

In the 1950s my school friends father told us about landing on Juno beach before D-Day. He had been with the National Film Board of Canada or its predecessor and the Canadians wanted pictures of the landing, from the land. Commandos took him and his partner ashore just after midnight and they dug into a hill. They woke up in the morning to the deadly silence of no invasion. They looked up and they were almost directly under some big German gun battery. They were issued those puny Webley revolvers as side arms and several belt packages of spare bullets. They dumped the bullets and filled them with chocolate bars and rations. They did not think much of their ability to fight their way pout of a battle the the German infantry. That night they quietly moved from under the gun battery. The landing finally occurred on June 6. He later went on to be a camera man on the first Imax film at Expo 67. Great guy.

[@PJRye]

You missed one crucial factor, the better weather data the allies had from the Atlantic. The allied forces received a forecast that showed improved weather on the 6th, while the Germans did not have that information, being caught rather unawares.

[@adamdickinson2894]

I never knew about this, what was the reason? Did the Allies have better equipment/meteorologists or was there a geographic advantage or something else?

[@PJRye]

The allies had won the battle of the Atlantic, so there were few German observations. And the allies had hundreds of ships and aircraft crossing the Atlantic, so lots of weather data. I've a meteorological background myself, and I've said in the past that Overlord was a battle won the the weathermen.

[@marcobassini3576]

​​@@adamdickinson2894Geographic advantage: the clouds always move from the Atlantic to Europe. The Americans could see the clouds when they started!!!!! But the Germans (using U boots) managed to implant an unmanned meteorological station in Greenland running on lead acid batteries and a radio link to Germany. The equipment was recovered in recent years. Ingenious for the time!

[@breamoreboy]

I've just watched a documentary about Maureen Sweeney. She was the person who recorded the weather at Blacksod Point on the North West Coast of Ireland that was used by Group Captain James Stagg in his reports to Eisenhower. Fascinating stuff 😮

[@davebradshaw2537]

Well done and thank you for mentioning the mine sweeping operations carried out beforehand. This is a mostly overlooked part of D-day that's rarely mentioned and without which it could not have happened. My Father was serving aboard HMS Kellett sweeping into Omaha beach on the morning of D-day with the naval bombardment whistling overhead as they cleared the way in.

[@adoramus]

Great video. Thank you. Eternal glory to all the heroic sailors, soldiers, medcical personnel and engineers in charge of D-Day operation.

[@adventussaxonum448]

8:45 Good job granddad! My grandfather was a 44 year-old RN reservist who carried out minesweeping on 5/6/44, having served as a 16 year-old at Jutland, in the Great War.

[@belbrighton6479]

Wow, that is one very special grandfather

[@rabbi120348]

That's June 5, not May 6 for all you curious Yanks.

[@davidhatton583]

Much commentary surrounds HMS Belfast, because,of course, it is one of the very few ships left from those days. It is impressive there in downtown London. Sadly in Los Angeles the much larger USS Iowa looks small … it is moored across from a huge modern shipping terminal with at least a dozen container ships nearby the size of the MV Dali.

[@joegordon5117]

She may look small by comparison, but we know the Iowa casts a damned big shadow. That grand lady knows she doesn't have to try and impress, the actions of her and her crew will always be sufficient.

[@stevenwilliamturner638]

The fact before the landings, they had to clear corridors in a 3 mile deep minefield for the ships to pass through. They did this without warning the enemy and in time for the landings to happen at H hour, this alone is amazing. One important part of d day that has been over looked for 80 years is sad.

[@madaro504]

At 10.10 the list of ships is outstanding Warspite....!!

[@paulbriggs3072]

How surreal that Utah beach troops experienced the worst casualties several days before the invasion during training, but had the lightest casualties of all the five beaches on the day of the invasion.

[@marcobassini3576]

Utah beach had a very sparse presence of low quality (static garrison divisions and OST battalions) German troops and very few bunkers. The only "real" infantry German division in Normandy was the 352nd (trained to join the East front, but still in France), at Omaha. And the results clearly showed this!

