Normandy+landings

Normandy Landings

The Normandy landings were the largest amphibious military invasion ever. They were comprised of about two million troops from almost all of the Allied Nations, including but not limited to, The U.S, England, Canada, and France. There were three commanders in charge of the huge operation that required full cooperation of all countries involved. Dwight D. Eisenhower of the U.S, along with Winston Churchill and Bernard L Montgomery from England. If any one of them messed up, the whole operation would have been a bust and the allies may not have won World War II.

On May 12 of 1943, the Trident Conference was held. It was here that the idea of Operation Overlord, including the Normandy landings, was proposed. The landings were supposed to occur on June 5, 1944, but unknowingly, bad weather would postpone this to the 6th. After that meeting, all countries involved started preparations. In late 1943, the British evacuated approximately 3000 people from a small town called Slapton. The British had to have the town evacuated to hold the massive amounts of troops that would be crossing the English Channel in a short amount of time to invade France. In December 1943 a huge training exercise called Operation Tiger took place on the beach of Slapton due to its similar geography to the beaches of Normandy. Operation Tiger took place with a mere 30,000 troops compared to the 160,000 of the main D-day landings. The exercise was a success and the only thing left to do was amass the rest of the invasion force and prepare for battle.

June 6 1944, the day of the invasion, all Allied Forces were well rehearsed and battle-ready, on the other hand, German commander, Irwin Rommel and his soldiers guarding the heavily fortified Atlantic wall were not… they were expecting the attack, but on a different day. On this particular day there was especially bad weather, which the Germans had hoped would stall the Americans. They were also very confident that their newly built Atlantic seawall would stop the incoming troops dead in their tracks, it housed thousands of German soldier’s armed with machine guns and huge guns to destroy anything in their path. The shores were also littered with mines and a weapon called “Rommel’s asparagus” this was the codename for the 16-18 foot long wooden poles with one end in the ground and the other sharpened end perched up to prevent landing boats from making it ashore.

The odds were with the Germans and their massive defenses, but the Allies had a fantastic plan. In the early morning hours of the 6th, to weaken up the German defense, airborne divisions jumped or glided down the enemy positions to weaken them and to seize key bridges and road junctions. More than 7,000 ships and landing craft participated in the invasion fleet which was also covered by aircraft from around 170 squadrons (of around 12 aircraft each). The main invasion force landed on five sectors or beaches codenamed (to the west to the east) Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. It was a five-division front spread over 80 kilometers (around 49 miles) along the Normandy coast. By the end of the day, the Allies landed more than 130,000 men and almost 6,000 vehicles by sea. Another 23,400 landed by air in parachutes.

By the end of the landings, Allied morale was high as the pre-landing casualty estimate was 20,000 but only half of those were reported. In the next few days as the main attack force was fighting through France, wave after wave of troops arrived across the channel and victory was near, as the Germans retreat further and further into France. If it were not for the Normandy landings on D-day, the world would be a very different place. Nazi rule in France maybe wouldn’t have come to such a short demise and the Allies may have fought WWII for a much longer time, maybe not even winning the war. In France, the way of life would have been much different as it is now, and it may have even become part of Nazi Germany. Instead of having French customs and culture, possibly even the language would have dissipated as German ways of life slowly bled through France.