The Influence Of The D-Day Invasion

The invasion of D-Day is the largest joint sea born invasion in the history of the world. Although very well planned, the amphibious landings were a gamble made by the Allied forces to gain foothold in Europe. Every American has heard about the Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Europe on D-Day. However, how many Americans stop and think about how much planning, preparation and luck that went into making it the success that it is remembered for? I will attempt to depict what it took to conquer the Normandy beaches using historical and military facts that make it such an iconic event in the world’s history still today.

D-day was meant to be able to recapture Europe and get an upper hand on the Germans. When the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia came onto the beaches in LCVP’s which stood for landing craft vehicle personal. When landing on the beaches there were tank traps machine guns and tranches of troops waiting on the beach. The point of this was to be able to stop all the soldiers coming of the LCVP’s and to be able to gun them down so they don’t get pass their defenses.

“D-Day”, is considered one of the most significant battles of World War ll. D-Day is also known as the “Battle of Normandy”, or, “Operation Overlord”. The Battle of Normandy began in June 1944, and ended around August 1944. By the end of the war around August 1944, all of France had been cleared of Nazi forces. D-Day is considered a huge factor with the end of World War II and the Nazi Party due them having to push out of France and back into their initial land of Germany. Later on as the Nazi Party was pushed back into Germany, more allied forces collaborated to officially wipe out the Nazi Party in Germany. D-Day was initialized as it was approved by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the approval of the general, troops landed on the French coasts to neutralize the Nazi Party and to recover the land.

Each soldier had objectives to complete that would make the invasion from the sea go a bit easier. One way the paratroopers led to the success of Normandy was how they captured French towns and cities. This aided the Allies because a lot of said towns and cities could have been communication centers. With these towns taken, it would be easier to send and receive messages. Also, the towns could connect major roadways to one another. When supplies such as trucks with ammo and other useful equipment came through, they could easily get to where they were needed. Another way that the paratroopers led to the success of the invasion was how they took or destroyed gun batteries and cannons that would be able to fire down onto the beaches or the ships that supported the landings. With the weapons still intact, the Germans could cause a lot more casualties to the invading force than what really happened Finally, the paratroopers led to success at Normandy by taking important roadways and bridges. After the initial invasion happened, tanks and supplies would need a way to get inland quickly and easily if the Germans managed to blow up the bridges, these important supplies wouldn’t be able to go over the rivers and canals without waiting for a new, unreliable one to be built. In conclusion, the paratroopers were a major factor to the invasion and was one of the biggest

June 6th 1944 will be the most important invasion of world war two. The invasion of Normandy, France was the turning point of world war two. In the invasion of D-Day over 425,000 Allied and German troops were either killed or wounded. An examination of primary and secondary sources will reveal the historical importance of this event.

World War 2 was a war that lasted 6 dreadful years. It all started, September 1,1939, when Adolf Hitler started putting jews in concentration camps. Then he moved on by taking over many parts of Germany and Europe. The U.S. did not get involved until the day that the japanese struck Pearl Harbor with a bomb on , December 7,1941. The U.S.started sending their young boys and adult men to Germany to help free jews and stop Hitler. They finally did on, September 2,1945.

According to Naval History and Heritage, the commander in charge of organizing the second front was U.S. Army General, Dwight D. Eisenhower. He commanded Operation Overlord, which was the invasion of Normandy beach in Western Europe. The operation was launched when weather reports predicted satisfactory conditions on June 6, 1944. On the morning of June 6,1944 dozens of minesweepers followed by hundreds of amphibious ships and crafts, supported by warships, crossed the English Channel commencing operation Neptune (the

It took a team of Frog Men (our Navy Seals today) to make the mission D-Day successful. The Frog Men were responsible for destroying underwater defense system (Atlantic Wall) in by the Nazis. Bombs were attached to 1670 miles of underwater structure. Bombing and defusing of bombs cleared passage for American and allies ships closer to the beaches. The Nazis anticipated allies to come in off the coast of France where the wall was built. Frog Men's Operation Neptune was victorious, allowing June 6, 1944 D-Day to have a place in history. It took ABC (American, British and Canadian) to invade Normandy a region of France with miles of beaches. 4000 men were died and 1000's more were never accounted for, however 156,000 did occupy Normandy that day.

