Normandy: Members of the 12th SS Hitler Jugend Panzer Division murder 34 Canadian prisoners.
Normandy: British commandos attack Port-en-Bessin, where the Omaha and Gold beach-heads meet.
Normandy: American war correspondent Ernie Pyle lands at Omaha Beach and files this article. (Gene Hanson)
Normandy: German forces capture the operations orders for the American V and VII Corps. (171)(David Kahn)
Normandy: Jay Stone lands at Utah Beach:
One other aspect of life on the Susan B. Anthony appealed to me. At Whatcombe Farm we had had a post exchange which opened once a week in order to sell to us our weekly allotment of seven packs of cigarettes and five candy bars. I didn't smoke and so was able to trade my cigarettes for candy. None of this was necessary aboard the Susan B. Anthony. The ship's store, or whatever it was they called their version of the PX, was loaded with what I, by now, considered luxuries from the United States. There seemed to be no end to it. We could buy whatever we wanted: Milky Way, Baby Ruth, Butterfingers, you name it. Of course, we knew that we would soon be going ashore and that our purchases would have to be carried and so there were limits.
The good life on the Susan B. Anthony ended on the morning of June 7, D+1, when she struck a mine. This mine packed a fearsome punch. The ship rolled and shook from the force of the explosion and she was soon dead in the water. Several minutes after we hit the mine, I saw a few seamen with their heads bandaged come up on deck from below. They were the only casualties I saw.
Shortly after the explosion a United States Navy destroyer escort (DE) with a salvage officer on board pulled alongside. Using loud hailers he and the captain conversed. The captain wanted to attempt to save his ship by having it towed and pushed toward land and beached. The salvage officer said that he would get back to him and the DE pulled away. He returned soon with the news that the task force commander would not beach the stricken ship and that it would have to be abandoned. The captain didn't seem happy with the decision but then the United States Navy didn't require its ship's captains to be happy. The area around us was crowded with ships of the United States Navy and the Royal Navy and so I wasn't at all concerned about being rescued.
Cargo nets were lowered over the side and we began disembarking into a Royal Navy DE. Waves were two to three feet high and the DE was pitching and rolling, making it difficult to jump from the net into the it. The last time I had climbed down a cargo net was on the firm land of Fort Eustis, Virginia during basic training. That exercise was quite different from the real thing which we were attempting now. However, as far as I could see, everyone made it down safely thanks in large part to the help of the Royal Navy seamen who held the cargo nets and shouted advise to us.
Another Royal Navy DE was rafted alongside the first and some of us were ordered onto it. Once there we began enjoying His Majesty's hospitality courtesy some crew members. They broke out some oxtail stew, tea and biscuits for us. The stew was reminiscent of the food I had been served on the Queen Mary and it was the precursor of some of the rations we were to receive during Operation MARKET-GARDEN when we were attached to the British Second Army. But that was in the decidedly unknown future. (Three times the British had tried to interest me in oxtail stew and they had failed. Just hearing that name, even without seeing the stuff turned me off.)
As our DE pulled away from the Susan B. Anthony I looked back and was surprised at how low in the water she was. While on the ship I had no sensation that she was sinking but there was a reason for which we were abandoning her. I hoped that all would be successfully disembarked. His Majesty's hospitality soon came to an end when a United States Navy landing craft pulled alongside. We went over the side into her. There were many soldiers in that craft; so many that it was impossible to move around or to sit. It was so crowded that I climbed over the side onto a ledge about 18 inches wide and sat there with nothing between me and the water. After about 30 minutes a German fighter aircraft came screaming across the bridgehead on a strafing run. Before I could think about it, she was jumped by two American fighters which had been loitering in the sun waiting for just such an occasion. When last seen, the German was headed inland trailing much black smoke. This convinced me that my position outside of the landing craft was insecure and so I climbed back into the crowd.
Soon after the attack we landed on the shore at Utah Beach. I realize that the 4th Infantry Division which made the assault on Utah Beach did not have as much difficulty as did the 1st Infantry division at Omaha Beach but Utah Beach was a mess. Boats were damaged and lay beached. Army equipment and weapons were all over. There was even the abandoned desk and files of a company clerk. Next to them was a tennis racquet. That must have been carried by one optimistic soldier. I hoped that no Frenchman in Normandy was waiting for him to keep a tennis date.
