MISTAKES, THEN SUCCESS ON UTAH BEACH

Both the British and American airborne landing were damp. Normandy is cut up with canals and overgrown creeks that Frenchmen call rivers. The British drop near the Orne and Dives Rivers was designed to smash any bridges over which the Germans could bring up support, but to hold one bridge over the Orne by which commandos could come up to help them hold on. It went well. The American drops went badly in the hedgerows behind Utah Beach, but little groups of widely scattered jumpers confused the defense. Many of them died in glider crashes or drowned in the marshes, but by early morning the key town, Ste. Mere-Eglise, had fallen and the Fourth Division driving in over Utah Beach had made it with only 197 casualties and had 20,000 men moving inland.

STRANGLEHOLD IN THE AIR

Rommel had advocated the tight defense on the beaches because he had learned during the North African campaign how air power could tie his panzers down. Now he wrote, "Our operations in Normandy were tremendously hampered by the immensely powerful, at times overwhelming, superiority of the enemy air force." Fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters closed the roads to his columns during daylight.

"TAKE THE MEN OFF THE BEACH"

The British were ashore and moving on toward Caen. Utah was in good shape, but on Omaha, the casualties mounted. Acting as if he were bulletproof, American General Norman Cota strode the beach and shouted to "jar the men loose." It was 1:30 p.m. when Omar Bradley got the word "Troops advancing up heights behind the beaches" adn German prisoners began coming disconsolately back under guard.

THE DAY ENDS IN VICTORY

They had done it. By the end of D-Day, a force of 200,000 men had come in over the beaches and three airborne divisions were causing havoc in the enemy rear. The casualties had been lighter than expected-- about 10,000 for the job. Men of the First Division pushed on inland, and infantry on ruined German bunkers waved to fighter-bombers flying on to punish the German support. Today a cemetery and monument stand above Omaha Beach in memory of men who died for a 60-mile-wide part of Fortress Europe.