D-DAY — Mid 1944; Early June 1944; D-Day
D-DAY
June 1944 led to the beginning of the end
…of Nazi power in Europe and WWII as it were. Operation Overlord, otherwise known as D-Day found nearly 160,000 American, British and Canadian forces landing on five beaches throughout the coast of Normandy in France. It was quite possibly the largest amphibious attack in military history, and by now American troops were well trained and ready for war.
OK, rewind! On August 19, 1942, the plan of attacking the beaches across the English Channel was a result of Operation Rutter, otherwise known as the Dieppe Raid. Fast-forward to May 1943, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met with military advisers in Washington D.C. , to discuss the operation at the Trident Conference. About three months later, British and American military chiefs of staff met at the Quadrant Conference to plan Overlord, also code-named Neptune.
Then in November and December of 1943 they assembled again to discuss strategic specifics at the Sextant and Eureka Conferences. The Allies were victorious in the Battle of the Atlantic and the U.S. was successful in sending supplies to other Allied powers throughout the world.
The plan was originally supposed to take place on June 5, but due to poor weather conditions, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the assault, chose this day. Up until now, the Allies used deception in getting Germany to believe the invasion would happen in Norway and other areas. In fact, Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command Erwin Rommel, who was supposed to be defending the area, had taken leave during this time. And he paid for that.
According to history.com, many tactics were used to carry out the deception, including fake equipment; a phantom army commanded by George Patton and supposedly based in England, across from Pas-de-Calais; double agents; and fraudulent radio transmissions. But in reality, the code names for the five beaches where the actual landings took place were Omaha, Gold, Utah, Juno and Sword.
And the previous day, Eisenhower told his troops in a broadcast message, “The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory…. We will accept nothing less than full victory!” like a boss!
Then on June 6, even though the weather had improved, it wasn’t by much and the plan went forth. At 0200, two American and one British airborne divisions landed behind enemy lines and secured egress routes from the beaches. Mine sweepers were placed to begin clearing pathways for the invasion fleet.
The air and naval assault began, and by 0630, 5,000 ships and 4,000 ship-to-shore crafts emerged, and the ramps went down, followed by the jump, swim, run and crawl to the cliffs. The Germans only had about a hundred ships or so in the area, and only a little over 800 in aircraft, and so were completely outnumbered. British forces on the left flank at Gold, Juno and Sword; and American forces on the right at Utah, had it pretty well locked down at the beaches.
But Omaha Beach, due to high cliffs, was a totally different story, and over 2,000 American troops perished.
By nightfall, only Gold and Juno beaches were secured, and it took about a week for all five beaches to be bridged. But on this date, nearly 160,000 allied troops consisting of three American, three British and one Canadian infantry division plus three airborne divisions were well on their way to a successful invasion of Normandy, overtaking Adolf Hitler’s “Fortress Europe”. The Russians began attacking from the east and less than a year after Normandy, the Nazi’s unconditionally surrendered, and the war in Europe was coming to a close.
In September 1945, the worst conflict in world history came to an end. Throughout WWII, anywhere between 50-85 million people died. On April 30 1945, after just getting married, Hitler committed suicide.
Maybe it was the marriage, I don’t know.
D-DAY — Mid 1944; Early June 1944; D-Day