The assault did not succeed in blocking the approaches to Utah for three days. Although only five landed on the LZ itself and most were released early, the Horsa gliders landed without serious damage. Trained crews sufficient to pilot 951 gliders were available, and at least five of the troop carrier groups intensively trained for glider missions. Others suffered from seasickness caused by the flat bottoms on the smaller boats "bouncing" across the waves. The loss of only 30 aliied aircraft (both Us & Br) proved that the flak was not that severe. Even so, 2/3 of the 1st Battalion was dropped accurately on DZ C. The 2nd Battalion, much of which had dropped too far west, fought its way to the Haudienville causeway by mid-afternoon but found that the 4th Division had already seized the exit. The inspectors, however, made their judgments without factoring that most of the successful missions had been flown in clear weather. Heavy machine-gun fire greeted a nauseous and bloody Waverly B. Woodson, Jr. as he disembarked onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Shortly after midnight on 6 June, over 18,000 men of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the British 6th Airborne Division were dropped into Normandy. It consisted of four serials, the first pair to arrive ten minutes after Keokuck, the second pair two hours later at sunset. "I think there were about 10,000 men lost that day. With 90 per cent of its men present, the 325th GIR became the division reserve at Chef-du-Pont. German forces around Turqueville and Saint Cme-du-Mont, 2 miles (3.2km) on either side of Landing Zone E, held their fire until the gliders were coming down, and while they inflicted some casualties, were too distant to cause much harm. "So many of them didn't make it because they were dropped too far from the land. On June 6, the German 6th Parachute Regiment (FJR6), commanded by Oberst Friedrich August von der Heydte,[13] (FJR6) advanced two battalions, I./FJR6 to Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and II./FJR6 to Sainte-Mre-glise, but faced with the overwhelming numbers of the two U.S. divisions, withdrew. Whats more, if Hitler had listened to his Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, matters might have been worse for the Allies landing at Normandy. It is available for order now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Paratroopers dropping through the sky above Normandy. Altogether, four of the six drops zones could not display marking lights. We put them on the stretcher. The estimated battle casualties for Germany included 30,000 killed, 80,000 wounded, and 210,000 missing. 156,000 troops or paratroopers came ashore on D-Day: 73,000 from the U.S., 83,000 from Great Britain and Canada. A night parachute drop was not again used in three subsequent large-scale airborne operations. And I'd lift those men out and the injuries I saw, I couldn't tell you.". Flak from German anti-aircraft guns resulted in planes either going under or over their prescribed altitudes. During the preparation period and run-up to D-Day, Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men in over 2,000 aircraft. But there are some aspects from D-Day that may not be as well known. Of the 20 serials making up the two missions, nine plunged into the cloud bank and were badly dispersed. The paratroopers were divided into sticks, a plane load of troops numbering 15-18 men. Wikipedia. Paratroopers were vital in the German attack on Crete, the initial attacks by the Allies at D-Day and they played an important role in the Allies failed attack on Arnhem. These men were wounded. As one of the larger warships present on D-Day, HMS Belfast also had a fully equipped sick bay staffed by surgeons and took hundreds of casualties on board during the first day of fighting. Ted says: "I well up every time I talk about it. The night before, Ted and his fellow crew were told they were joining a large operation, but they had no idea of the scale until they saw the other ships. Even this is not the complete figure for Canadians killed in the D-Day battle. Another 6,000 paratroopers under command of General Matthew Ridgway's 82nd Airborne Division jumped into Normandy slightly after the 101st. Although a majority of the 295 Waco gliders were repairable for use in future operations, the combat situation in the beachhead did not permit the introduction of troop carrier service units, and 97 percent of all gliders used in the operation were abandoned in the field. Bradley insisted that 75 percent of the airborne assault be delivered by gliders for concentration of forces. Ted Cordery, as a young child, sitting on his mother's lap, HMS Belfast, pictured during the Second World War, was built in 1936, A framed photo of Ted in his navy uniform is in pride of place on his mantelpiece, ships and landing craft involved and 10,000 vehicles, from the combined allied forces died on the day, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. When