April 2024
Day 1 of the Normandy Camporee
We left Thursday night and arrived in Paris, France. From Paris we rented vans and made the 4 hour drive to Omaha beach. The scouts were able to stay in a tent lodge that had 2 bedrooms and slept 5 people. The tent lodge also had a small shower, kitchen, and bathroom. The adults were split between staying in a small mobile home on the beach and a hotel in a nearby town.
The first days agenda mostly consisted of arriving at camp, checking in, visiting the trading post, and trying to adjust to the change in time.
Omaha Beach and D-Day History
Omaha beach stretches over 6 miles and was the largest of the D-Day assault areas. As you can see in the pictures, the beach was backed by a seawall and overlooked by cliffs. This gave the German forces the definite advantage. The pictures in this post also show Omaha beach at high tide. Day 2 pictures with the fire bowl show the beach at low tide. On D-Day timing was very important to the success of the mission.
On D-Day there were 2,400 casualties by U.S. forces on Omaha beach, however there were 34,000 allied troops that landed.
Overall the D-Day invasion consisted of:
Allied Forces
there were 156,000 Allied troops from The United States, The United Kingdom, Canada, Free France, and Norway.
Invasion Area
The Allied code names for the beaches along the 50-mile stretch of Normandy coast targeted
for landing were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Omaha was the costliest beach in
terms of Allied casualties.
The Armada
5,000 ships and landing craft
50,000 vehicles
11,000 planes
Commanders
United States – Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley
The United Kingdom – Bernard Law Montgomery, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Arthur Tedder, Miles
Dempsey, Bertram Ramsay
Germany – Erwin Rommel, Gerd von Rundstedt, Friedrich Dollmann
Casualties
Numbers represent total killed, wounded, missing or captured
United States – 6,603 (1,465 killed)
United Kingdom – 2,700
Canada – 1,074 (359 killed)
Germany – Estimated between 4,000 – 9,000
The Outcome
By June 11, with the beachheads firmly secured, more than 326,000 Allied troops had crossed with more than 100,000 tons of military equipment. Paris was liberated on August 25. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945.
For more information on the camporee visit: Normandy Camporee – Transatlantic Council (tac-bsa.org)
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