The first U.S. troops arrived in the British Isles in January 1942, but nearly a year passed before they went into action against the Axis. Meanwhile, air power provided virtually the only means for the Allies to strike at Germany. The Royal Air Force began its air offensive against Germany in May 1942, and on 4 July the first American crews participated in air raids against the Continent.
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The first attack wave of American troops approached their landing grounds on Omaha Beach. The Navy had been hitting the beach for a while prior to the assault, unfortunately the shells and rockets fell short of all German defences. Similarly, the bombs dropped by the American airforce completely were off target, leaving the German defence at full strength to oppose the incoming troops. The German forces were well dug in looking over the landing beach. The American troops were taken by complete surprise, as they expected only minimal opposition. It soon became apparent that a major disaster was happening, many landing craft were sunk miles from the beach, others hit the obstacles lying in wait beneath the surface of the water, the Floating Tanks sank, their crews trapped, and perished inside the vehicle.. Only six of these tanks even reached the beach. Finally by around 12 PM, the bluff overlooking the beach had been captured, but at a very large cost!
The first men on Utah Beach landed without loss. If their guide boat had not have been sunk, they would have landed on their original positions, which were very heavily defended and would have caused a great loss of life. Without a guide and in heavy tidal conditions, the assault landed 2,000 meters to the south of their objective, the Germans not expecting a landing at this point left it virtually undefended. Although not every D-Day objective had been achieved, the landings at Utah beach were still a tremendous sucess, 23,000 men were put shore with 1,742 vehicles and 1,695 tons of stores. The ammount of casualties were: 43 dead and 63 wounded
Information Provided by - ibiblio.org & dday.co.uk 
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