he was ordered to drop the ramp, he paused. "The paratroopers played an absolutely key role on D-Day," says Keith Huxen, senior director of research and history at the World War II Museum in New Orleans. The First U.S. Army, accounting for the first twenty-four hours in Normandy, tabulated 1,465 killed, 1,928 missing, and 6,603 wounded. ANS 2 - Over 19,000 American and British paratroops were . "But the way I saw it - God, I think to myself, I'm lucky to be alive. I know nurses would say to me 'silly sod', they see it every day, in a more clinical fashion. The U.S. Army does not designate the point in time in which the airborne assault ended and the divisions that fought it conducted a conventional infantry campaign. The troop carrier pilots in their remembrances and histories admitted to many errors in the execution of the drops but denied the aspersions on their character, citing the many factors since enumerated and faulty planning assumptions. Many paratroopers landed in flooded rivers and marshes and even in the sea. 23 infantry divisions (thirteen U.S., eight British, two Canadian), 12 armored divisions (five U.S., four British, one each Canadian, French, and Polish), 1,234 medium and light bombers (989 operational). Paratroopers were to play a decisive part in World War Two. In Normandy itself the Germans had deployed 80,000troops, but only one panzer division. Crew availability exceeded numbers of aircraft, but 40 per cent were recent-arriving crews or individual replacements who had not been present for much of the night formation training. It's not known exactly how . At the same time the commander of the U.S. First Army, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, won approval of a plan to land two airborne divisions on the Cotentin Peninsula, one to seize the beach causeways and block the eastern half at Carentan from German reinforcements, the other to block the western corridor at La Haye-du-Puits in a second lift. Approximately half landed nearby in grassy swampland along the river. The divisions were part of the U.S. VII Corps and provided it with support in its mission of capturing Cherbourg as soon as possible to provide the Allies with a port of supply. But many of the first troops to arrive at Normandy, in northern France, were accidentally dropped off by their landing boats in too-deep water, where they sank under the weight of their guns and equipment. How many paratroopers died in training? And the first 7, 8, 9, 10 guys went down like you were cutting down wheatThey were kids.. However the units were damaged in the drop and provided no assistance. The dispersal of the American airborne troops, and the nature of the hedgerow terrain, had the effect of confusing the Germans and fragmenting their response. 15 troops were killed and 60 wounded, either by ground fire or by accidents caused by ground fire. Just ten days before D-Day, a compromise was reached. He left the navy in 1946 and returned to his job as an apprentice printer where he went on to "work at practically every paper on Fleet Street". The three serials carrying the 506th PIR were badly dispersed by the clouds, then subjected to intense antiaircraft fire. On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched a massive offensive into the Ardennes woods of Belgium, which caught allied forces by surprise. BEDFORD Frank Draper Jr. William Gray Perdue. A staff officer put together a platoon and achieved another objective by seizing two foot bridges near la Porte at 04:30. On the evening of D-Day two additional glider operations, mission "Keokuk" and mission "Elmira", brought in additional support on 208 gliders. So I froze., But then the coxswain again yelled at DeVita to lower the ramp, and he followed the order. In 1995, following publication of D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, troop carrier historians, including veterans Lew Johnston (314th TCG), Michael Ingrisano Jr. (316th TCG), and former U.S. Marine Corps airlift planner Randolph Hils, attempted to open a dialog with Ambrose to correct errors they cited in D-Day, which they then found had been repeated from the more popular and well-known Band of Brothers. [25] Wolfe noted that although his group had botched the delivery of some units in the night drop, it flew a second, daylight mission on D-Day and performed flawlessly although under heavy ground fire from alerted Germans. The Allies suffered more than 12,000 casualties on D-Day; 4,414 deaths were registered. But thanks in large part to a brilliant Allied deception campaign and Hitlers fanatical grip on Nazi military decisions, the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944 became precisely the turning point that the Germans most feared. