The Invasion Of Normandy (D-Day)

Ben Belcher March 19, 2013 Period 4
Invasion of Normandy (D-Day) On June 6th, 1944 the Allied forces of the British, Canadian¸ and the United States led an invasion of Normandy against the German Nazis occupying France. This day is very significant because it wasn’t just a physical loss of soldiers but a psychological blow against the Nazis. The Allies began to gain ground they lost to Germany. Also it prevented Hitler from sending troops from France to help defend from the advancing Soviets. The invasion of Normandy, France wasn’t just a few battles over one day it changed the tides of World War II. The Allied forces didn’t just sail in and take over the beaches of Normandy it took much planning and preparation. Eisenhower was appointed the commander of this large scale mission. Months before D-Day the Allies carried out a massive deception operation to make the Germans think the invasion was going to occur somewhere else. To pull off this feat the used fake equipment, a phantom army, double agents, and radio transmissions that weren’t real. Hitler hearing about a possible invasion ordered the completion of the Atlantic Wall, 2,400 miles of bunkers, landmines, and obstacles on the beaches.
Eisenhower originally chose June 5th, 1944 for the invasion but there was bad weather on that date and days prior. His meteorologist predicted that the weather the following day would have much better conditions. So later that day 5,000 ships carrying soldiers and supplies left for France along with 11,000 aircraft with paratroopers and to provide air support.
The ships landed around dawn the following day.
At that point in time paratroopers were already behind enemy lines securing bridges. The British and the Canadians captured three beaches codenamed Gold, Juno, and Sword. They captured these beaches with very little opposition from Nazi Germany. The U.S also captured Utah beach easily by overcoming little opposition. Although on the 5th and final beach the U.S. faced heavy resistance from the Nazis. With all of the Nazi bunkers and landmines the final beach was hard to capture and resulted in over 2,000 U.S. casualties. At the end of the day about 156,000 allied troops successfully landed on Normandy’s beaches. Around 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives and many more were missing or
wounded.
Germans suffered from confusion in their stations and ranks because their commander Rommel was away on leave. Hitler at first also thought the invasion was a distraction from an upcoming attack of the Seine River in France. Since he thought it was just a distraction he refused to send in troops to help out on the beaches. This caused delays because he ordered soldiers to from father away to come and help so the others could still defend the Seine River. The Germans were also bombarded by the Allies air support and had to take different routes because paratroopers captured bridges which also caused delays and helped advancing allies.
By the end of August 1944 the allied forces captured and liberated much of northwestern France. The Allied forces would continue and meet up with the Soviet Union to begin to storm Germany. Just under one year later the Allies accepted the Nazis surrender in May 1945 one week after Hitler committed suicide.
D-Day was one of the most important dates of World War II that essentially freed all from the rule of the Nazis. It was the first time the allies began to gain ground and it was the turning point of the war that changed the course of history forever.