By JAY VERDOORN
Omaha and Utah, in the minds of many, are more than just places in the United States. The names evoke the valor and sacrifice of thousands of American, British and Canadian soldiers on the coast of Normandy 50 years ago.
Operation Overlord, known today simply as the D-Day invasion, was remembered and honored last month by millions around the world as the Allied invasion that led to peace in Europe.
D-Day, June 6,1944, saw the largest seaborne invasion in history, with more than 150,000 troops landing in rough seas on a 50-mile stretch of Normandy beach in just over 24 hours. Casualties were high, with more than 4,900 estimated killed on D-Day alone. But the Normandy landing eventually led to an advance that took Allied forces across France and ultimately to a linkup with the Russaians in Germany at the Elbe River.
D-Day also marked the conclusion of one of the most comprehensive military planning efforts ever undertaken. During the six months before D-Day, the British Military Survey produced more than 80 million maps and Allied forces produced another 210 million between June 6, 1944, and the end of the war.
In commemoration of D-Day, the Geography and Map Division in cooperation with the Interpretive Programs Office has prepared a special collection of tactical maps used by the Allied and Axis forces during the Normandy invasion.
"D-Day + 50 Years: Mapping the Invasion" is an assortment of original maps from the Library's collection and color electrostatic copies contributed by the British Ministry of Defense Military Survey (MDMS).
Ralph Ehrenberg, chief of the Geography and Map Division, was able to acquire the reprints from the MDMS because of a longstanding working relationship with Ian Mumford, Ministry of Defense liaison officer.
"Ian mounted a D-Day exhibit in England, which led us to start talking about doing one here," Mr. Ehrenberg said. "I always wanted to do a World War II exhibit, and the British Military Survey was willing to send copies of the maps to the Library."
Edward Redmond, from the Geography and Map Division, was curator of the D-Day map exhibition, and with the help of Andrew J. Cosentino, Interpretive Programs exhibit director, and Ronald Grim, head of the Reference and Bibliography Section in Geography and Map, he prepared the unusual exhibition now on display in the Madison Building.
Visitors to the exhibition are immediately drawn to the giant globe dimly glowing in the darkened hall outside the Geography and Map Division. The globe offers the thoughtful observer an opportunity to reflect on D-Day's impact on the world. The freedom enjoyed by the West today may well have rested on the success or failure of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy or dropped by parachute behind enemy lines before dawn.
In any military operation good maps are essential. Maps of Normandy's shores were being made of Normandy's shores nearly a year in advance of the invasion. Mr. Redmond noted it was a "tremendous feat" gathering the necessary information and converting it into a workable map format.
In the early stages of preparation, the Allied forces simply reprinted standard French maps of Normandy and overprinted the French titles with English. The German army, four years earlier, had also used this technique prior to invading France.
"When the Germans occupied France in 1940, they took existing French maps and added German," Mr. Redmond said. "Aside from a different language, they were exactly the same."
On display are two examples of these maps in both English and German along with their French predecessor. These maps, of course, did not contain tactical information about German military dispositions in Normandy. To fill in the blanks, aerial photography, an increasingly popular technique in intelligence collection, was used.
"The Allies used aerial photography to update all the maps," Mr. Redmond said. "Items such as fortified houses, artillery emplacements and machine gun positions were located from these photos."
On display is an aerial photograph of the Vierville-sur-Mer vicinity on Normandy's coast taken prior to the invasion. The photo came from a collection donated by Robert Crozier, who served in the 654th Topographic Engineers in 1943-1946.
Aerial photography not only allowed for additions but also deletions in order to keep current with the changing German defenses. Alterations to the Allied maps for D-Day were being made as late as the end of May 1944.
One map on display, listed as a "STOP PRESS Edition," dated May 20, 1944, shows in orange ink the latest changes made from aerial photographs. Several modifications included additional gun emplacements, underwater obstacles and land barriers. The map is titled "STOP PRESS Edition" because the printing press was halted to make the updated changes.
"They were already printing the maps and literally said 'Stop the presses' in order to add the new information from the aerial photos," Mr. Redmond said, "and in order to tell the difference between the old and new editions, 'STOP PRESS Edition' was added."
Aerial photographs, however, were not able to give the Allies all the details. "Most of the information was produced through aerial photography, but some of it came from the French resistance and from Allied agents who were sent in to look for mine fields and hidden fortifications," Mr. Redmond said.
Allied headquarters divided the invasion army into five landing forces: two American, two British, and one Canadian. Each landing force was assigned to a specific portion of the 50- mile beach. The Americans were responsible for the two westernmost beachheads, code-named Utah and Omaha.
Each of these beaches was a key to the invasion's success: Omaha was the most dangerous, with its high cliffs and German concrete fortifications; Utah was essential to halt German reinforcements from the northwest.
The magnitude of the invasion, which included tasks for the Allied navies, air forces and airborne divisions, raised another question for General Eisenhower's staff before D-Day. How could they properly train the Allied soldiers without disclosing the invasion's location?
Alternative maps were ultimately created that had correct geographic information but false names.
"When they were printing the maps they had to keep the invasion's location hidden, so they created 'bogus' maps," Mr. Redmond said. "These maps were identical to the real maps except for the names of the topographic features."
On exhibit is one of the bogus maps prepared for Omaha beach. Using such maps, American troops were trained to storm the beach of "Calgary," surround "Albany," move on to "Tokyo," continue toward "Washington," and finally reach the "Congo." It wasn't until immediately before the invasion the soldiers were given maps with the correct names.
"All of the invasion maps were packed and put on the ships. ... [The soldiers] weren't allowed to open them until they were out to sea," Mr. Redmond said.
The initial lands were costly, but American infantrymen pushing slowly inland faced almost equally daunting obstacles, notably battle-wise German defenders in the dense hedgerows bordering every farmer's fields in Normandy.
"Instead of wooden fences, the French farmers used 'live' fences, or large shrubs (bucage) which grew together, became entangled and were very difficult to get through," Mr. Redmond said. "A lot of American casualties came from fighting hedgerow to hedgerow because they were natural fortifications."
In order for the Allied infantry to become familiar with the terrain they were to encounter on D-Day, very precise maps, called "assault maps," were made. The assault map on display contains the location of every house, barn, road, hedgerow and possible mine field in the Veirville-sur-Mer vicinity near Omaha beach.
But all did not go according to plan.
"Soldiers were given assault maps for a particular zone. ... The problem came when the amphibious vehicles didn't land where they were supposed to ... forcing troops to improvise in the midst of battle," Mr. Redmond said.
To keep headquarters informed, Allied units in Normandy were required to send back detailed daily reports to headquarters. Each report included the unit's location, enemy strength and even the weather. From these reports, headquarters compiled daily "situation maps" that showed the positions of the Allied troops.
On display is the situation map following the June 6 events. The Geography and Map Division also has a large collection of situation maps in its archives that describes the day-by-day advances of the Allied forces from D-Day until the end of the war.
The D-Day Map exhibition offers visitors a chance to step into history and view the invasion through the eyes of the Allied commanders in England, as maps and reports were all they had to guide their decisions.
Gen. Eisenhower, offered words of inspiration to the men who were going into battle June 6:
"Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."
"D-Day + 50 Years: Mapping the Invasion" is on view on the basement level of the Madison Building through Oct. 7, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays only.
Jay Verdoorn is an intern in the Public Affairs Office.