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. a lack of navigators on 60 percent of aircraft, forcing navigation by pilots when formations broke up. The planning and preparation were unprecedented. Watch Woodsons widow tell his story here. The 506th PIR passed through the exhausted 502nd and attacked into Carentan on June 12, defeating the rear guard left by the German withdrawal. More than 70 percent of missing were eventually reported as captured. [2] As the opening maneuver of Operation Neptune (the assault operation for Overlord) the two American airborne divisions were delivered to the continent in two parachute and six glider missions. The 50th TCW did not begin training until April 3 and progressed more slowly, then was hampered when the troops ceased jumping. The lesser-trained 50th TCW, however, got lost in haze when its pathfinders failed to turn on their navigation beacons. "But the injuries - faces, stomachs, legs off - oh God. It continued training till the end of the month with simulated drops in which pathfinders guided them to drop zones. Some soldiers landed safely, ready for battle, while others were scattered throughout the Peninsula - unsure of where they had actually landed. D-Day, on June 6 1944, was. IX Troop Carrier Command (TCC) was formed in October 1943 to carry out the airborne assault mission in the invasion. Timely assembly enabled the 505th to accomplish two of its missions on schedule. Returning from an unfamiliar direction, they dropped 10 minutes late and 1 mile (1.6km) off target. That was unlikely to happen if you tried to do it. Despite the setbacks, Allied troops pushed through and by pure grit, got the job done. Jun 6, 2016. The men encircled Sainte Mere Eglise and seized the village at 4.30am, making about 30 prisoners. They managed to set up a Eureka beacon just before the assault force arrived but were forced to use a hand held signal light which was not seen by some pilots. Just one month after D-Day Ted met a woman named Lila while he was on leave and married her three weeks later in August 1944. Consequently so many Germans were nearby that the pathfinders could not set out their lights and were forced to rely solely on Eureka, which was a poor guide at short range. The Allied forces under the command of American General Dwight D. Eisenhower planned and executed a direct assault on what had come to be known as " Fortress . Despite tough odds and high casualties, Allied forces ultimately won the battle and helped turn the tide of World War II toward victory against Hitlers forces. Many German units made a tenacious defense of their strong-points, but all were systematically defeated within the week. The pathfinder serials were organized in two waves, with those of the 101st Airborne Division arriving a half-hour before the first scheduled assault drop. Marshall concluded that the mixed performance overall of the airborne troops in Normandy resulted from poor performance by the troop carrier pilots. As early as 1942, Adolf Hitler knew that a large-scale Allied invasion of France could turn the tide of the war in Europe. 101st units maneuvered on June 8 to envelop Saint-Cme-du-Mont, pushing back FJR6, and consolidated its lines on June 9. Given that 10,000 Allied soldiers were either killed, wounded, or went missing on D-Day, Utah Beach is widely considered a military success. [22] Others mistook drops made ahead of theirs for their own drop zones and insisted on going early. In addition, the Germans' defensive flooding, in the early stages, also helped to protect the Americans' southern flank. But without the money and manpower to install a continuous line of defense, the Nazis focused on established ports. The Normandy Invasion consisted of 5,333 Allied ships and landing craft embarking nearly 175,000 men. "I'm a soft sod. The first flights, inbound to DZ A, were not surprised by the bad weather, but navigating errors and a lack of Eureka signal caused the 2nd Battalion 502nd PIR to come down on the wrong drop zone. To achieve surprise, the parachute drops were routed to approach Normandy at low altitude from the west. The negative impact of dropping at night was further illustrated when the same troop carrier groups flew a second lift later that day with precision and success under heavy fire.[6]. In coming to that conclusion he did not interview any aircrew nor qualify his opinion to that extent, nor did he acknowledge that British airborne operations on the same night succeeded despite also being widely scattered. This was our shield as long as it was up. A massive airborne operation preceded the Allied amphibious invasion of the Normandy beaches. SS-PGR 37 and III./FJR6 attacked the 101st positions southwest of Carentan. The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Later John Keegan (Six Armies in Normandy) and Clay Blair (Ridgways Paratroopers: The American Airborne in World War II) escalated the tone of the criticism, stating that troop carrier pilots were the least qualified in the Army Air Forces, disgruntled, and castoffs. 