D-Day

=Introduction=

toc D-Day, or the Invasion of Normandy, was the invasion of Allied forces into Nazi-occupied France. D-Day took place on June 6, 1944 and was part of Operation Overlord, the plan to recapture Western Europe from the Germans.

=Allied Preparations=

Churchill didn’t want an invasion of France but FDR and Stalin did; so Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed the Supreme Commander of Operation Overlord. The Allies wanted to confuse the Germans on where they would land and take the Germans by surprise since Germany was well aware of the possibility of an Allied invasion of France. Allies hoped to make the Germans think that they would land in the Pas-de-Calais, the narrowest part of the English Channel. This plan was called Operation Fortitude and also included a “plan to invade Norway” which Hitler believed. U.S. General George Patton led Operation Fortitude since Germans were more likely to believe the bluff if this fierce general was in charge of an operation of this importance. Some German intelligence officers were convinced of the plan to invade the Pas-de-Calais, but Hitler wasn’t completely fooled. He knew that Normandy would be a good place to invade and he told his assistants to focus on defending Normandy.

=German Preparations=

The Germans knew that an invasion of France was bound to happen at some point so they were preparing coastal defense. Hitler appointed Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt to guard the west and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to guard the north and Inspector of Costal Defenses; Hitler still personally commanded the operation and the excessive overlapping of roles caused poor planning. Rundstedt thought it would be best to put all the armor (tanks) on reserve and send them after the Allies landed; the Allies however, thought of this idea too and bombed communication and transportation lines along the coast in the spring of 1944 so the armor wouldn’t travel fast enough to prevent a beachhead. Rommel wanted to build strong defenses in one area since he knew that the first day would be the most important. Luckily, for the Allies, Rommel put strong defenses on Pas-de-Calais and not Normandy.

=D-Day pre-invasion=

media type="custom" key="6065631" align="right" The Allies waited for perfect tide and weather conditions to storm the beaches of Normandy. This was initially scheduled on June 5th but storms the day before pushed the landing back a day to June 6th. During the early morning hours of June 6th, the British 3rd Division was airdropped east of the invasion zone and captured bridges and canals. To the west however, the American 82nd and 101st Airborne were scattered by winds; some died from drowning and enemy fire but they ended up finishing their task. British and American aircrafts also dropped bombs on German positions near the invasion zones. Once dawn came, more than 130 Allied warships started firing at the German defenses.

=D-Day invasion=

General Montgomery chose five beaches to land on, codenames Gold, Juno and Sword to the east and Omaha and Utah to the west. British and Canadian forces were to land on Gold, Juno and Sword while Americans were to land on Omaha and Utah. These beach landings would add about 155,000 British, Canadian and American troops to the already 23,000 British and American troops already airdropped.

Much of the first wave of troops never made it to shore – some small vessels sunk, hit mines or hit sand bars forcing evacuation far from shore. MG and artillery fire from the Germans was also a constant threat. Despite all the initial casualties, the Canadians and British managed to overtake the German defenses at Gold, Juno and Sword within a few hours. The Americans surprised the unprepared Utah beach and the Germans quickly surrendered.

Omaha beach was a completely different story. The Germans were up on high cliffs taking out make troops before they made it to shore and the “floating tanks” were deployed too far from shore and sank, taking the tank’s crew. Without any tanks or methods to remove the mines, American troops were pinned down by enemy fire for hours. It took three days and thousands of American lives to finally capture the beach. Click Here for an Interactive Map of German Defenses at Omaha Beach

The Germans still believed in Operation Fortitude so didn't they bother to send reinforcements to Normandy and the Allies liberated Paris by September

=Citations=

"Battle of Normandy." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History: War. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht and Dwayne D. Hayes. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. Dublin Jerome High School. 9 May. 2010 Web.

"D-Day." Student Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. Dublin Jerome High School. 9 May. 2010 Web.

Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Normandy 1944. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 11 May. 2010.

"France Invaded by the Allies, June 6, 1944." DISCovering World History. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. Dublin Jerome High School. 9 May. 2010 Web.

Shabaka, Dahia Ibo, et al. Modern World History. Evanston, IL:McDougal Littell. 2005, Print.

Wikimedia Commons, 2010. Web. 9 May. 2010.