The Casualties of D-Day

I have been looking a bit, just a bit mind you and I don't pretend to be an expert on this, into the operations of DDay. I noticed that in many cases, sources state that the casualties of the allies were estimated at about 10 to 12 thousand. This is quite low when compared to the expected number of casualties for the operation. In many previous amphibious assaults, the number of casualties were much higher.
Now my thinking here is that these numbers are sort of... incorrect. It seems to me, and I by no means claim to be correct here I am only thinking, that perhaps it would be more correct if they added in the casualties of the intense bombing campaigns across France before the beginning of DDay. I have read in many places that the Allied Air Forces underwent very intense bombing campaigns, in some cases to specifically reduce communication and transportation so that the D-Day landings might have a better chance. And they, of course, worked. But in the process, thousands of airmen lost their lives. Shouldn't they be counted in a way towards the casualties of D-Day as their actions greatly helped in the D-Day landings?
Again, this is only a thought, and a quickly thought up one at that. I realize that they didn't necessarily participate in D-Day but still, their actions had massive impacts on the success of the operation. What do you all think? I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts.

Thanks

 

I don't think you realize how much time and effort is required to research all of the records
to obtain a fairly precise estimate of Casualties.

The Army Air Force Statistical Digest shows that 4,543 casualties were sustained in the month of June
1944 in the ETO.

http://www.afhra.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090608-039.pdf

Here is the link to the digitized Final Report on Army Casualties at CARL:

http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p4013coll8&CISOPTR=130&REC=1


"In the course of a week's fighting casualties had mounted to 5,846 of which 1,225 were killed in action; more than half of these casualties came in the first day. Heaviest losses had fallen to the 29th Division, with 2,440 for the period; the 1st Division had 1,744 casualties, and the 2d Division 855. Enemy prisoners amounted to about 2,500, and casualties of the 352d Division had reduced that offensive unit to a shadow of its former strength."

OMAHA BEACHHEAD


"VIERVILLE-SUR-MER, France — The exploits of D-Day (search) have long been legend: the storming of the beaches, parachute drops into enemy territory. But 60 years later, the number of dead is still unclear.

"The chaos of battle and the vast scale of the assault thwarted attempts then -- and now -- to tally how many thousands were killed in the June 6, 1944, landings that sped Nazi (search) Germany's defeat.
Bodies disintegrated under bombs and shells. Soldiers drowned and disappeared. Company clerks who tallied casualties were killed. Records were lost."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121829,00.html


"The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. Broken down by nationality, the usual D-Day casualty figures are approximately 2700 British, 946 Canadians, and 6603 Americans. However recent painstaking research by the US National D-Day Memorial Foundation has achieved a more accurate - and much higher - figure for the Allied personnel who were killed on D-Day. They have recorded the names of individual Allied personnel killed on 6 June 1944 in Operation Overlord, and so far they have verified 2499 American D-Day fatalities and 1915 from the other Allied nations, a total of 4414 dead (much higher than the traditional figure of 2500 dead). Further research may mean that these numbers will increase slightly in future. The details of this research will in due course be available on the Foundation's website at www.dday.org. This new research means that the casualty figures given for individual units in the next few paragraphs are no doubt inaccurate, and hopefully more accurate figures will one day be calculated.

"Casualties on the British beaches were roughly 1000 on Gold Beach and the same number on Sword Beach. The remainder of the British losses were amongst the airborne troops: some 600 were killed or wounded, and 600 more were missing; 100 glider pilots also became casualties. The losses of 3rd Canadian Division at Juno Beach have been given as 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner.

"The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach."

http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm

 

How wide do you cast the net? The stated objective for Doolittle to 8th FC in the memo to 'pursue the LW and destroy them in the air and on the ground' was to achive air supremacy over the Invasion forces. So, 8th and 15th BC started pounding German airframe manufacturers from Schweinfurt to Leipzig to Brunswick in deep penetration raids, drawing the LW up to engage increasing long range fighter assets.

A LOT of KIA/MIA/POW casualties as well as aircraft were lost between january, 1944 and June 5, 1944 to achieve the objectives. I would have to research it but off the top of my head for just the 8th AF - beteen January 1944 and the end of May 1944 the following days suffered individual losses > 25 amounting to
11 Jan - 60
29 Jan - 29
22 Feb - 41
24 Feb - 44
25 Feb - 31
6 Mar - 69
8 Mar - 37
18 Mar - 43
23 Mar - 28
8 Apr - 34
9 Apr - 32
11 Apr - 64
13 Apr - 38
15 Apr - 33
24 Apr - 40
29 Apr - 63
8 May - 36
12 May - 46
19 May - 28
28 May - 32
29 May - 34

So just for these 21 missions, ~ 870 bomber crews were lost = ~ 8500 to 8700 MIA/KIA/POW for just missions in which more that 25 bomners were lost and does not include 8th AF fighter losses,

Source - Mighty Eighth War Diary by Roger Freeman.

 

I think that you are slightly off base here. As noted above the air campaign leading up to D-Day had a lot of different objectives, trying to pick out the D-Day related casualties would probably be near impossible and highly subjective. By why stop with the air forces? Why not include the Battle of he Atlantic as well? Victory there was important to D-Day. Why not include the Dieppe raid? Okay, a bit of an over stretch, but you get the point.

Regarding the losses on D-Day the Canadian history has a pretty good section: HyperWar: The Victory Campaign [Appendix C]

Somewhere between 8,500 - 11,000 for the ground forces.

 

Because we're talking about the forces involved at Normandy in June 1944. And it isnt difficult to identify the casualties. The units involved are well known, and if someone was in that unit and was killed or wounded during those specific date's, then we can say they are a D-Day casualty.

Ive done my own research for an accurate list of (some) divisional fatalities on a daily basis, and can tell you sometimes its near impossible to come to a 100% accounting. I've also seen some divisional websites where every single casualty that ended up fatal, has been systematically documented for name, date, and cause.

 

I can tell you one thing, im not an expert on D day however i am 100% sure that there was more than that. It was a very bloody day.

 

I am no expert but I am sure that it was over 20,000...

 

On the single D-Day of Normandy the normally excepted figure is about half of that. Not that it didn't grow as the Normandy invasion went to the interior, but on the specific 24 hours it was closer to 10,000 casualties, KIA, MIA, and WIA.

The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. Broken down by nationality, the usual D-Day casualty figures are approximately 2700 British, 946 Canadians, and 6603 Americans. However recent painstaking research by the US National D-Day Memorial Foundation has achieved a more accurate - and much higher - figure for the Allied personnel who were killed on D-Day. They have recorded the names of individual Allied personnel killed on 6 June 1944 in Operation Overlord, and so far they have verified 2499 American D-Day fatalities and 1915 from the other Allied nations, a total of 4414 dead (much higher than the traditional figure of 2500 dead). Further research may mean that these numbers will increase slightly in future. The details of this research will in due course be available on the Foundation's website at The National D-Day Memorial Foundation. This new research means that the casualty figures given for individual units in the next few paragraphs are no doubt inaccurate, and hopefully more accurate figures will one day be calculated.

Casualties on the British beaches were roughly 1000 on Gold Beach and the same number on Sword Beach. The remainder of the British losses were amongst the airborne troops: some 600 were killed or wounded, and 600 more were missing; 100 glider pilots also became casualties. The losses of 3rd Canadian Division at Juno Beach have been given as 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner.

The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach.

The numbers would increase over the days as the Normandy beachhead expanded, but the original "D-Day" numbers were well under expected.

Goto:

Frequently Asked Questions for D-Day and the Battle of Normandy

Does this help?