850,000 German troops awaiting the invasion, many were Eastern European conscripts; there were even some Koreans. The 82nd Airborne's drop, mission "Boston", began at 01:51. ", "101st Airborne Division participate in Operation Overlord (sic)", American D-Day: Omaha Beach, Utah Beach & Pointe du Hoc, German battalion dispositions in Normandy, 5 June 1944, "The Troop Carrier D-Day Flights", Air Mobility Command Museum, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_airborne_landings_in_Normandy&oldid=1116662534, (whole campaign, not just against airborne units), C-47 configuration, including severe overloading, use of. It made the most effective use of the Eureka beacons and holophane marking lights of any pathfinder team. D-Day, on June 6 1944, was the world's largest seaborne assault and the beginning of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. By 10:15, all three battalions had assembled and reported in. Many combat troops were misplaced amongst different units, and wounded personnel were moved quickly with a proper medical priority causing disregard for counting. So we commemorate the paradox of this victory. The first mission, Galveston, consisted of two serials carrying the 325th's 1st Battalion and the remainder of the artillery. The numbers would potentially be higher, but that depends on how many drops are happening. The paratroopers were to disrupt the German defense lines and use the element of surprise while the main force landed the beaches. The planes, sequentially designated within a serial by chalk numbers (literally numbers chalked on the airplanes to aid paratroopers in boarding the correct airplane), were organized into flights of nine aircraft, in a formation pattern called "vee of vee's" (vee-shaped elements of three planes arranged in a larger vee of three elements), with the flights flying one behind the other. 6,928 troops were carried aboard 432 C-47s of mission "Albany" organized into 10 serials. Abigail Jenks, 21, of the 82nd Airborne, was killed in a Fort Bragg training accident April 19. The division's parachute artillery experienced one of the worst drops of the operation, losing all but one howitzer and most of its troops as casualties. He died in 1969 at the age of 57years. British) became casualties, the proportions were higher for the US. This makes the Normandy landings the largest naval invasion in human history. It was a difficult job, made harder when he realised how badly injured the troops were. Two supply parachute drops, mission "Freeport" for the 82nd and mission "Memphis" intended for the 101st, were dropped on June 7. The largest amphibious invasion in history began on the night of June 5-6, with the roar of C-47 engines preparing to take off , and climaxed on the beaches of Normandy. One had experience only as a transport (cargo carrying) group and the last had been recently formed. Those poor men. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. One serial released early and came down near the German lines, but the second came down on Landing Zone O. The planes assigned to DZ D along the Douve River failed to see their final turning point and flew well past the zone. The initial point for the 101st at Portbail, code-named "Muleshoe", was approximately 10 miles (16km) south of that of the 82d, "Peoria", near Flamanville. Field Marshal Erwin Rommels report for all of June cited killed, wounded, and missing of some 250,000 men, including twenty-eight generals. [15], D-Day casualties for the airborne divisions were calculated in August 1944 as 1,240 for the 101st Airborne Division and 1,259 for the 82nd Airborne. On April 12 a route was approved that would depart England at Portland Bill, fly at low altitude southwest over water, then turn 90 degrees to the southeast and come in "by the back door" over the western coast. In all, 82nd Airborne committed 6,570 paratroopers on D Day, and 524 were killed in ground fighting. Two additional glider missions ("Galveston" and "Hackensack") were made just after daybreak on June 7, delivering the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment to the 82nd Airborne. Those men are bloody marvellous. Those of the 82nd were west (T and O, from west to east) and southwest (Drop Zone N) of Sainte-Mre-Eglise. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, In less than two months, by late August 1944, northern France had been liberated. Speaking to the BBC from his home in Oxford, Ted, now 95, vividly remembers the events of that day 75 years ago and says the horrific things he witnessed will stay with him forever. Some of the men who jumped from planes at lower altitudes were injured when they hit the ground because of their chutes not having enough time to slow their descent, while others who jumped from higher altitudes reported a terrifying descent of several minutes watching tracer fire streaking up towards them. After parachuting down, they. events, and resources, D-Day Casualties: Operation Overlord by the Numbers. 