[@frankbarnwell____]

One of the Stars of the Show, USS Texas, is afloat and being cared for at Galveston.

[@stischer47]

When the USS Texas flooded its torpedo blisters to lean the ship to shoot further inland.

[@RetiredSailor60]

USS Texas is still afloat today! Long live Texas BB 35

[@thewatcher5271]

That's A Pretty Good History Lesson! Kids Today Need To Know How Hard It Was To Stop Fascism 80 Years Ago! Thank You. (Like #907)

[@AidanPurnellGolf]

My Grandad was on the HMS Belfast as a telegraphist during the D-Day landings, He had so many stories to tell me as a kid, especially the sinking of the Scharnhorst. He recalled hundreds of red lights that the German sailors wore, floating in the water as they awaited their rescue. I believe only 39 German sailors survived… Rest in peace to these Heroic men

[@rogerrees9845]

Remarkably informative presentation....Thank you IWM....Roger...Pembrokeshire

[@geoffreylee5199]

The swimming tanks were to have been put into the sea about five miles out. Cowardice by many US Captains had them launching ten miles out, losing a majority of the swimming tanks. This is rarely mentioned as it is not a bright moment, and the cowardly behaviour was hushed up.

[@tomriley5790]

The ones launched at the right distance actually worked pretty well.

[@nickdanger3802]

74% landed on US beaches, 83% on Brit/Can beaches. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJ_Ek3alpcaJqLs

[@meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee2]

I suppose the RN landing craft crews had the advantage of having a tradition of no Captain can go far wrong if he lays his ship alongside one of the enemy, and similar aggressive thinking. So they knew what was expected of them and that near rabid aggression would not bring censure down on them.

[@nickdanger3802]

"losing a majority of the swimming tanks" Source ?

[@meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee2]

@@nickdanger3802 27 out of 32 according to IWM video The reason Germany failed on D-Day.

[@user-xh3lz9xt4l]

SHACE was based at Keysign House near Bond Street in London, it goes down deeper thanit goes up , it was bombed by the IRA during the troubles but it didnt even chip the paintwork

[@robertsansone1680]

Excellent. So very excellent. Thank You. I wasn't even born yet but this still chokes me up.

[@paultyson4389]

That was excellent but entirely what I would have expected. Thanks.

[@andrewclayton4181]

There were a couple of midget submarines stationed off the beaches signalling to the fleet where the swept channels were. They'd been put in place in anticipation of a landing on the 5th, and didn't know about the 24 hour delay. On the 5th they watched Germans working on the beach defences unaware of the impending invasion. Pretty miserable for the crews having to stay submerged for an extra day.

[@robcrane3512]

Crewed in part by Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP), the same unit that had landed go take the soil samples.

[@howardchambers9679]

RASC. My Dad was at both Dunkirk and Normandy and drove trucks carrying supplies through france, Netherlands and Germany. Was active during the Berlin airlift. 502 CoY RASC. There was no advance without resupply.

[@tomriley5790]

The RN shelled my grandad (2d LT John D. Wilson, 7th Battalion Green Howards) after the landing (fortunately ineffectively apart from blowing the tops off some trees and they stopped after appropriate very lights were fired). He acutally led the infantry attack on that battery that took the 50 prisoners you mentioned (and there's a little more to that story that led to them surrendering!), incidentally you made a small error in that it was Gold Beach and not Juno. He'd previously landed on Sicily and often said that the RN put their worst seamen in charge of landing craft ("afterall it was their job to run their ships aground :-)!"

[@benwilson6145]

The tide is a result of the moon so they always work together. No Mystery.

[@davidnemoseck9007]

It also seems like the troops were given big breakfasts before the landings, which didn't help them at in the choppy seas.

[@alanhare8566]

Why are the battleships and spotter spitfires never mentioned

[@markrowland1366]

Several weeks later a similar size invasion crashed ashore on the Japanese Island of Iogema, even a larger fleet. Hitler wore his brown uniform. Overlord combined with the Champagne Campaign, might be greater. Such a massive show of force and organisation.

