On D-Day, how many craft were lost, sunk or badly damaged? At which beaches were the losses greatest? Wartime reports do include some figures for lost or damaged landing craft, but not in a way that is consistent across all the beaches and the forces involved. A report of ‘damage’ could vary from the relatively superficial to gaping holes blown in the craft’s hull which had flooded the engine room.
Above: Photo of LCI(L) 93 of the US Coast Guard, wrecked on Omaha Beach after D-Day. Enemy fire had caused serious damage to the starboard bow and had blown off the landing ramp on that side. (Photo: US National Archives).
A crew might have abandoned their craft on the beach due to damage and reported it as ‘lost’, but at a later date a repair team might have been able to repair and refloat it. On the other hand, some landing craft managed to cross back to the UK despite extensive damage from enemy fire or beach obstacles – so one might think that did not count as a lost craft – only for the vessel to then be written off.
Based on my research, total number of landing craft lost or badly damaged on D-Day appears to be roughly comparable across all five beaches: at least 80-100 per beach. This figure includes landing craft of all sizes, from the smaller LCAs and LCVPs, to the larger craft such as LCTs.
A further refinement to this figure is the number of major landing craft that were lost or badly damaged: LCTs, LCI(L)s and LCI(S)s. These craft had much larger crews – at least 24 men on an LCI(L) for example – so there was the potential for much higher crew casualties. Each major landing craft also had a much higher cargo capacity than smaller vessels, so its absence would have more impact on the speed of unloading.
Above: LCT(5) had to be abandoned on Omaha Beach on D-Day due to heavy enemy fire which meant that the vehicles could not be landed. Two of the US Coast Guard crew were killed. (Photo: US Coast Guard, photo by Signalman John R. Smith Jr. of LCI(L) 90)
The estimate figures for major landing craft lost or badly damaged are, in descending order: Juno (53), Sword (42), Gold (34), Omaha (30+), Utah (22+). ‘+’ here indicates uncertainty and that the true figure could be higher.
A note on terms: ‘Loss’ could mean that a craft had sunk in deep water and was beyond recovery, or that it had been so badly damaged by enemy gunfire, beach obstacles or even cumulative beaching damage or the weather, that it could no longer be used. ‘Badly damaged’ is clearly a subjective term and indicates a craft apparently damaged to a point that it could not immediately be recovered, if at all.