D-Day

D-Day

The Battle of Normandy took place on June 6, 1944 at 5:30 a.m. This day is known today as D-Day. There were about 160,000 allied soldiers on the beaches of Normandy that day. 73,000 American soldiers and 83,000 British, Soviet Union, and Canadian soldiers made up that number.

At the time the invasion was to take place, Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, knew that Germany had lost many of it’s soldiers and was weaker than they had been previously. Eisenhower and the other generals created a plan to invade northern France and take advantage of this weakness. They named it Operation Overlord where they were to split up throughout southern England into five groups. Each country was given their own route and some were given two(Soviet Union soldiers were randomly spread out in this process).They were to sail across the English Channel to different beaches throughout Northern France. Two beaches were assigned to the American troops. Their names were Utah and Omaha. Gold beach and Sword beach were assigned to British troops and Juno beach was assigned to the Canadian troops. The reason for choosing Normandy as a spot to attack Hitler’s army was because it would have weaker defense than any other part of Northern France due to it’s poor harbors. Hitler thought the allied troops would attack Pas-de-Calais because of good harbors.

A lot of waiting took place during this time in the war. Hitler wanted to reassure himself that he made the right move by positioning troops at Pas-De-Calais. He sent spy planes to England. He wanted to know what troops, planes, ships, and tank the allies had and where they were located. Hitler's spy planes gave him a good idea where they would attack. Luckily, for the allied forces, Hitler’s plans were leaked and got to the generals of the troops in England. They acted fast to his plan and they brought in professional filmmakers from England and the United States. The filmmakers were given the task to create a fake camp with rubber and wood vehicles and weapons to put in these camps. Because of the light materials of the vehicles and weapons, four to five soldiers could easily carry a tank. Now, where would they locate the camp? The leaders of the attack into France had to work together to find a smart location. A major concern was that they wanted to put the camp farther away from Normandy, which was the site of the intended attack. Next, they knew that Hitler was going to send most of his troops to good harbors along the Northern coast of France, so the allied forces decided to put the camp in Dover, England. It had great harbors for the ships and was a straight shot to France’s best harbor on the north coast, Pas-de-Calais. This large plan was called Operation Fortitude.

On June 5, the troops left the coast of England. They had more than 12,000 planes and 5,000 ships in the attack force. Planes were sent over before the attack with the task of destroying as many bunkers on the beaches as they could. However, German fighter planes were one of several defenses that Hitler had lined up along the northern coast of France. They forced U.S. and British fighter planes off course and couldn’t get all the bunkers. Cargo and troop planes along with gliders (planes without engines and had to be towed) were sent across the channel to deliver paratroopers into France and put up blockades on bridges, roads, and railways. This was to prevent any German back up troops to enter the Normandy region. But due to the heavy German defenses, many troops were separated from their units and lost. Some of the lost soldiers were able to find others and set up their own units and were still able to block most of the entry ways. 5,000 ships carried thousands of soldiers across the English Channel in the morning of June 6,1944. At 5:30 in the morning, troops reached land. Many obstacles on the way to Normandy slowed them down, though. Hitler had many surprises for the troops such as, sharpened poles in the water which caused holes in ships and trenches in the sand for German gunners. As the allied soldiers left the boats, they were being shot at from the bunkers. Even though planes were sent to destroy those bunkers, they were not able to reach them. Not only did many soldiers get shot, the ally’s vehicles were being destroyed. Eventually the U.S. Navy was able to kill off the gunners in the bunkers and trenches. By June 27, 1944 there were about 1 million troops in Normandy. Eisenhower eventually had the chance to send in his Third Army and take over the rest of France.

In the end, allied troops took 4,700 German soldiers prisoner. The Nazi regime was pushed back into Germany as well. Weeks later the war was over. On D-Day, 50,000 lives were lost and many others were wounded. Nonetheless, D-Day was the day to take action and create a large movement to victory in WWII.