History of Utah Beach and How it Got it's Name

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By early 1944, the Allied high command was grappling with a

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formidable challenge, how to breach the Atlantic wall, the fortified coastal

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defenses erected by Nazi Germany.

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The Pas du Calais, the shortest distance across the English Channel,

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was initially the most obvious target.

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It was the logical choice given its proximity to England.

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However, German intelligence and fortifications were concentrated there.

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The risk of catastrophic casualties was immense.

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A growing body of intelligence, much of it derived from the code

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breaking success of Bletchley Park, painted a different picture.

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ULTRA, as the intelligence operation was codenamed, indicated that

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the Germans were convinced the main attack would come at Calais.

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This offered a tantalizing opportunity, a deception operation, a good opportunity.

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as many would come to know it.

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To draw German forces away from a more vulnerable location.

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Normandy, while farther and with more challenging beaches,

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presented a potential opening.

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It was less heavily fortified than Calais, and its geography offered

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certain tactical advantages.

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However, the decision was far from straightforward.

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The success of the invasion hinged on a complex interplay of factors.

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Weather, tides, naval firepower, air superiority.

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Superiority and crucially surprise.

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Ultimately, general Dwight d Eisenhower made the decision to invade Normandy.

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It was a gamble, but one that with meticulous planning and execution

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would change the course of the war.

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You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we

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have strive these many months.

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The eyes of the world are upon you.

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Welcome to Talk With History.

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Yeah.

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all right, so Today we're continuing our normandy topic And you're going

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to talk a little bit about utah beach Which is one of the beaches that you

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got to spend a little bit more time at

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let's go.

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let's go over a little history here for people to get them set

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with what we're talking about.

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Utah Beach is the westernmost of the five landing beaches of Normandy.

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Utah and Omaha are the two American ones.

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The other three are

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Juno sword.

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In the beginning, I think you say in your vignette.

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And this was not a planned beach, Utah Beach.

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It was added.

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And so in May of 1944, they had decided to add this beach, which gave them

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a whole nother month of planning.

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Originally, they were going to plan these invasions in May of 1944,

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but because they added more area.

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They had to wait to get more aircraft in and they actually

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flew in a thousand more aircraft.

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And thanks to the wasps, we'll talk about that.

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The wasps flew in these aircraft into America, got them to

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Indiana and from Indiana, they flew them straight to England.

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It freed up 900 more pilots, male pilots to fly these aircraft as well.

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So you have, again, this, this full all in effort to have this evasion.

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I was looking it up.

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You know because I try to fact check myself when I write these little

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these intros and these little mini stories There was over 7, 000

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ships that were involved on the D Day invasion or the D Day landings.

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I Literally, I can't comprehend That many ships out.

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It's just mind boggling

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is.

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And when you think of 50 miles of beaches and they're going to

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add this, they're adding this.

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from a Navy perspective right from from you and I and for me a former

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ship driver surface warfare officer I 50 miles of beaches for 7, 000 ships.

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That's not a lot of beach.

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You're concentrating a hell of a lot of naval power into 50 miles, which sounds

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like a lot, but when you're doing that many together and people have seen the

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historic footage before and how close they are, there's a reason that they're,

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they're all that close because there's thousands upon thousands of them.

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Exactly, what they're doing is they're basically, I'm not going to,

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I don't think they're exactly bow to stern, bow to stern, but they're

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lining up in a way where they can fire onto the beaches and get inland

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enough to incapacitate the Germans.

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And so they get all these warships out there to line them up and do that.

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What is interesting about Utah Beach is between Utah and Omaha, it's

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very swampy and difficult to cross.

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So Utah is basically isolated.

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It's on its own out there.

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It doesn't really have that connection that the other beaches

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are going to have with each other.

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So the people who are landing at Utah are landing at Utah alone.

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And that is one of the reasons they're very supported by the Airborne.

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And so the night of June 6, 1944, you're going to get the 82nd and the

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101st Airborne Band of Brothers jumping right after midnight to start to help

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with the logistics of Utah Beach.

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Now, I don't know, I think we talked about this before, Normandy area is farmland,

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and because it's farmland, it floods,

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And intentionally, that's why people settled there and

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that's what they use it for that.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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to fertilize the soil, they flood it.

