Assess The Significance Of D-Day
Assess the Significance of D-Day
In the following essay, I will attempt to assess the significance of D-Day (along with the rest of the Normandy landings). I'll centre my writing around the word significance, using other key battles of World War 2 as examples of the different meanings of significance and compare them in the same terms to D-Day.
The most obvious thing that D-Day accomplished was opening a second front, what is known as the Western Front, against Germany. The importance of this is shown with Hitler's Führer Directive No 40 (the order to build the Atlantic Wall, the cost of which in France alone is estimated at 3.7 Billion Deutschmarks) coupled with approximated 850,000 soldiers (in 1944) placed at possible allied landing spots (namely Calais) along the coast of France. The fact that Hitler felt the need to use all these troops and money to deter an invasion suggests to us that he deemed a Western Front would be both to the detriment of his invasion plans, specifically his plans for the Soviet Union as well as the overall Nazi ideology of Lebensraum. The significance of D-Day in relation to this point is that it is the triggering event of the Western Front.
Furthermore, the D-Day invasion of Normandy prevented what later became known as the 'Iron Curtain' from being much larger and closer to …show more content…
Paris, Lyon), cities that thus couldn't, or at least wouldn't be captured by the Soviets. This idea of fighting Nazi Germany not only to defeat Hitler but, equally, to prepare for the aftermath of a Europe dominated by the Soviet Union is better understood when the countries that formed the United Nations are thought of not necessarily as allies so much as countries with a common goal, especially in the case of the Soviets. With this strategy of preparing for a future without a Nazi Germany in mind, the significance of D-Day is amplified to a level far greater than that of capturing
In the following essay, I will attempt to assess the significance of D-Day (along with the rest of the Normandy landings). I'll centre my writing around the word significance, using other key battles of World War 2 as examples of the different meanings of significance and compare them in the same terms to D-Day.
The most obvious thing that D-Day accomplished was opening a second front, what is known as the Western Front, against Germany. The importance of this is shown with Hitler's Führer Directive No 40 (the order to build the Atlantic Wall, the cost of which in France alone is estimated at 3.7 Billion Deutschmarks) coupled with approximated 850,000 soldiers (in 1944) placed at possible allied landing spots (namely Calais) along the coast of France. The fact that Hitler felt the need to use all these troops and money to deter an invasion suggests to us that he deemed a Western Front would be both to the detriment of his invasion plans, specifically his plans for the Soviet Union as well as the overall Nazi ideology of Lebensraum. The significance of D-Day in relation to this point is that it is the triggering event of the Western Front.
Furthermore, the D-Day invasion of Normandy prevented what later became known as the 'Iron Curtain' from being much larger and closer to …show more content…
Paris, Lyon), cities that thus couldn't, or at least wouldn't be captured by the Soviets. This idea of fighting Nazi Germany not only to defeat Hitler but, equally, to prepare for the aftermath of a Europe dominated by the Soviet Union is better understood when the countries that formed the United Nations are thought of not necessarily as allies so much as countries with a common goal, especially in the case of the Soviets. With this strategy of preparing for a future without a Nazi Germany in mind, the significance of D-Day is amplified to a level far greater than that of capturing