On June 6, 1944 it was time for the Allied forces to put all of their planning and deception to test. over the night of June 5 the airborne forces were flying over the English channel and into German occupied France. The airborne forces were dropped early morning just hours before the first wave of beach landings hit the beaches of Normandy. The mission was to hold the beaches and prepare for the landings of the rest of the allied forces to prepare to continue fighting and push the Germans out of France and back into Germany.
The airborne forces were sent out first to land in France and open up causeways for the main effort to continue movement inland. The airborne forces were a fairly new tactic to use in warfare and many of the pilots and soldiers were inexperienced in airborne operations in combat situations. The pilots were flying through weather that wasn't ideal and were caught flying through the German air defense artillery. Due to this the pilots became confused on their location and their altitude. The airborne forces were dropped into France and the airborne soldiers that were lucky enough to make it to the ground alive found themselves in the wrong locations. Groups from the 82nd airborne and the 101st airborne had to band together to accomplish the mission that was set for the airborne. It took days before many soldiers finally found their units.
The soldiers that were a part of the amphibious invasion did not fair much better. Soldiers were stuck in a boat while listening to the rough seas underneath them and the whir of machine gun bullets being fired at them. They were protected until the ramps dropped in front of them and they had to push forward to take control of the beach that they were landing on. The sailors that were driving the landing craft got confused just as the pilots of the airborne. Soldiers often times were told to exit the landing craft before they were close enough to shore and they had to swim the rest of the way to the beach. Once the soldiers hit the beach they had a tough fight against defensive positions set by the Germans. Eventually the soldiers were successful and were able to hold the beaches. This secured a foothold for the Allies in WWII in France. This was the beginning of the end for Germany. Meanwhile the Germans were convinced that the invasion was a fake invasion and that the real invasion was still coming at Calais.
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