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Well, the Germans, after they occupied it, intentionally flooded it.

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It was unusable farmland then, but it made it difficult logistically,

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to get anything in and out, except for a couple main roads.

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Yeah, and as I said in the intro, this was not the, I'll call

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it the logical choice, the first logical choice for an invasion, right?

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The Germans were expecting them to land somewhere else and they picked this spot

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because fortifications were a little bit less, even though the beachheads,

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as you're describing, are a little more difficult for an amphibious landing.

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But The Americans, and the allies were able to fake them out, draw

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their forces elsewhere so they could come land, land here at Normandy.

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And then even though the beaches were not ideal, it was ideal for

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many other reasons for the allies.

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Like you said, espionage is happening.

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They're thinking they're going to go to the shortest distance.

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They're focusing all of their defense over there, the Germans.

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at Calais,

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Another thing that happens is Hitler goes to sleep this, the evening

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of June 5th to 6th and told his make his explicit instructions not to be woken up

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which is crazy because I think the, the invasion was

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delayed a day just because of

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because of weather, I

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which is somebody on high was looking out for the allies.

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Yeah.

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I mean, I honestly believe that too.

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And so because he said not to be woken up and because they started to

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take fire from midnight all the way into noon the next day, there's no

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orders for reinforcements coming in.

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They're just basically fighting.

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They're just basically.

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being on the defensive.

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What you get at Utah Beach.

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One of the things I don't like, and I know it bothers me and I, and it

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shouldn't, is people say Utah Beach was at the easier beach to take.

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it, I think it, the better way to phrase it is like it suffered,

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suffered the least casualty.

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did suffer the least casualties, But you have what they call conscripts

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defending Utah Beach and conscripts are captured soldiers from other armies.

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that it was like the Polish?

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the Polish.

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And so usually with conscripts, which is.

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It's entirely, entirely fair, and they're not going to fight as hard because they

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don't want to die for a country that's not

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Sure.

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If all of a sudden it looks like they're going to get overtaken,

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they're gonna throw their hands

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And that is what happened in a lot of scenarios with

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different areas of Utah Beach.

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Because mostly conscripts were defending the area because again, it wasn't

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on the radar to be a place where the allied attack was going to happen.

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You have the airborne coming in right after midnight, you get the landings

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happen quickly four waves at 0630.

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Now this is going to be the fourth infantry.

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You're going to get Teddy Roosevelt.

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Junior, general, and part of that first wave, he's there on the beach,

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the senior

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the senior guy, and he notices a very easy way to get on to the beach.

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And because he notices how easy this is, he diverts people to the beach.

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to that area.

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Now, because he's devoted him to that area, it leaves the other

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areas that they had intended open.

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But what it does is there was a current that had pushed a lot of

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those obstacles onto the beach.

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And so when they're landing combat engineers, and this is a huge combat

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engineer wave, these first couple

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And we'll talk about it a little bit, but there's a memorial to

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the combat engineers, there at Utah Beach, which we showed in the video.

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they're so important.

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Combat engineers They basically disarm the obstacles.

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So they're blowing up the bombs, they're pushing out the hedgehogs,

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anything that's there to block the beaches and make the beaches

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unusable, they're getting rid of that.

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So was Teddy Roosevelt Jr.

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Was he telling them, Hey, look at all this?

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and because that current had pushed them all in, that first wave got there.

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He saw how easy it was to get to that area.

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He had them land there and they basically just started clearing out obstacles.

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So it was really great.

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First wave is at 0630, second wave is at 0635, third wave is at 0645.

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And so they're getting very lucky by 0830 you have combat engineers

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coming on right and left because the tide is about to come in and they

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want to get all of those obstacles.

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So by the tide comes in at 1030, they've cleared the obstacles.

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So really by noon, they've captured.

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the beach, like they've moved ahead and gotten the beach and they're

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able to start landing tanks and start landing the really the big guns.

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And when you're talking about all these vessels, all these tanks are coming

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on board and how many vessels does it take to bring a tank on board, right?

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So you have to realize that These vessels are not these huge vessels.

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They're these Elkacs and these Higgins boats that are bringing

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on all of the Jeeps and tanks and all those logistics that are

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needed to move an army into France.

