THE US FIRST ARMY THE FORGOTTEN HEROES OF WW2; THE PREPARATION FOR OPERATION OVERLORD CAP 2

The US First Army was the primary United States Army designated for the beach landings in France under the code name operation Overlord. Three divisions of the First Army were to land on Omaha and Utah beach supported by the US 82^nd and 101^st airborne divisions who were to land in the rear and protect the western most flanks of the designated beach heads on the Normandy coast between Sainte Honorine des pertes to Vierville Sur mere for the 1^st infantry and the 29^th infantry division on Omaha Beach, as well as Pointe du Hoc for the 5^th Ranger battalion.

On Utah Beach VII Corps , 4^th infantry division and the 359^th RCT of the 90^th infantry comprising about 23,250 men were to land around Poupperville and La Madeline, while the 101^st airborne division was to land around Vierville and the 82^nd airborne division was to land at Saint Mere Eglise to protect the right flank of the invasion beaches. Altogether First Army’s contingents numbered about 73,000 men including 15,600 men from the airborne divisions.

The planning for the beach assaults took six months and by April, exercises aimed at fine tuning the troops for the actual assault landings were already taking place all over England. One of them , code-named Operation Tiger became a major disaster when German E- boats attacked and sank two troops transports carrying the assault forces involved in the training exercise to the exercise beaches on the coast of South England.

Troops of the US 29^th and 1^st infantry division were to land on Omaha beach, while troops of the US 4^TH infantry division, all of the First Army were to assault Utah Beach under the overall command of Lieutenant General Omar N Bradley.

Photo Source: Overlord