Normandy: The Allied air forces have absolute superiority in the skies over the invasion beaches. They have put 13,743 aircraft into the air today, harrying the Germans, directing the warships guns, towing gliders and dropping paratroopers.
Fighter-bombers come snarling down to rocket German strongpoints, while high overhead the fighters wait for the Luftwaffe to appear. Most of them will wait in vain. Luftwaffe air losses are such that it has about 185 serviceable aircraft to put into the battle.
There can be no doubt that air power is the key to this new battle for France, just as it was in 1940. Then it was the Stukas and Bf109s that ruled the skies and made life unbearable for the men on the ground.
Today it is the Spitfires and Typhoons, the Thuunderbolts and Mustangs, and, of course, the Lancasters, Flying Fortresses and Marauders which make sure that no German bomber can live in the Allied-ruled Normandy skies.
Air controllers are with every army unit, and their job is to call up help from the "cab-rank" circling overhead. Further forward, interdiction strikes are being made against railways, roads and German armour on the move. It is a clean sweep in the air today.
The USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England reaches its top strength as the 40th heavy bomber group becomes operational. Heavy bombers fly four missions in support of the Normandy invasion:
1. Mission 394: At first light, 659 of 882 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 418 of 543 B-24 Liberators hit coastal targets in the area of the invasion beaches between Le Havre and Cherbourg; overcast and inability of the bombers to locate (or absence of) PFF leaders causes failure of some units to attack; one B-24 is lost.
2. Mission 394: The second mission strikes at transportation chokepoints in towns immediately around the assault area; total cloud cover causes 84 B-17s and 259 B-24s dispatched to return with their bombs but 37 B-24s manage to bomb the secondary target of Argentan; two B-24s are lost.
3. Mission 395: The third mission is dispatched against the important communications center of Caen; 58 of 73 B-24s bomb through overcast skies without loss.
4. Mission 395: Transportation chokepoints in towns immediately south and east of the assault area are the objectives of the fourth mission; 325 of 409 B-17s and 125 of 300 B-24s hit targets including Vire, Saint-Lo, Coutances, Falaise, Lisieux, Thury-Harcourt, Pont-l'Eveque, Argentan, and Conde-sur-Noireau; one B-24 is lost.
In all, 1,729 bombers drop 3,596 tons of bombs during D-Day.
The VIII Fighter Command has the threefold mission of escorting bombers, attacking any movement toward the assault area, and protecting Allied shipping. The fighters fly 1,880 sorties including fighter-bomber attacks against seventeen bridges, ten marshalling yards, and a variety of other targets including convoy, railroad cars, siding, rail and highway junctions, tunnel, and a dam. Very little air opposition is encountered.
The fighters claim 26-0-8 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 4-0-9 on the ground. Also destroyed are 21 locomotives and two carloads of ammunition. Numerous targets are damaged including locomotives, trucks, tank cars, armored vehicles, goods carriers, barges, and tugboats. Targets attacked with unreported results include warehouses, radar towers, barracks, troops, artillery, staff cars, 85 trains, and a variety of other targets. 25 fighters are lost.
Mission 396: During the night, 12 B-17s drop leaflets in France and the Low Countries.
The USAAF's Ninth Air Force in England dispatches 800+ A-20s and B-26s to bomb coastal defence batteries, rail and road junctions and bridges, and marshalling yards in support of the invasion; 2,000+ fighters fly sweeps, escort for B-26s and C-47 Skytrains, ground support, and dive-bombing missions over western France. During the preceding night and during the day over 1,400 C-47s, C-53 Skytroopers, and gliders deliver glider troops and paratroops, including three full airborne divisions, which are to secure beach exits to facilitate inland movement of seaborne assault troops. A total of about 30 aircraft are lost.
RAF forces included six Armstrong Whitworth Albermarles from Harwell acting as pathfinders for the 6th Airborne Division, dropping men of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company.
A Mosquito VI of No. 605 Squadron is the first RAF aircraft to shoot down an enemy aircraft after H-hour. (22)