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And that's why 7, 000 are needed to really start to move.

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And that's not all 7, 000 made at Utah.

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What you get is you get.

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Over, like I said, over a thousand aircraft are going to start bombing

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inland and you're going to get the 82nd, 101st Airborne who are

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coming in to, again, secure these roads, these logistical roads.

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They don't want the Nazis to take out these roads because they need

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these roads to move these tanks.

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well as like a bunch of the bridges, which if you've ever watched

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Band of Brothers is like a kind of a key thing that they're always like

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taking or defending or whatever.

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we'll talk about Dick Winters in that first night takes out four

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guns on a major road and does it with minimal men, not even his own men.

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And it's still studied today, so when you think of all of these tanks, Sherman's

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army, my grandfather drove a tank.

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My grandfather was on Utah beach.

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This is all coming from these boats.

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And so you need roads to get them into theater.

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And when everything is flooded.

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farmland flooded.

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Very few roads are available.

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And they are such high importance that they were afraid the Nazis were

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going to blow them up or take them out

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and that's why the airborne went in first behind that area.

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And you're going to get the first town is right by Utah Beach that's

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liberated by the Americans at St.

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Mary glass, which we will have a whole episode about

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Yeah, we'll talk a little bit more about that.

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Now you and your time there they, even though I'll call this, it's still one of

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the major beaches, it's not Omaha where they saw, 10 times, if not more, 20 times

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the amount of casualties, but they still have memorials there to combat engineers,

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which you, which you got to see.

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And I think there was like a, like a Navy Memorial that you saw up

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top with a World War II veteran.

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He was up there, like signing autographs and stuff like that.

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That was really

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That was really cool.

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So what they have there is they have an example of a Higgins boat.

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They have the Lone Sailor because you're going to get, the Navy

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really makes their name there.

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What is very interesting in Untold Story of Utah Beach is this is

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really the birth of the Navy Seals.

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You get the very first combat Navy Seal guys, Frogmen coming on board.

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scuba ing, so this is really, when you think of, they have a whole

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story to them now at the museum.

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These these very first, what do they call it here?

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Ancestors of the Navy SEALs.

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So it's just very cool to see these guys for the first time doing this.

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But the 4th Infantry lands 21, 000 troops and really only lose 200 men.

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It is amazing.

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And the airborne arriving by parachute and glider number additional 14, 000.

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But they lose 2, 500.

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And we've talked about this before.

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Why?

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Because again, people were scattered and not landing where they had intended to.

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And then they were very exposed early on.

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And so you have the men who have high casualties there.

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About 700 men were lost in those engineering units.

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And that.

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memorial is to those men.

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I thought that was really cool because it's, it's a part

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of military operations that not a lot of people think of.

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And it's, it was really neat to see that, that highlighted not only there

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at Utah beach, but we got to just to highlight that a little bit, in our video,

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So , if someone were to visit Utah beach, the, some of the things

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they could see, obviously you can go to the beach head, right?

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You could see it during different tide times.

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I think it was relatively high tide when you were there.

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And then everyone's

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you're talking about the American D Day Museum, it's at Utah

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Beach, so you will visit Utah Beach.

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Plus, if you want to see the Dick Winters statue, it's on

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your way into Utah Beach, right?

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So I want everyone to remember Airborne is jumping in protection of Utah Beach.

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That's what you're going to see driving into Utah Beach.

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You're going to see the big museum at Utah Beach, but a ton of

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really great statues and markers.

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Like I said, the Lone Sailor, the Higgins Boat, a big statue to the Navy and

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was the airborne, there was the 101st memorial that you saw.

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Like it was right next to the field where a lot of them landed.

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And you actually, you guys went out and got to go see that.

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And it's showing right.

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The little screaming Eagle on it with the names on there.

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And it had the American flag and it was a really cool little memorial

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right there, where they were.

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Landing.

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So on our way to Utah Beach, you can stop there.

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Anyone who's seen Band of Brothers, this is the big, this

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is Dick Winter's big moment.

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To me, it's his big moment.

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Further on down the road will be the Dick Winter statue, which is

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a big statue of him personally.

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Personally and then.

