How many fatal casualties were there in the crews of landing craft and landing ships bound for each of the five D-Day landing beaches? What was the total number of landing craft crew deaths in the remainder of the Normandy campaign: in the rest of June 1944, during July and in August? These totals have not previously been published.
Above: The Tablets of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery. Many US Navy and US Coast Guard crewmen have no known grave and are listed here. (Photo: author)
These figures will almost certainly be a work-in-progress for many years. In addition to the individuals named in the Roll of Honour, there is also evidence of other landing craft crewmen who died but whose names are not known: the latter are included in the figures below.
As mentioned elsewhere on this website, “landing craft” in this context also includes landing barges, and landing ships such as the LST or LSI (and the latter’s US equivalent, the APA). Strictly speaking these were not landing craft. However both in 1944 and since they are often considered together, and were closely linked.
Landing craft crew deaths on D-Day, by beach:
Utah Beach: 65
Omaha Beach: 49
Gold Beach: 31
Juno Beach: 64
Sword Beach: 42
Beach uncertain/unknown: 9
Total landing craft crewmen died: 260
Landing craft crew deaths after D-Day, June to August 1944:
7 – 30 June 1944: 382
July 1944: 42
August 1944: 151
Total landing craft crewmen died: 575
Total crew losses in entire the Normandy campaign:
On D-Day: 260
Remainder of campaign: 575
GRAND TOTAL: 835
Date of most recent update to these figures: 29 June 2024.
Additional names researched, all figures increased.
Naturally there are many factors that explain the variations in losses between different beaches, and different months. One of the main considerations is that the loss of, or serious damage to, one of the larger landing craft or especially an LST, could lead to many more deaths than a whole unit of smaller landing craft might suffer in the entire campaign.
To reiterate the point, the above are not presented as final figures, but as a work in progress. How accurate are they? The figures on this page are almost certainly lower than the true number of crewmen who died: perhaps in each case by 10-20%.