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Operation Overlord

It was on 6th June 1944 that Operation Overlord - the long anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe - went into action. What came to be known as the 'D-day landings' had been set in motion the day before with Operation Neptune, the naval aspect of Overlord. The scope of this massive naval action is aptly described by Cornelius Ryan:

More than 50 years later, extensive historical research had been conducted at invasion-related sites all along the Normandy shoreline. However, no attempt had been made to correlate the remaining undersea archaeological material with the historical record of the naval aspects of the invasion, which continued for months as hundreds of thousands of troops came ashore to liberate Europe from Nazi rule.

Instead, the undersea record has been subjected to decades of erosion, and beach and shore clearing of hazards to navigation - most notably, shipwrecks. In 1997, however, this problem was recognised, by Brett Phaneuf and Robert Neyland of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University (INA). As a result of the determination of these two men, and in cooperation with the Naval Historical Center's Underwater Archaeology Branch, a team of scientists embarked upon the first underwater archaeological reconnaissance adjacent to the American D-Day landing beaches, in the summer of 2000.

The landing areas were surveyed from Utah Beach in the west, to Point du Hoc, and across Omaha Beach in the east. The goal was to determine the location of landing craft, artillery, ships, ordinance and other equipment from Operation Neptune, map the sites, and enter them into the Geographic Information System (GIS), designed to manage 'spatial' data - charts, maps, sonar imagery and geomagnetic contours. This was in the hope that a detailed history of the losses at sea close to shore could be written.

Surveying Omaha Beach

DD-Tanks were to be launched 4km from the beach  © In addition to conducting a general reconnaissance of the invasion areas, the location of known losses was be examined, and a record made of the disposition of ships and equipment at the time. It is known that there were at least 5000 ships involved in Operation Neptune, and as many as 8000 support aircraft - ranging from fighter planes to paratroop transports. The landing craft in the British and American sectors taking part in the action number more than 3200 - not including the specialised vehicles and equipment, such as amphibious tanks.

Once survey work was completed for the 2000 survey along Utah Beach, attention turned to the larger area adjacent to Omaha Beach, and in the shadow of the American Cemetery to the southwest. Using high-resolution sonar, magnetometer and GPS equipment, 121 survey transects were laid out. These supplied innumerable images, among which several shipwrecks were clearly identified.

The wreckage of what may be a Landing Craft, Tank (LCT) shows up among these images, lying upside down off Omaha Beach, its bow facing bottom of the frame. What may be the remains of a 'Rhino Barge' shows up in another, sitting broken on the seafloor, its internal framing exposed, corroded. These craft were used to ferry large numbers of vehicles to shore from Landing Ships, Tank (LSTs) standing off at sea with their bay doors open, disgorging cargo onto these low-to-the-water, shallow-draft barges, driven by outboard motors.

Among the most interesting images is a collection of approximately eight vehicles, assumed to be tanks, at a considerable distance offshore along the eastern end of the survey area at Omaha Beach. Although not certain, these tanks are most likely the "DD", or Duplex Drive, amphibious tanks assigned to support the American Infantry in the first wave of the invasion, and lost on D-Day.

Sixteen LCTs were carrying full complements of DD-Tanks - to be launched approximately four kilometres offshore. To provide the necessary buoyancy, large canvas skirts were erected around the upper portion of the vehicle, to be lowered upon reaching the surf zone. The launch of the first group of DD-Tanks (741st Armored Battalion) proved disastrous, sending 27 to the sea floor, swamped by heavy seas.

Witnessing the horror

DD-Tanks made it ashore at Utah Beach  © The second group of tanks (743rd Armored Battalion), and the crew of the LCTs from which they would be launched, witnessed this horror and chose to steer themselves close to shore and land directly on the beach. If both waves of tanks been launched at the designated time and position, the strong current running to the east would have caused the vehicles to come ashore with little room for manoeuvre, and forced to traverse this narrow margin under heavy fire - either to the west to support American Troops, or east to Gold Beach to support the British. In either case they would most likely have been destroyed.

The Utah landing force, by contrast, came ashore about a mile south of the intended area, and faced little opposition on the beach, and out of range of the major emplacements of German artillery. Fortunately the decision was also made to launch the Utah Beach DD tanks closer to shore than originally planned, and they were successful at supporting the infantry on the beach. In all, between June 6th and 16th the Americans landed more than 300,000 men and more than 35,000 vehicles at Utah and Omaha Beach.

Careful review of the sonar data in late 2000 and early 2001 helped in locating more of the missing DD-Tanks of the 741st Armored Battalion. In all, 23 sonar images represent individual DD-Tanks on the seafloor; some upright, some on their sides, and several with turrets detached and lying close by, between 1 and 4 kilometres from the shore.