Although he helped American troops in North Africa, Eisenhower’s biggest feat was the invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe, better known as D-Day. As the Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War II at the time, Eisenhower gave permission for a massive invasion called Operation Overlord. He only had a window of four days to launch the attack, but jumped at the opportunity (Koves). The 40 mile stretch of the beaches of Normandy, France was divided into five sections: Juno, Sword, Omaha, Gold, and Utah (Operation Overlord Animated Map). Late at night on June 6th, 1944, aerial troops secured both the eastern and western parts of the beach. In the morning, seaborne soldiers began to attack the coast (Operation Overlord Animated Map). By June 27th, the Germans had wrecked their ports, assuming this would slow down the Allies. Their attempt failed, and finally, on August 25th, the French army successfully liberated Paris (BBC News).

Paratroopers mission was to take control over road intersections and key bridges on the east and west fronts. In addition to carrying their guns, troops carried extra ammunition, rations, grenades, dynamite, and landmines due to mission possibly lasting 2 or 3 days. Not all paratroopers arrived to their targets they were shot down by enemy fire, downed by heavy gear, or got stuck and captured. Battles on the 5 Normandy shores had terrible conditions on Omaha shores but conditions were smooth on Swords beach. On shores of Juno, Canadian forces landed with the first wave of soldiers that consisted of many losses. As a result ⅓ of Canadians landing crafts were left in poor conditions, 1,200 Canadian casualties, and by morning joined together with the British on Gold beach. British soldiers occupied Gold beach, as the men arrived they met a firm resistance. Mines damaged the first landing craft that included military vehicles as consequence 20 armoured cars were harmed. Naval and air forces destroyed German defenders which was vital for the battle at Gold beach. Sword beach battle went smoothly for the British with most of vehicles making it ashore. But British fighters could not continue ahead as a result of

During World War II, the allied forces planned an invasion against the German army at the beaches of Normandy, France. With this assault still hours away, the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division Paratroopers were already executing night drops behind enemy lines. An article published at www.warhistoryonline.com states, “the paratroopers were to disrupt the German defense lines and use the element of surprise while the main force landed the beaches” (Budanovic). Foggy weather made drop-zone accuracy difficult for the 82nd, but they adapted and did their best to complete their mission. This same determination resonates in the life of a more recent veteran of the 82nd Airborne, 1st LT. Mark Menis-Kyler. In a recent interview, he shared his story with

The Germans had deployed the 352nd infantry division in a defensive doctrine on Omaha beach , Normandy. In hopes of

The Normandy Invasion may have been the single most important battle on the Western Front of World War II. Much planning went into the siege of these beaches that ensured a tough, but inevitable victory, as well as other factors, such as the exploitation of the Germans’ ignorance of the attack.

One of the most significant encounters of World War II was the Battle of Normandy (the first day of which is commonly referred to as D-Day). Nearly three million soldiers were deployed for the invasion. Those deployed consisted mainly of American and British soldiers, however Canadian, French, Polish, Belgian, and Czech forces were represented as well (Jensen). The battle was fought in an effort to gain European ground and to reduce the German potential for overrunning Russia (Lucas). The Battle of Normandy was significant in that it was the turning point of World War II, incurred heavy casualties on each side, and was the greatest amphibious landing in history (Cohen).

12000 aircraft supported the land invasion force, the plan was to divide the German forces, to ease the landing on the beaches. The paratroops were suppose to be dropped off in a small aria between the city, which was occupied by Germans, and the swamp aria, which was purposely flooded by the Germans, and flank them. The movie did an amazing job in reproducing this event. Due to the bad weather the man got scattered all over the place, people fell into wells, landed in trees, fell through the roofs, and many had drowned in the swamp. One part of the movie shows an English solder landing in a courtyard full of German solders. He was immediately apprehended and taken to German