[@matthewjay660]

I've taken a tour on the HMS Belfast. 🇺🇸🤝🇬🇧

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

Thank god that Monty got the Normandy beach heads expanded for Overlord considering that Marshalls original idea was to land on the Cotentin peninsula in 1942 with only 9 divisions ( Operation Sledgehammer) against 30 German divisions which would have been disastrous.

[@terrysmith9362]

It was Monty not Ike

[@marcobassini3576]

The documentary did not mention the German coastal battery of Longues sur mer that all day long was engaged in a fierce cannon duel with many allied ships. The battery also fired enfilade shots on Omaha and Juno beaches. Some of the cannons were disabled by allied hits during the day, but were (partially) repaired and continued to fire at reduced rate till the evening. The battery was taken on 7th of June from inland. It is a fascinating place, with all the casemates and cannons (!!!) still in place today, and a perfect view of Omaha and Juno beaches. The fire direction casemate overlooks the cliffs on the sea, the cannon and munitions casemates are a few hundreds meters inland.

[@tomriley5790]

Other things you could have mentioned. The first use of DECCA by guide boats and acoustic markers underwater to mark the small channels through the minefields. The first use of penicillin by the British Army on D-day...

[@fredericksaxton3991]

When you mentioned the mine sweeping operations carried out beforehand, how was that actually done? Did it involve blowing them up one by one? Would that not be heard?

[@benwilson6145]

I met a gentleman 5 years ago who had done this. He was 99 years old then.

[@BenPortmanlewes]

Paul went on to more things...the gorillas for example Topper was a jazz drummer and had to learn punk and reggae, he got to experiment a lot in the later albums. Doesn't get much better than the Clash. Thanks for the breakdown I just got a bass after years on the guitar

[@catherinewilkins2760]

Where is the mention of the men, who went out in rough weather, to lay the marker buoys? So that they went to the right beaches and lit the way, subsequently, for further deployment of men and equipment. TLV Juno lays rotting up a river. Who knew?

[@6XCcustom]

it was lucky that the Germany's High Command did not listen to Rommel he was quite right that the most likely place for an allied landing was precisely Normandy this Rommel based on previous landings such as the one in Sicily

[@fredericksaxton3991]

It was so sad that Ramsey never saw the end of the war.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Nah, the Brits picked Normandy so they could land and say “where’s the Duke, we have some payback for 1066”. The fascinating one, that I never thought about, was Operation Pluto: the pipeline across the channel to deliver fuel to invasion troops.

[@lukeshepperd6252]

I always read that Belfast fired on the gold beach landing area?

[@iantobanter9546]

The anti aircraft cruiser HMS Alynbank was created by conversion from a Bank line steamer. She was a veteran of PQ18 to supply our Russian allies in Murmansk and sunk as a block ship of the Mulberry Harbour. My dad served on her whilst HMS Penelope was being refitted. At Dday, following Penelope's loss during Anzio, he served on HMS Erebus where he remained for the Walcheren landings. I believe that Alynbank was refloated post war and returned to commercial service.

[@Trecesolotienesdos]

Britain planned D-Day in essence. We shold be proud of our contribution there and throughout WW2.

[@LawAndTheory]

Canadians helped by learning lessons the hard way at Dieppe.

[@Cravatron]

Delusional,

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

@@Cravatron The Chiefs of naval, air and ground operations were Ramsay, Tedder and Montgomery.

[@BA-gn3qb]

If it wasn't for the British appeasing Hitler, the war would have never happened.

[@whodatsaddle]

I would hope so. You guys have been 70 miles away from them for a thousand years, with experience in cross channel invasions both ways. Why wouldn’t we defer to your advice in such a situation?

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

The Texas is still around. She flooded her torpedo buldge to increase the range of her 14 inch guns.

[@Erik_Taurus]

11:05 Is that a helicopter rotor seen in the upper part of the screen?

