Timeline D-Day Chronology

 CHRONOLOGY    D-Day 1944

 06th June: D-Day Landings. Allied Forces land on the northern coast of Normandy.

22th-21th June: Battle tor Cherbourg. The port is eventually captured but is so badly damaged as to be useless for some considerable time

03th July: US First Army begins to attack southwards towards St. Lo. The dense nature of the bocage country results in very slow progress and heavy casuaities.

8th-11th July: British and Canadians launch Operation Charnwood. They break into Caen but fail to clear the entire city.

17th July: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. commander of Army Group B. is severely wounded  when his car is attacked by RAF ground-attack aircralt. Von Kluge takes over direct command of Army Group B.

18th July: Operation Goodwood begins. Caen is cleared but gains are limited. Goodwood does succeed in concentrating German attention on the British sector however.

18th July:  St Lo is finally taken by the Americans.

20th July: Hitler survives an attempted assassination at the "Wolf ‘s Lair". his forward command post in East Prussia. This intensifies Hitler's suspicion of the German  officer corps.

24th July: Carpet-bombing attack. scheduled to begin at 13.00hrs is cancelled. Some of the  aircraft do not get the message and carry out the attack. US 30th Division sufiers more than 150 casualties from bombs that drop short.

25 July                 
09.36.Hrs: P-47 fighter-bombers begin strafing runs and ground-attack missions  along the northern edge of the bomb zone. They are followed by more than 1,800 heavy bombers which carpet bomb an area 1000 yards long by 2.500 yards deep. The effect on Panzer Lehr Division is devastating. US troops suffer approximately600 casualties from bombs dropping short. including LT. Gen Lesley McNair, head of US Arrny Ground Forces.

11.00hrs: VII Corps begins ground assault but advance is held up by areas ol continued resistance. US forces only penetrate about a mile. 24.00hrs Town of Hebecrevon is finally taken.

26th July: Maj. Gen Collins of VII Corps orders his armored units to spearhead his advance. German defenses begin to collapse as CCB/3rd Armored Division and 1st infantry Division capture Marigny and 2nd Armored Division advances seven miles.

28th/29th July: German forces in the Ronoey pocket are largely destroyed while trying to break out.

30th July: Maj Gen John Woods 4th Armored Division seizes Avrranches.

31th July: Key bridge at Pontaubault captured without resistance by task force from 4th Armored Division.

01st August: First US army becarne 12th Army Group and Gen George Patton's Third Army is activated. 4th Armored Division halted by determined resistance at Rennes airport,

02nd August: Luftwaffe attempts to destroy bridge at Pontaubault in night attacks US guided missiles. The attacks fail.

03rd August: During the night the garrison oi Fiennes abandons the city.

05th August: CCA/4th Armored Division reaches Vannes on Ouiberon Bay.

05th  August: Initial attack by 83rd Division on St Malo

07th August: CCB/4th Armored Division reaches outskirts of Lorient.

Night of
06th/07th August:   Operation  the Gemran counterattack at Mortain. begins 2nd Bn., 120th US   infantry. surrounded on Hill 317. continue to call in artillery on  the German forces.

07th August: Attacks begin in earnestl on St Maio. Task Force A joins with 6th Armored Division on the outskirts of Brest. Garrison of Brest does not surrender until19th September.

08th August:  Patton's troops liberate Lo Mans. First Canadian Army launches Operation Totalize aimed at Falaise.

12th August:            In a daring night attack Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division seize the bridges over the Fivar Sarthe.

13th August: Bradley orders Patton to direct his corps east rather than north into theArgentan-Falasie gap

14th August: St Malo is finally taken alter intense house-to-house fighting.

15th August: US Seventh Army lands on the southem coast or France near Marseilles.

16th August:  The Canadians finally take Falaise, leaving a gap of only 15 miles between the Allied spearheads. Hitler finally agrees to the withdrawal of German units in the  Falaise pocket. Patton's Third Army is on the outskirts of Chartres and Orleans.

17th August: Von Kluge is replaced by General Fieldmarschal Walter Model. Von Kluge commits suicide the next day. Citadel of St. Malo finally surrenders after direct   fire from 8-in. guns from a range of onlv 1.500 yards.

21st August: Falaise pocket is finally sealed. 10.000 German troops have been killed and 50.000 captured in the pocket. whilst 313 tanks have also been lost.

23rd  August: Hitler informs the commander of the Paris garrison. Dietrich von Cholchitz. that the city "must not fall into the hands of the enemy except as a field of ruins.

26th August:  French and US troops including Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division liberate Paris.