CHAPTER I
Preparation for D-Day
The initial directive for VII Corps participation in the assault on Normandy was issued by
Headquarters First U. S. Army on 1 February 1944, based on the Anglo-American “Initial Joint Plan”.
The operation was outlined sufficiently to permit initial estimates of troops, supplies, and shipping
requirements to be made. VII Corps was to assault a beach on the eastern coast of the Cotentin
Peninsula, secure a beachhead, and capture the port of Cherbourg, while V Corps and British and
Canadian units made landings farther east in the area north of Bayeux. The 4th Infantry Division, newly
arrived from the United States, was designated to make the assault on the VII Corps beach, aided by
airborne landings of the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions. Naval and Air Force units would support the
attack by bombardment of enemy defenses and communications, and Service of Supply organizations
would mount and supply the operation.
On 14 February 1944, Major General J. Lawton Collins, the original VII Corps Chief of Staff,
returned to take command of the Corps. As a division and corps commander in the Pacific theater he
had already conducted several successful campaigns against the Japanese, and with an experienced and
masterful hand he now took over the guidance of the biggest military operation of his career.
Corps Headquarters fairly teemed with activity. Plans were developed, each increasingly more
detailed than the last, providing against every need and every emergency. Training was even more
intensified as individuals learned and rehearsed the particular tasks each was to do, physically hardening
themselves to meet the rigors of combat. Supplies and equipment accumulated in English bases. To
facilitate coordination of details of the planning with the naval force which was to provide the lift,
escort, and support for the operation, a planning group from the Corps staff established planning
headquarters adjacent to the offices of U.S. Naval Force “U” in Plymouth. Air support plans of the
Ninth U. S. Army Air Force were integrated with plans for naval bombardment, and both fitted into the
overall plan for the operation.
As the preparations advanced, joint training exercises for small units of the Army, Navy, and Air
Force were held. The most critical events expected in the Normandy invasion were carefully rehearsed
as larger units were brought into the problems. Precise details of coordination were arranged and
rehearsed, such as how contact would be established between the two airborne divisions and the
seaborne assault troops and what aerial bombardment and naval gunfire would be brought on the known
enemy defenses. Timing was worked out, routes of advance and contact points were selected, and every
conceivable aspect of the coming battle was gone over time and again.
New information on the enemy situation was being received almost daily. So was information
on new developments in our own techniques and equipment. Several details of the plans had to be
changed as the result of this added knowledge, but everybody put forth his best effort and the
adjustments were made rapidly. The spirit with which the troops accepted these changes and put their
whole-hearted application into each improvement was a good indication of the full confidence they had
in their leaders.
 |
 |
 |