60 infantry divisions in France and ten panzer divisions, possessing 1,552 tanks,In Normandy itself the Germans had deployed eighty thousand troops, but only one panzer division. The 53rd TCW, working with the 101st, also progressed well (although one practice mission on April 4 in poor visibility resulted in a badly scattered drop) but two of its groups concentrated on glider missions. The strategy on D-Day was to prepare the beaches for incoming Allied troops by heavily bombing Nazi gun positions at the coast and destroying key bridges and roads to cut off Germanys retreat and reinforcements. In the American army, a battalion of some 400 to 500 men typically would have about thirty medics or aidmen; although sometimes attrition made that number much smaller. The exposed and perilous nature of the La Haye de Puits mission was assigned to the veteran 82nd Airborne Division ("The All-Americans"), commanded by Major General Matthew Ridgway, while the causeway mission was given to the untested 101st Airborne Division ("The Screaming Eagles"), which received a new commander in March, Brigadier General Maxwell D. Taylor, formerly the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery who had also been temporary assistant division commander (ADC) of the 82nd Airborne Division, replacing Major General William C. Lee, who suffered a heart attack and returned to the United States. Read about our approach to external linking. The 82nd airborne still had not gained control of the bridge across the Merderet by June 9. Two landed within German lines. Owing to weather and tactical conditions, however, many troopers were dropped from 300 to 2,100 feet and at speeds as high as 150 miles per hour. The Air Force Historical Study on the operation notes that several hundred paratroopers scattered without organization far from the drop zones were "quickly mopped up", despite their valor and inherent toughness, by small German units that possessed unit cohesion. 30 Apr 2020. After destroying the German defence batteries, the crew was tasked with clearing the beach and bringing wounded soldiers back to the ship to receive medical treatment. The 1st Battalion did not achieve its objectives of capturing bridges over the Merderet at la Fire and Chef-du-Pont, despite the assistance of several hundred troops from the 507th and 508th PIRs. After the battle, Woodson was highly commended, but never received a medal. Operation Market Garden and Operation Pegasus Apart from periods replenishing ammunition, HMS Belfast was almost continuously in action over the five weeks after D-Day and fired thousands of rounds from her guns in support of Allied troops fighting their way inland. Although Woodson did not live to see this week's 75th anniversary he died in 2005 he told The Associated Press in 1994 about how his landing craft hit a mine on the way to Omaha Beach. Sainte Mere Eglise became known to the world after the film The Longest Day because of the paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. For the first time, the names of all 2,499 American soldiers who died on D-Day were read aloud . As a result, 20 per cent of the 924 crews committed to the parachute mission on D-Day had minimum night training and fully three-fourths of all crews had never been under fire. This brought the final total of IX Troop Carrier Command sorties during Operation Neptune to 2,166, with 533 of those being glider sorties. second or third passes over an area searching for drop zones. The 508th PIR attacked across the Douve River at Beuzeville-la-Bastille on June 12 and captured Baupte the next day. However the primary factor limiting success of the paratroop units was the decision to make a massive parachute drop at night, because it magnified all the errors resulting from the above factors. That wave too came under severe ground fire as it passed directly over German positions. Read articles and browse photos and videos of Allied forces invading Normandy on June 6, 1944. . Ted was trained to operate one of Belfast's two cranes, which allowed him to lift stretchers up on to the deck. . And what for? Rangers and paratroopers executed missions in spite of appalling losses. What was D-day? /David Conacher1941 Member Posts: 913 Each drop zone (DZ) had a serial of three C-47 aircraft assigned to locate the DZ and drop pathfinder teams, who would mark it. By. The paratroopers were to then drop in to secure inland positions ahead of the land invasion. D-Day was also a significant psychological blow to Nazi Germany. More than 80 soldiers died in training accidents in 2017 alone, and a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina was killed just last month. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Though Woodson died in 2005, his family has been pushing the Army to award him a Medal of Honor posthumously. The second wave of mission Elmira arrived at 22:55, and because no other pathfinder aids were operating, they headed for the Eureka beacon on LZ O. The day before D-Day, June 5, was D-1. