Below is a list of ships responsible for bombarding targets at Utah Beach as part of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, the opening day of Operation Overlord. This force, code-named "Bombardment Group A", and commanded by Rear Admiral Morton Deyo, was a group of eighteen warships assigned to support the amphibious landings on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944 ("D-Day"); this was the opening day of Operation Overlord, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II.
It was part of US Navy Force U, which consisted of 865 ships under Rear Admiral Don P. Moon. This was in turn part of the Western Naval Task Force, under Admiral Alan G Kirk.
Name | Type | National service | Captain | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Battleship | US Navy | Captain P. M. Rhea | ||
Monitor | Royal Navy | Captain J. S. Colquhoun | ||
Heavy cruiser | Royal Navy | Captain J. W. Josselyn | ||
Heavy cruiser | US Navy | Captain E. M. Senn[1] | ||
Heavy cruiser | US Navy | Captain J. B. Waller; flagship of Rear Admiral Morton Deyo | ||
Light cruiser | Royal Navy | Captain D. M. Lees | ||
Light cruiser | Royal Navy | Captain H. T. Grant | ||
Gunboat | Netherlands | Lt. Cmdr. H. H. Propper | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Cmdr. M. Matthews | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Lt. Cmdr. G. Hoffman | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Cmdr. K. Walpole | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Cmdr. Letts | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Cmdr. M. Curtin | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Cmdr. G. Moore | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Lieutenant K. Loveland | ||
Destroyer | US Navy | Lt. Cmdr. W. Blenman | ||
Destroyer escort | US Navy | Lt. Cmdr. H. Wilmerding | ||
Destroyer escort | US Navy | Lt. Cmdr. E. Michel | ||
Frigate | Royal Navy | A/Lt.Cdr. Sydney Ayles[2] | ||
Frigate | Royal Navy | Lt. Christopher H. Rankin[3] |
. Winston Churchill . Closing the Ring . The Second World War . V . 1951 . 1948 . Houghton Mifflin . Boston . 396150 .