June 6 marks 80 years since Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, as part of Operation Overlord, the campaign to defeat the Nazis and liberate Western Europe.
Now, a pair of new books — one charting the story of the Allied invasion, a second examining another key moment in World War II just two days prior to the D-Day landings — reveal the realities, tragedies, challenges and strategic successes of the Allied Forces.
On June 4, 1944, the US Navy captured a Nazi U-505 submarine. It was not only the first and only vessel to ever be successfully towed home to America, but also the first time an intact enemy warship had been seized since the War of 1812 with the British.
In “Codename Nemo: The Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and the Elusive Enigma Machine” (Diversion Books), author Charles Lachman recounts the story of how, after months of hunting, a US Navy Task Force, led by Captain Daniel V. Galley on the aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal tracked down and captured this deadly killing machine.
The U-505 had been spotted by two of the Guadalcanal’s fighter planes, running on the surface in the Atlantic Ocean 150 miles off the coast of western Africa, prompting the submarine’s commander, Kapitänleutnant Harald Lange, to dive his vessel deep before Gallery launched depth charges to force it back to the surface.
Fearing his boat was about to break up, Lange ordered his 60-strong crew to abandon ship before readying the 14 detonator charges on board in a bid to destroy it. “Scuttling the submarine is the standard order of business for any well-disciplined U-boat crew. Like the US Navy’s sacred battle cry, “Don’t give up the ship,” the Germans, above all, must keep their vessel from falling into enemy hands,” Lachman wrties.
But with most of the crew now swimming for their lives, there was nobody left to detonate the charges, and when the sub surfaced it was met with a US boarding party, who not only prevented it from sinking but also captured its crew, technology, its encryption codes and an Enigma cipher machine. “It was,” says Lachman, “one of the greatest intelligence windfalls of the war.”
Of the U-505’s crew, just one was killed in the operation. The other 59 became prisoners of war and were taken across the Atlantic to a POW camp in Ruston, Louisiana. “Every now and then, the Guadalcanal rises on an ocean swell, and that’s when the POWs catch sight of their beloved U-505 and realize she’s being towed by the carrier.
“Most distressing of all, she’s flying an American flag.”
But as Lachman explains, it wasn’t just the Stars and Stripes flying strong. “Below Old Glory is a smaller flag – the Nazi flag – with swastika. In Navy tradition, it is a symbol of victor over vanquished.”
It wasn’t until eight days after Germany’s unconditional surrender in May 1945 that the Navy Office of Public Relations finally revealed that the U-505 had been captured.
None of the 3,000 sailors involved in the Task Force ever uttered a word about the capture in the 11 months that had passed.
Indeed, the cover-up was so successful that German high command believed their U-505 was on the ocean floor somewhere off of Africa, along with its crew and intelligence secrets. “For Captain Dan Gallery, this is perhaps Codename Nemo’s most impressive achievement,” writes Lachman. “The boys did keep their mouths shut,” says Gallery. “I think this speaks very highly indeed for the devotion to duty and sense of responsibility.” Today, the U-505 is on display in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
Two days after the U-505’s capture, more than 156,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, as Operation Overlord, the campaign to wrest control back from the Nazis in Europe, entered a decisive phase.
In “When The Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day” (Avid Reader Press) historian Garrett Graff has gathered recollections of more than 700 people involved in this pivotal moment of World War II. “June 6, 1944, is one of the most famous single days in all of human history,” he writes.
“The official launch of Operation Overlord marks a feat of unprecedented human audacity, a mission more complex than anything ever seen and a key turning point in the fight for a cause among the most noble humans have ever fought.”
While some names are familiar, the majority will feel new. They are soldiers and French villagers, German troops and the housewives left behind, who tell their stories, creating an intimate report of D-Day in often visceral detail.
“Operation Overlord is a story dominated by historic figures — Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall, Omar Bradley — and the big, world-shaping decisions they make,” writes Graff. Still, he adds, “the greatest names, as it turns out, are the ones you don’t know.” The oral history covers everything from preparations for the invasion to US troops arriving in Britain at the rate of 5,000 each day between 1943 and 1944.
Operation Overlord was the largest seaborne invasion in history. During the 24 hours of June 6, the Strategic Air Forces — with over 11,500 aircraft — flew 5,309 sorties to drop 10,395 tons of bombs, while aircraft of the tactical forces flew a further 5,276 sorties.
When the invasion launched, over 73,000 US troops landed on Omaha and Utah beaches, supported by nearly 7,000 naval vessels. They were joined by over 61,000 British soldiers who landed at Gold and Sword Beaches and another 21,000 Canadians attacking at Juno Beach.
“The battle scene was the most awesome terrible thing a human being could ever witness,” recalls Seaman Exum Pike, on the submarine chaser USS PC-565. “Looking back on that day, after these many years, I have two grown sons and as I have often told them boys I have no fear of hell because I have already been there.”
Like countless others, Capt. George Mabry, an operations officer with 8th Infantry Regiment, witnessed that hell. “We’d been trained that once you hit the beach, you run. Ahead of me was a man carrying ammunition. A round hit the top of his head . . . and this man’s body completely disappeared,” he says. “I felt something hit my thigh; it was his thumb.”
Sgt. Jerry Salinger, Counter Intelligence Corps, puts it more graphically. “You never really get the smell of burned flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.”
Some 4,414 Allied soldiers died on Normandy’s beaches. “When I landed D-Day morning, I had 35 men in my platoon and in my boat,” says Lt. John J. Reville, 5th Ranger Battalion. “At the end of seven days, there was myself and four men left.”
By June 30, the Allied forces had more than 850,000 troops, nearly 150,000 vehicles and 57,000 tons of supplies in Normandy, paving the way for victory.
It’s best summed up by Charles R. Sullivan of the 111th Naval Construction Battalion. “Normandy and D-Day remain vivid, as if it only happened yesterday. What we did was important and worthwhile,” he says. “How many ever get to say that about a day in their lives?”