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. The 2nd Battalion landed almost intact on DZ D but in a day-long battle failed to take Saint-Cme-du-Mont and destroy the highway bridges over the Douve. The 53rd TCW was judged "uniformly successful" in its drops. "I looked at them as we were passing them and I thought to myself, if you're seasick and you're then expected to get off the boat and start fighting come on. Marshalls original data came from after-action interviews with paratroopers after their return to England in July 1944, which was also the basis of all U.S. Army histories on the campaign written after the war, and which he later incorporated in his own commercial book. But just how many paratroopers did it take to support the Normandy landings, how many soldiers braved machine gun fire and artillery to secure those crucial beachheads, and how many German soldiers were they up against? He remembers before the Allied invasion, he and his friends could not go out and play on the beaches because Mother couldnt trust anybody. Adolf Hitler arriving at the Berlin Sportpalast, being greeted by Nazi salutes, circa 1940. 5,333 Allied ships and landing craft embarking nearly 175,000 men. Days before the invasion, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was told by a top strategist that paratrooper casualties alone could be as high as 75 percent. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. Of the 16714 deaths for allied forces, how many were Americans? Even so, both missions provided heavy weapons that were immediately placed into service. At the initial point the 82nd Airborne Division would continue straight to La Haye-du-Puits, and the 101st Airborne Division would make a small left turn and fly to Utah Beach. Engineers cleared obstacles and minefields under heavy fire. Nearly all of both battalions joined the 82nd Airborne by morning, and 15 guns were in operation on June 8.[12]. I dropped the ramp, he said. 1,200 Paratroopers from the famous 101st airborne were dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy just before D-Day. With the help of a Frenchman who led them into the town, the 3rd Battalion captured Sainte-Mre-glise by 0430 against "negligible opposition" from German artillerymen. That day 75 years ago launched the major turning point in World War II. Fighting back tears, he adds: "There was nothing I could do about it. The 300 men of the pathfinder companies were organized into teams of 14-18 paratroops each, whose main responsibility would be to deploy the ground beacon of the Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar system, and set out holophane marking lights. But on D-Day alone, as many as 4,400 troops died from the . On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 brave young soldiers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada stormed the beaches of Normandy, France in a bold strategy to push the Nazis out of. [24] General Gavin reported that many paratroopers were in a daze after the drop, huddling in ditches and hedgerows until prodded into action by veterans. The 'Market Garden' plan employed all three divisions of First Allied Airborne Army. To get a sense of how great a sacrifice the U.S. made 68-years-ago when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, consider this tragic arithmetic: That battle cost 29,000 American lives. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. By Jeff Somers / June 7, 2021 11:46 pm EST. [14], Forty-two C-47s were destroyed in two days of operations, although in many cases the crews survived and were returned to Allied control. The paratroops trained at the school for two months with the troop carrier crews, but although every C-47 in IX TCC had a Rebecca interrogator installed, to keep from jamming the system with hundreds of signals, only flight leads were authorized to use it in the vicinity of the drop zones. Facing this opposition, Eisenhower threatened to step down from his position. (Army photo) A Fort Bragg soldier who died during airborne training Monday has been identified as 21 . Surprisingly, no British figures were published, but Cornelius Ryan cites estimates of 2,500 to 3,000 killed, wounded, and missing, including 650 from the Sixth Airborne Division. Canadian forces at Juno Beach sustained 946 casualties, of whom 335 were listed as killed. Abigail Jenks, 20, died after jumping from a helicopter during an exercise on April 19. He says: "I felt so sorry for the men. "I don't like to dwell upon it too much because there's nothing you can do about it. For a complete view of Operation Overlord, check out the full article at History on the Net, D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, as well as some others like D-Day Quotes: From Eisenhower to Hitler. The D-Day invasion was the largest amphibious attack in history. The British and Canadians put 75,215 troops ashore, and the Americans 57,500, for a total of 132,715, of whom about 3,400 were killed or missing, in contrast to some estimates of ten .