In the summer of 2001 a team from INA returned to continue survey work off Omaha Beach, focusing on the DD-Tanks. Also, given the scope of the invasion and the innumerable stories of bravery on D-Day, the story of the loss of the 741st Armored Battalion was chosen as a focus for ongoing research, as it could be correlated with records in the national archives.

In 2001 and 2002 the INA team collected nearly 30 hours of seafloor video via Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) - and with commercial divers, focusing on the DD Tanks lost off Omaha Beach. The team was able to identify and film 13 of the 27 DD Tanks that were lost on D-Day, two having made it to the beach and three never having launched. They also discovered that 3 of the 27 tanks had been recovered - two being on display in the Musee des Epaves in Port en Bessin. Additionally, ten survivors from the 741st Battalion that went down with the DD Tanks have been interviewed, providing considerable insight into the conditions of the loss of their unit on that historic day.

Historical discrepancies

Landing craft faced stormy seas on D-Day  © So far, there are discrepancies between the historical account of what happened to the 741st on D-Day, and what is born out by archaeological study. However, once all the tanks are located, studied and filmed, the INA team plans to make as accurate a record as possible of the event, and place the details in the greater context of D-Day history. Meantime, analysis of the data to date provides the following insights:

1. The tanks launched at approximately 6,000 yards as intended, regardless of sea conditions.

2. The LCTs were headed into the current and drifting to the east as they launched the tanks.

3. The tanks launched and turned into the current to head for their landing area. This is the most significant factor in their sinking, as it would expose the long side of the tank to a 'beam sea', meaning that the force of the waves would strike the weakest, most flexible, portion of the floatation skirt, causing it to buckle and ultimately fail. It is apparent that the tanks were attempting to stay on course for their intended landing area, and were using the steeple of the church at Colleville sur Mer as a point to steer by, as they moved with the current steadily to the east and off course, compounding the angle at which they had to turn the vehicles 'beam-on' to the waves.

4. The two tanks that made it to shore had put their 'stern' to the waves to mitigate the impact of the sea, and reduce the chance of swamping. Interviews with survivors revealed that the commanders of the two DD-Tanks that made it to shore had considerable small-boat experience on rivers and at sea, and would have known the danger of turning 'beam-on' to the seas.

5. Someone in the 741st used a tank radio to contact the 743rd Tank Battalion to inform them of their fate, saving the lives and tanks of the 743rd and allowing them to get to shore to protect the infantry.

6. Rockwell (US Navy) and Elders (US Army) conferred, and decided not to launch within moments of the 741st launching on orders from Young and Thornton.

7. The tanks can be divided on the chart into C-Company tanks in the west, and B-Company tanks in the east.

The element of surprise

DD-Tanks were often criticised before D-Day  © DD-Tanks were designed to preserve the element of surprise during an amphibious assault by hiding the bulk of the tank below the waterline until it reached shore. At sea it looked relatively benign, when compared to the armada offshore.

It should be noted that there were several training losses in England with Valentine DD-Tanks, which were much lighter than the Sherman DD-Tanks used on D-Day; there were also several mishaps with the Sherman Tanks. Numerous reports criticising the performance of the DD-Tanks were prepared by the training battalions in England, but never reached the upper echelons of command.

From the outset the DD-Tanks were never intended to launch in seas with waves greater in height than 1 foot, and were designed to maintain a freeboard (dry canvas above water when floating) of at least 48 inches. On D-Day, waves reached nearly 6 feet, and the freeboard of the 741st DD-Tanks ranged from 14-18 inches. That the freeboard was so greatly reduced can be attributed to flex in the metal hoops used to support the canvas exterior when raised to provide floatation, and also to stretch in the canvas skirt itself; both problems leading to a reduction in buoyancy.

Coupled with the general clumsiness of the tank, and its difficulty in holding course even in good conditions, it is no wonder that the 741st was lost on D-Day. However, many of the tanks actually swam a great distance toward shore, contradicting statements that the tanks sank immediately after launching. And that they launched at all is a testament to the courage and determination of the Allies, in the face of daunting odds and grave danger.

Find out more

Books

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan (Wordsworth Editions, 1999)

Battlefront: D-Day Public Record Office (1999)

Overlord; D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944 by Max Hastings (Pan, 1999)

D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy by Anthony Kemp (Harry N Abrams, 1994)

Places to visit

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About the author

Brett Phaneuf completed studies in Anthropology and Classical Studies at the University of Massachusetts prior to enrolling in the Nautical Archaeology Program and ultimately the Department of Oceanography at Texas &M University where he is completing his doctoral degree. His research focuses on deep-sea remote sensing technology and he is a principle figure in the development to Texas &M's new program of deep-sea archaeological research.