The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion Western Allied forces in Normandy, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II one of the largest invasion to ever take place in history. D-Day, the day of the first assaults, was 6 June 1944. Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on that day came from Canada, France, Britian, and the United States. In the weeks following the invasion, Poland also participated, as well as Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. Most of the countries provided air and naval support, The Normandy …show more content…
invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, large air strikes and navy attacks. In the morning, landings on five beaches named Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah, and Sword began and during the evening the remains of the parachute’s landed. Land forces used on D-Day deployed from bases along the coast of the United Kingdom.
The Normandy invasion was on 6 June 1944 (named D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II.
The largest sea lead invasion in history, the operation started with the invasion of western Europe, and led to the liberation of France from Nazi Germany, and helped the allies get a victory in the war. Planning began in 1943. In the time leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a military trick, to confuse the Germans as to the location of the Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal. Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion. The landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval warfare and an airborne assault, the landing of 24,000 British, US, and Canadian troops. The target 50 mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five divisions, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach. The men landed under heavy fire from guns overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach clearing teams difficult and
dangerous.
The main Allied forces came from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, but other countries sent troops, from Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland. The United States led the Allied forces throughout the was in a effort to defeat the Axis forces led by Nazi Germany. The other countries helped because all had one common enemy and goal, to defeat hitler and liberate all of the concentration camps. To be able to do that they would need to hit some of Germany’s strongest allies. Then they would take out Germany but they had to use a lot of weapons and many innocent men would die. The countries attacked from every possible way. Land, water, and air because they knew the incredible difficulty that was involved. Germany would have no help in this battle due to the numerous other war battles, like with Russia and France to super-power countries. Due to the loss in this battle Germany would fall and Hitler would die on April 30th.
Allied forces seemed to be seriously wearing down the Germany Army on all fronts and was determined to start taking back the lands Germany invaded and occupied. To do this, so that Germany would be facing troops from all directions on all borders, an invasion of France by air and seas was deemed an option and several beaches were considered for a landing site. They picked Normandy as being the best choice and waited for weather to be just right to launch both a sea and air strike. Troops were readied and put on standby. Finally weather reports were good so they launched the invasion to re-take France from Germany, but at a very high cost of lives. Most troopers were shot and killed in midair. Many of those invading the beaches from the water were killed as they got out of the boats. Finally they made ground and started pushing the Germans back inland towards their own border, liberating France city by city. This was needed to win this war, it is known by many names one being the beggining of the end of the war. Germans really were screwed once this happened because they were greatly outnumbered by the 12 countries trying to defeat them. The allies did this and they were taking a huge risk but they knew that it would have a great reward if they were able to defeat the army of Nazi Germany.
It is significant in history because it was the largest battle in history, supported by the largest navy in human history. Also, it opened a second front against Germany. Until that point the Germans were fighting the Russians in the East and defeating Italy on the west. The Italian front didn’t take up much effort because the germans were heavily favored to win against them anyway. By attacking into France, the Allies forced the German army to defend itself there as well. This took some pressure off the Russians, and directly resulted in the liberation of France and the other countries that had been seized by the Nazi’s.
This important piece of history should forever be known as how and why the Allies defeated the Axis forces. We need to use this strategy and plan in other wars if we ever get into another type of situation similar to this. The end of World War ll was big for everyone because it proved that if we all have a common enemy we should unite against them. The US teamed with Stalin in this war when we hated him because he was just as bad as Hitler. The moment the war was over we can turn our attention to those who also need to be defeated.