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Little bit further will be Utah Beach and the museum.

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We'll do a whole separate episode of the museum when you get to the

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markers that are along the way.

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It'll walk you through all the names of all the ships that were out there and

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how far away from the land they were.

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that was neat.

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And then there's a whole kind of it's like a bunker, but

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it's also like ceremoniously dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt Jr.

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Because he is the highest ranking person on Utah Beach that day, because he's

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part of the first wave, because what he does logistically is so instrumental

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to capturing Utah Beach very early.

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There's a whole area dedicated to him.

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it looks like they took a bunker and just converted it into

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a memorial slash mini museum.

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exactly.

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And he dies that day.

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about a month, a little over a month later, he's going to have a heart attack.

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He's buried at Omaha beach, but this is the beach where he really makes his name.

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And so there's a whole memorial to him there.

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So you can walk through all of those things outside of the museum.

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And the day I was there, the tide was in, The day I was there, there was not

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a lot of beach and someone had placed a flag, a 48 star flag and a helmet.

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There were some men dressed as the 101st Airborne.

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that was really neat.

Scott: 00:19:32

There was even one guy that kept running in and out of the surf and he was doing it

Scott: 00:19:36

just so people could take pictures of him,

Jenn: 00:19:37

could see pictures

Scott: 00:19:38

was, which was cool.

Scott: 00:19:38

I mean, it's a little cheesy.

Scott: 00:19:40

But it was, it was neat because even for the video, you had, you had been

Scott: 00:19:43

able to get a shot of him from far away.

Scott: 00:19:45

And so I it gave you that feel like you're there at Utah beach

Scott: 00:19:49

and you saw someone dressed a World War II soldier storming the beach.

Scott: 00:19:52

It was, it was actually neat.

Jenn: 00:19:53

It was neat.

Jenn: 00:19:54

Just remember that the tide was in, if you see that video.

Jenn: 00:19:58

But also remember that gentleman was wearing boots and utilities,

Jenn: 00:20:01

and he was carrying his rifle.

Jenn: 00:20:03

That was it.

Jenn: 00:20:04

And I think he had his helmet on.

Jenn: 00:20:06

And if you can imagine being waterlogged and doing that across a

Jenn: 00:20:10

beach, if you've ever tried to jog on a beach with all that gear on,

Scott: 00:20:14

60 pounds of gear, 80 pounds of gear.

Jenn: 00:20:16

what that was like.

Jenn: 00:20:17

So I, to me, it's one of those things when you see it in person, in reality,

Jenn: 00:20:22

it brings you like, wow, what these men were doing was really important.

Jenn: 00:20:28

I took sand from Utah beach.

Jenn: 00:20:29

That was the beach I took sand from since my grandfather was there.

Jenn: 00:20:33

And it was important for me to be there again.

Jenn: 00:20:37

And we'll talk more about the museum, but the museum is just amazing there.

Jenn: 00:20:41

The story plus the artifacts that they have in there.

Jenn: 00:20:44

That was in a beautiful beach that I, the day I had was just gorgeous.

Jenn: 00:20:49

And just to be able to stand out there and to remember those men on that location.

Jenn: 00:20:54

I think I was there the day after D Day.

Jenn: 00:20:57

So I was there June 7th,

Jenn: 00:21:00

and for me, my grandfather landed on Utah beach, June 10th, 1944.

Jenn: 00:21:08

I was there June 7th, 2024.

Jenn: 00:21:12

So for me, almost 80 years from when my grandfather hit the sand.

Jenn: 00:21:17

So for me, it was very important to be there.

Jenn: 00:21:23

I just wanted to say too.

Jenn: 00:21:24

What was Utah Beach named after?

Jenn: 00:21:27

Eisenhower was put in charge of Operation Overlord and Operation Neptune.

Jenn: 00:21:33

Like he's in charge of the whole planning.

Jenn: 00:21:35

He gives Bradley the specifics of the amphibious assault

Jenn: 00:21:39

landings on the beaches.

Jenn: 00:21:40

And Bradley, at first they're called, I think Utah's called X Ray.

Jenn: 00:21:45

And the story goes I have not seen it directly cited, but there are some

Jenn: 00:21:53

people who do cite this, that General Bradley, Omar Bradley, was asking the

Jenn: 00:21:57

two privates in his London office as they were typing where they were from.