[@malcolm5514]

Slight mistake: the British 3rd infantry division landed on Sword and the 50th on Gold. You swapped them haha Other than that, another great video!

[@davydatwood3158]

Man does Mackenzie King look like he's desperate to be included at the cool kids' table in that photo from Quebec. Also, as a Canadian and a Trekkie, allow me to say thank you to /Belfast/ for all her work in supporting then-Lieutenant James Doohan and all the other Canadian soldiers at Juno Beach.

[@ryanb45]

I think King was fine just being the host but that photo op for sure would have looked great for any postwar election.

[@abrahamdozer6273]

You missed an important part of the naval operation (just) prior to D-Day. Minesweeper flotillas swept right up to the beaches all alone, without support trying not to give the game away to the German shore batteries. Itwas very dangerous for them and a critical part of the success of the landings

[@ruairijohnson8638]

we have ways

[@navret1707]

My father was a fire control officer on a tin can there.

[@ajaytoefan1]

we need operation pluto

[@aethellstan]

what about the 3,000 strong comando landing a t the main shore batteries on the le havre side in order to take them out of service so the surface ships could get near enough for supporting fire?

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

What about it? That may sound harsh, but this is a roughly fifteen minute video about the naval operation around the D-day landings. So much to talk about and so little time. Those commando's, just like the paratroopers (who did get a little mention) have performed incredible feats of daring and are more than deserving of their own video's.

[@wneo7]

The subtitles don't sync with the voice. Please fix it.

[@keithdubose2150]

Once the planning was done, and executed, the Germans were overwhelmed.. and the success of the was never in doubt.. it was a matter of how successful

[@tomriley5790]

Actually it was very much in doubt, Ike has a speach written out for the operation failing where he took responsiblity for it and resigned. It was found by his orderly when he was cleaning his uniform.

[@TheresaBrown-dc5dt]

There was a US Destroyer that got up close and dueled it out with German Artillery can't remember. which beach

[@John14-6...]

I'm pretty sure if you were a German defending the beach on D-Day in a concrete bunker, you wouldn't have feared the 6 inch guns on HMS Belfast as much as the 16 inch guns on some of the Battleships

[@marcobassini3576]

For sure the sailors of those battleships (as well as the allied high commands) have feared a lot the cannons of the German coastal batteries. Those cannons were in reinforced concrete casemates that for sure could not be disabled as easily as a battleship! And if fact on D-Day they opened fire both on allied ships and on Omaha and Juno beaches (with enfilade fire).

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

The German torpedo boats miss the British battleships HMS Warspite and Ramillies, during the sinking of HNoMS Svenner. Allied losses to mines included the American deatroyer USS Carry off Utah and submarine chaser USS PC-1261, a 173-foot patrol craft.

[@GSteel-rh9iu]

Much of WWII military history is a cottage industry of British producers. Often excellent but very limited in view point on the European theater. Also obscures things like the utter defeat of Br. Empire forces in Asia; Churchill's starvation in India resulting in 3-4.3million deaths. Can't beat the cool accents?!?

[@dovetonsturdee7033]

'Utter defeat of Empire forces in Asia?' Read about XIV Army and the defeat of the U-Go Offensive. Then read about the Bengal Famine, but the facts, not the revisionist myth. The Bengal Famine had a number of causes, among which were the number of refugees from Japanese held areas, the inability to import food from those same areas, stockpiling by hoarders and, perhaps worst of all, the Bengal administration, which tried to minimise the crisis. The worst that could be said of Churchill was that he should have known what was taking place, but didn't. After all, in 1943, he had little else to worry about. You could also add the refusal of FDR to allow the transfer of merchant shipping, by the way. What is without dispute, except by those who choose to blame Churchill for everything since the Black Death, is that once he did find out, he transferred food distribution to the British Indian Army, and had grain convoys diverted from Australia to India. I appreciate, of course, that revisionists won't accept any of this, as it doesn't suit the agenda. It is, however, factually accurate.

