First of all, our objective.
We are headed for France, as
you have guessed. To be specific, we are headed for
the beaches in the Bay of the Seine, immediately to
the east of the Cherbourg peninsula.
We are the Western or American
Task Force. To the east of us in this same area will
be the Eastern and British Task Force.
If ours is, as indeed it is,
history's largest combined operation, it is because
in England we and the British have learned to respect
one another the hard way - by being together, by
laughter, by perplexity, by irritation, by the need
and desire to work together. They have seen us
swarm across the cities and fields in numbers
comforting but uncomfortable. We, uprooted, have had
to readjust ourselves to a new mode of life in an old
country new to us.
We are headed for the Bay of
Seine, immediately to the east of the Cherbourg
penisula. We Americans are the Western Task Force. To
the east of us will be the British or Eastern Task
Force.
The Supreme
Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force is, as
you know, General Eisenhower. The Allied Naval
Commander in command of both these assaulting naval
forces is Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. The Commander
of the Eastern (or British) Task Force is Admiral
Vian. The Western Task Force, of which the Augusta
is the flagship, is under the command
of Admiral Kirk.
The Western (or
predominantly American) Task Force is divided into
three task forces: one under Admiral Hall; another
under Admiral Moon; and the third, a follow-up to
sail a little later, under Commodore Edgar. A fourth
American unit, under Admiral Wilkes, Commander of
Landing Craft and Bases, will remain in England until
the time comes for it to move over to the far shore.
Admiral Bryant is in command of the battleships;
Admiral Deyo, of the destroyers.
Of the three
American Task Forces, those under Admiral Hall and
Admiral Moon are the assault forces. As for the
Augusta she and the squadron of PT boats to escort
her under Lieutenant Commander Bulkeley, will
constitute a Control Force, which will also include
destroyers and other ships. We will have wide
latitude of movement.
The Eastern, or
British, Task Force will carry the British Second
Army and consist of three assault forces.
If you will look at
the map of France (which you cannot do often enough
just now), you will find that the northern shore line
of France dips down into an irregular curve at
Calais, where the distance between England and France
is shortest in the Dover straits.
From Calais to
Cherbourg at the tip of the Contentin peninsula to
the west, the French coast line resembles the fat end
of a slice of pie bitten into by a person with
irregular, though prominent, teeth. In this bite our
business lies; this bite which is the Bay of the
Seine.
You will notice
that there are no ports of any size in this area; in
other words, that we as amphibians, will be
performing our proper amphibious duties, moving from
ship to shore and also from shore to shore.
The French coast
line subject to our joint assault is a stretch
roughly of forty-eight miles. These forty-eight miles
will not be under complete attack. Some ten miles of
coast will, for example, separate us in the Western
Task Force from the British, or Eastern, Task Force.
Our own two assault forces under Admiral Hall and
Admiral Moon will have as their objectives beaches
likewise separated by another ten miles.
Admiral Hall's Task
Force is the eastern of the two American assault
forces. On or back of both beaches are small
villages.
Of the two beaches
Admiral Moon's is in flatter country. It is said to
consist mainly of sand dunes or masonry walls. Behind
it, however, are drainage canals which the Germans
have blocked up. thus flooding the adjacent country.
Although the land is reported to be drying in this
area, and the three roads inland are said said to be
clearing, the other roads still have some water on
them, and the ground near by is extremely wet.
In the area which
Admiral's Hall's Task Force will attack, the beaches
are backed by sharp cliffs, presenting a pocket-sized
edition of the White Cliffs of Dover. Four valleys
cut through this section, and the land rises inland
from nine to one hundred and fifteen feet. It is in
this area that the main German counter-attack against
the Americans is expected.
Our job is to land
our men before Germans can mass theirs. Our assets in
the initial attack are our air supremacy and the
strength and accuracy of our naval guns.
The naval forces
with which we sail represent the greatest ever
assembled in history. Counting all American and
British craft with us, we will have some 2400 craft
in the Western Task Force alone of which about 1300
are ships of, or above, the size of LCT's.
To be more
specific, when we confront those German-held beaches
tomorrow, our Western Task Force will have with it
three American battleships - the Arkansas,
the Texas, and the Nevada;
three American cruisers - the Tuscaloosa,
the Quincy, and
the Augusta; thirty-two
destroyers; eighteen patrol craft; two French
cruisers; one big-gunned booming British monitor; and
five British cruisers - the Hawkins
, the Belona , the
Glasgow, the Black
Prince, and the Enterprise.
A major feature of
the operation will be our Allied Forces. For months
our Air Forces have been attacking enemy gun
positions, roads, and bridges. They have been at it
again today and will be again tonight.
Between midnight
and H-hour tomorrow, some 3000 Allied planes should
have done their final preparatory work - planes,
heavy and light, bombers and fighters. During
tomorrow's daylight, at least 6000 of our planes of
all kinds should be in the air. At times it is said
that three layers of planes will be flying over us or
near us at once. A sight- a sound - none of us is apt
to forget. Tonight at about midnight our air-borne
troops in planes and gliders will fly over Admiral
Moon's beaches. They will come in such numbers that
their passing will take three hours.
We come in vast
numbers on the sea and in the air. We come carrying
with us a huge army. Air-borne troops will precede us
in large force. With Admiral Hall will be the 5th
Corps under General Gerow; with Admiral Moon will be
the 7th Corps under General Collins, both of which
Corps are part of the First Army commanded by
Lieutenant General Bradley, now with us on the
Augusta.
It would be the
wildest understatement to suggest that we will not be
opposed.
In these hours of
testing, which will, which must, lead to triumph, may
I remind you of three lines from Shakespeare?
Therefore,
my lords, omit no happy hour
Which may give furth'rance to our expedition
For we have now no thought in us but France,
Good Luck!
