UTAH BEACH

Utah Beach was the codename for one of the Allied landing beaches during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944. Utah was added to the invasion plan toward the end of the planning stages, when more landing craft became available.

Despite being substantially off course, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division landed there with relatively little resistance, in contrast to Omaha Beach where the fighting was fierce.
Utah beach, about 3 miles long, was the westernmost of the five landing beaches, between Pouppeville and La Madeleine. A practice run for these landings, known as Exercise Tiger, took place in April 1944 on the southern coast of the United Kingdom. This training exercise resulted in 749 American servicemen perishing and nearly 300 being wounded after poorly executed naval escort permitted an attack by German E-boats on the landing force