[@maflones]

Video starts at 1:28

[@Spielkind104]

You dont need to build landing craft, only convoys

[@lesliemaitland3551]

Please note those are kayaks, not canoes.

[@BluePlanet88]

Edward III invaded France in 1346 by landing in Cotentin, Normandy. History repeating itself.

[@Dibley8899]

Not being picky. But if the landings had taken place as the Americans wanted with 3 beaches, limited assault divisions in 1943, it would have been another Dieppe. Waiting gave the British time to produce Holberts funnies, specialist tanks and equipment that assisted the invasion troops to get off the beaches. Unfortunately, the Americans refused the same equipment from the British which could have assisted them better on Omaha beach. What I didn't realize is that the D Day invasion plan was mostly conscripted by the British, carried out beach race's, and 75% of the ships, and still provided ships to assist the Americans in the pacific including aircraft carriers. The British involvement was massive.

[@andrewcombe8907]

Imagine if Rommel had been right and the German armour had been moved forward? It is likely the invasions would have failed. Imagine if the Allies invaded the South of France first. It is possible a long, hard slogging match would have broken out.

[@benwilson6145]

Or they would have been destroyed by Naval gunfire like Anzio.

[@marcobassini3576]

​@@benwilson6145Anzio was a fiasco for the Americans. When they landed on the beach the total German presence in the area was 100 men. And yet the Americans were not able to move out of the beach for many MONTHS. The Germans quickly organized an improvised force gathering units as far as north Italy (1000 km away), and were very close to throw the Americans back to the sea. Imagine if they had a few panzer divisions ready just inland, as it was Rommel's plan for Normandy.

[@billboth4814]

Failure to break through on Omaha Beach was threatening the entire D-Day landing. Accordingly the work of US Navy destroyers in clearing Omaha defenses was critical. I know this is a British production, but not mentioning those destroyers seems like a big miss for this clip.

[@jimmiller5600]

Gallipoli? Gee, failure to understand that behind the beaches were miles of ridges that without defenders would probably stop you cold...................

[@callumgordon1668]

What about the destroyers at Omaha that nearly grounded themselves to provide direct fire support? Books I’ve read mention, but detail is scant?

[@callumgordon1668]

Still an excellent video.

[@user-EMT1124]

Or the USS Texas flooding half of the ship to increase the range of her main guns.

[@HBCOU]

Completely different experience for African American soldiers 💀

[@natheriver8910]

👏👏👏👏👏🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@14rnr]

According to the Americans they did it all on their own.

[@Ronritdds]

Not all of us.

[@14rnr]

@@Ronritdds Good to hear my friend.

[@stevemercer5769]

I’m British and I couldn’t disagree more! Most of the US and British population is ignorant of what actually happened in WW2. Anyone with any historical interest or education knows how much of an allied effort this was

[@nickdanger3802]

Overlord (not Sword Beach or Gold Beach) is a 1975 black-and-white British war film written and directed by Stuart Cooper. Set during the Second World War, around the D-Day invasion (Operation Overlord), the film is about a young British soldier's experiences and his meditations on being part of the war machinery, including his premonitions of death.

[@14rnr]

@@nickdanger3802 I'll have a look for that, thank you for the tip.

[@timphillips9954]

Love how the change the word allied naval power when in reality the huge majority was made of RN vesels

[@eliinc1341]

First

[@aethellstan]

well done. you must be very proud. instead of doing what you did, i decided to watch the video...

[@ratagris21]

👌🏆🆗 🏅🥇

[@bastisonnenkind]

Did they really omit the failed bombing of the German lines?

[@petekadenz9465]

Perhaps bc this video was about the naval side of the landling, not the air or the troops aspects (they are in 2 videos to come). Pls pay attention…

[@K_-_-_-_K]

No. It's mentioned on the Omaha segment.

[@stevemercer5769]

Clue is in the title …’naval operations’🤷‍♂️

[@Conn30Mtenor]

Democracies produce vastly better militaries.

[@xandervk2371]

Please try this line with a Black US veteran.