D-Day is a term used for the invasion of Normandy. In the military, D-Day is the day when a combat attack or operation is supposed to happen. The best known D-Day is June 6, 1944, the day of the Invasion of Normandy. The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion of Allied forces in Normandy, France; during operation overlord in 1944 during WWII. The invasion was the largest operation ever to take place.
Planning the invasion was a lot of work for the allied forces; they had to figure out a good day and make roles for each country clear. There was 10 days each month that they could attack at night; it had to be a day near the full moon for more brightness when it was dark and for spring tide. A full moon occurred on June 6th so that is why the invasion of Normandy was on June 6th, 1944. The attack was actually planned for June 5th but then Dwight D. Eisenhower changed it to the 6th because on June 4th conditions were not suitable for landing, thus the change of dates. They were originally going to postpone the attack for another month (another full moon) but the forecast of conditions for June 6th were considerably better.
The allied land forces that fought in Normandy came from Canada, the Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the following weeks after the initial invasion, the Polish Forces also participated, as well as contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. Majority of the countries that fought also provided air and naval support; but the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the Royal Norwegian Navy also provided air and naval support. The invasion fleet came from 8 different navies, and was made up of a total of 6,939 vessels; 1,213 warships, 4,126 transport vessels, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. The main commander of the Allied Naval Expeditionary Force was Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. But, the Allied Naval Expeditionary Force was divided into two Naval Task Forces: Western- Rear-Admiral Alan G Kirk, and Eastern- Rear- Admiral Sir Philip Vian.
D-Day (The Invasion of Normandy), started with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks and naval bombardments. Early that morning amphibious landings on five beaches which were codenamed, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah and Sword began. During the evening the remaining parts of the parachute divisions landed. Then, the “D-Day” forces deployed from bases along the south coast of England, Portsmouth was the most important force. The invasion lasted until the 4th of July. By the end of June 11th, 326,547 troops had landed, 54,186 vehicles landed and about 104,428 tons of supplies had landed. By June 30th, over 850,000 troops landed, 148,00 vehicles landed, and 570,000 tons of supplies had landed. By the 4th of July One Million men had been landed over the period of the invasion. By the end of the invasion (July 24th) there had been about 120,000 causalities (exactly 113,059).
I think that it would have been terrible to be attacked on D-Day, but it is one of those things that you just cope with and handle. I thought that the websites that I used were very good sources, and I learned a lot from them. It was very cool to find out how much work actually is put into planning an attack as extensive as the Invasion of Normandy. It was crazy how many different tools, ships, vehicles and men were used to make this attack happen. I had fun doing this blog.
Pictures:
This is a picture of U.S. Army Troops at Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6th.
This is a picture of the Allied Invasion Forces attack plan!
This is a picture of a U.S. paratrooper about to jump into combat on D-Day.
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Comments
Glad you enjoyed this topic! Well done!