I knew that I was at war but was impressed with this by the mines that the Germans had laid over so much of the area. "Achtung Minen" in black paint on red background was everywhere. I couldn't understand why the Germans had been kind enough to warn us of their mines. I suppose that it was for the safety of their own personnel and that they didn't have time to remove their warnings. We assembled just over the dunes and dug in. (Jay Stone)
Paris: Charles Braibant writes in his diary: "This afternoon Madame X. played bridge with the wife of an industrialist. Nobody passed a comment on events. Yesterday evening, tanks drove along the boulevard Suchet. It appears that the avenue de Neuilly and l'allee des Acacias in the Bois were swarming all day with troops marching off to Normandy. Butter has risen from 700 francs a kilo to 850 francs. A full professor therefore earns the equivalent of four pounds of butter a month."
The Allied Expeditionary Air Force (AEAF) directs air attacks against congested points to delay movement of more enemy forces into the assault area and the USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England flies two missions in support.
In the first mission (Mission 397) in the morning, 182 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 291 B-24 Liberators, including 20 PFFs, are dispatched; of the B-17s, 58 hit Conde sur Noireau, 60 hit Flers, and 54 hit Falaise; of the B-24s, 66 hit Argentan, 19 hit Vascoeuil, 61 hit Laigle and 83 hit Lisieux.
In the second mission (Mission 398) in the afternoon, 487 B-17s and 88 B-24s are dispatched; the primary targets for the B-17s are Nantes (190 bomb) and the Kerlin/Bastard Airfield (132 bomb); 23 B-17s hit Niort and 40 hit the Nantes Bridge; the primary target for the B-24s is Tours/La Roche (12 bomb) and 13 hit Pouance, 13 hit Blain, 13 hit Chateaubriand, 25 hit Laval Airfield, 12 hit Vitre and 3 hit Tours; one B-17 and one B-24 are lost. Heavy cloud prevents almost 100 others from bombing targets.
The VIII Fighter Command furnishes area support for beachhead areas in the early morning and to heavy bomber operations at midday and in the late afternoon, at the same time maintaining harassment of communications and flying shipping patrol. 526 P-38 Lightnings and 294 P-51 Mustangs patrol the beachhead and provide escort in northern France; they claim 2-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 0-0-2 on the ground; eight P-51s are lost. 505 P-47 Thunderbolts and 148 P-51s engage in general strafing over northern France and claim 29-1-12 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 25-0-12 on the ground; ten P-47s and four P-51s are lost.
Personal Memory: My diary for today reads: "Cherbourg again. Invasion coast. Bombed German escape route. Target seven tenths covered. Used PFF method of bombing. No opposition from Nazi. Big operations. We are wholly supporting the ground troops." Beiser and I were again assigned the "Buzz Blonde" that I would eventually fly twelve missions in. Each of our 18 B-17s were loaded with six, 1000 pound bombs to be delivered to a road junction near the invasion coast close to Conde Sur Neireau, in western France. Eighteen other B-17s from our field were loaded with five hundred pound bombs that they dropped at a road and rail junction near Flers, France. Two of our aircraft failed to bomb because of malfunctions. Due to overcast at the target we bombed by radar from 21,000 feet. We saw no flak or enemy fighters in our 40 minutes over enemy territory. The 303rd Bomb Group was capable of putting up 40 B-17s on any mission and on one occasion actually put up 60 which is very cumb ersome. Our 36 planes today made up two groups for bombing purposes. The temperature was a relatively mild, minus 7 degrees F. and our wind at altitude was 63 miles per hour from 340 giving us an 18 degree drift to the left which the Norden bomb sight corrected. Our indicated air speed of 150 MPH gave us a true airspeed of 208 and a ground speed of 207. Each aircraft carried 1,700 gallons of gas for this five hour and twenty minute flight. My score so far is: Milk runs 8, Others 4. (Dick Johnson)
Mission 399: Ten B-17s drop leaflets over The Netherlands, France and Belgium.
Fourteen B-24s participate in CARPETBAGGER operations in France.
The USAAF's Ninth Air Force in England dispatches 600+ B-26 Marauders to hit bridges, junctions, trestles, coastal and field batteries, and marshalling yards in France in support of the invasion; 1,100+ fighters support ground troops by dive bombing and strafing, escort B-26s and C-47 Skytrains, and make sweeps throughout the battle area as Bayeux is liberated and the Bayeux-Caen road is cut; and 400+ C-47s, C-53 Skytroopers, and gliders resupply paratroops in the assault area.