Utah Beach and US Airborne Operations

US 4th Infantry Division's landings and the drop zones of the 101st and 82nd US Airborne Divisions

Utah Beach was the furthest west of the five beaches designated for the D-Day landings located at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, it was added by Eisenhower to the original D-Day plan to ensure the early capture of the vital port of Cherbourg in the north. Utah Beach is about three miles wide. Much of it is made up of sandy dunes and the German fortifications here were weak compared to those of Omaha Beach. The land behind the beach is easily flooded by locks and the Germans believed that the area only needed weak defence as the land would be flooded when the Allies attacked .

There were only four main ways off the beach area and flooding would have severely restricted any form of movement, but especially that of vehicles. The nearest major town for the Allies was Carentan, to the south-west. Through Carentan ran a main road to the east to Bayeaux, which could link the troops who landed at Utah to Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches. This same road ran north-west from Carentan to Valognes,only 13 miles from Cherbourg.

The landing force at Utah came from the US 4th Infantry Division. The US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions dropped at various points two to five miles inland of the beach. The landing troops were scheduled to link up with the paratroopers as soon as possible. The paratroopers were dropped primarily to secure the main road from Valognes to Carentan and to cause general chaos.

The airborne drop worked well but the sea-borne landing did not go to plan. Strong currents meant that the landing craft were taken off of their intended targets on the beach. They landed 2000 meters away from their main landing target. Ironically, this was one of the lesser-defended areas along the entire beach front and the casualties as the troops came ashore were minimal. The most senior American commander on the beach, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt told his men that, “We’ll start the war from here!” and ordered an advance. By midday, the men of the US 4th Infantry had met up with the men from the 101st Airborne.

German opposition was swiftly dealt with. By the end of the day, the troops had advanced about four miles inland and they were about one mile from the 82nd at St. Mère-Eglise, some six miles north of Carentan. On the first full day of the landings at Utah, 20,000 men had been landed and 1,700 military vehicles. Casualties were less than 300 men. The achievements at Utah were immense.

The Tour:

Quineville
St Marcouf
Crisbecq Batterie
Batterie d'Azeville
Utah Beach
W5 bunkers
Exit 2
Brecourt Manoir
Franqueville Farm
Ste Mare du Mont
Hiesville
Ste Mère Église
River Merderet causeway
Dead Man's Corner
Graignes