Jenn: 00:22:02

And one of them was from Omaha, Nebraska, and one of them was from Provo, Utah.

Jenn: 00:22:07

And so he named the two beaches Omaha and Utah, the shortest names

Jenn: 00:22:12

of the two that They said after those two privates who was working for

Jenn: 00:22:16

him as he was planning the assault.

Jenn: 00:22:18

That's where the name Utah comes from.

Scott: 00:22:20

Yeah, it was, it was really neat.

Scott: 00:22:22

And it's one of those ones that me personally, I'm looking forward to

Scott: 00:22:26

visiting one day sometime in the future.

Scott: 00:22:28

And hopefully if you're listening, maybe you're listening to this on

Scott: 00:22:31

an airplane ride out to, out to France to go visit it yourself.

Jenn: 00:22:35

I will say if you're going to visit St.

Jenn: 00:22:38

Mary Glass is the town right behind Utah Beach.

Jenn: 00:22:41

Wonderful town.

Jenn: 00:22:42

Love Americans, great place to visit, great little courtyard area, lots of food,

Jenn: 00:22:49

lots of things to do there, and hotels.

Jenn: 00:22:52

Also Cariton, which is between Omaha and Utah Beach, is another town where

Jenn: 00:22:57

lots of people stayed, because you can visit both towns easily from that town.

Jenn: 00:23:01

I think

Scott: 00:23:02

cool.

Scott: 00:23:05

June 5th.

Scott: 00:23:06

1944.

Scott: 00:23:08

A cold pre dawn chill hung heavy in the air over the English Channel.

Scott: 00:23:14

Below, a colossal armada stretched as far as the eye could see.

Scott: 00:23:18

Thousands of ships, large and small, their hulls dark against the inky waters

Scott: 00:23:24

formed a silent Menacing Leviathan.

Scott: 00:23:29

Aboard the flagship, General Dwight D.

Scott: 00:23:31

Eisenhower paced the bridge.

Scott: 00:23:34

The weight of the world seemed to rest on his shoulders.

Scott: 00:23:36

Tomorrow, He would unleash the largest amphibious invasion in history.

Scott: 00:23:42

A gamble of epic proportions.

Scott: 00:23:44

It could be either the turning point of the war or a catastrophic failure.

Scott: 00:23:51

In the bowels of the ships, men prepared for the ordeal ahead.

Scott: 00:23:55

They checked and rechecked their equipment, their minds a

Scott: 00:23:57

whirlwind of fear, anticipation, and grim determination.

Scott: 00:24:01

Some prayed.

Scott: 00:24:03

Others wrote letters.

Scott: 00:24:05

While many simply tried to sleep.

Scott: 00:24:07

A fitful rest before the storm.

Scott: 00:24:12

On the beaches of Normandy, the Germans were oblivious to the impending cataclysm.

Scott: 00:24:17

Their defenses, though formidable, were not impenetrable.

Scott: 00:24:21

Coastal batteries, machine gun nests, and tank obstacles lined the shore.

Scott: 00:24:26

But intelligence suggested that they were not expecting an invasion on this scale.

Scott: 00:24:33

As darkness enveloped the channel, the final preparations were made.

Scott: 00:24:37

Paratroopers adjusted their harnesses, their faces painted with camouflage.

Scott: 00:24:41

Landing craft were loaded to capacity with men and equipment.

Scott: 00:24:45

Aircraft carriers launched their fighters ready to provide air cover.

Scott: 00:24:49

The tension was palpable.

Scott: 00:24:54

Every man knew what tomorrow would bring.

Scott: 00:24:57

Bloodshed.

Scott: 00:24:58

Sacrifice.

Scott: 00:24:59

And hopefully, victory.

Scott: 00:25:03

As the first rays of dawn approached, a hush fell over the Armada.

Scott: 00:25:08

The long awaited moment was drawing near.

Scott: 00:25:11

Tomorrow.

Scott: 00:25:13

We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Scott: 00:25:18

Good luck, and let us all beseech the blessing of almighty God upon

Scott: 00:25:23

this great and noble undertaking.