The five D
Day landing beaches were named, west to east, as UTAH,
OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO and SWORD. The first two were the
American beaches for the 1st (US) Army and the other
three for the British and Canadian 2nd (British) Army.
The western
beaches were allocated to the Americans so that their
supply routes from home would not cross the routes to
the other beaches.
UTAH beach was the beach allocated to the 4th (US) Infantry Division whose assault was led by the 8th Infantry Regiment. Their job was to clear a route inland to the area of the high ground around the village of Ste Marie du Mont, a route known as Exit 2. There were four possible exit routes from the UTAH area, each essentially a causeway across land that had been flooded by the Germans. Having cleared the exits the 4th Division was then tasked to link up with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions which had dropped further inland, notably around Ste Mere Eglise. The weather on D Day was very bad, UTAH being the most exposed of all of the landing beaches, and the Division landed in the wrong place. The Assistant Divisional Commander, General Theordore Roosevelt who landed with the leading troops, realised that they were in the wrong place and had to decide whether to try to stop the following troops and to attempt to turn them round.
What actually
happened is told in our guide book .
To find out
more click here http://www.guide-books.co.uk/normandy.html
