On June 6, 1944, over 160,000 US and allied troops landed on the coast of Normandy, France, to fight Nazi Germany. This day in history will always be remembered as D-Day. As many as 13,000 aircraft and 5,000 ships were in the Invasion of Normandy. During this initial day in the beginning of the end, more than 12,000 allied soldiers were killed or injured, but a total of 100,000 wounded, weak, or new to the war continued on to travel across Europe and defeat Nazi Germany and Hitler.
The initial attack on Normandy, France took place at 6:30 AM that Tuesday morning. In planning, as for most Allied operations, the name D-Day was used for the day of the initial landing, which depended on approval. The landing in Normandy happened in two different attacks, on land, and in the air. First the airborne attack consisting of 24,000 British, American, Canadian, and French soldiers, who attacked the Nazi infested France shortly after midnight. Next the amphibious attack which took place at 6:30 AM, when the heavily armed Allied infantry stormed the beach and attack the Germans. Success was due to surprising the Germans which was due to inclement weather and a plan made to distract and confuse the Germans. Operation Bodyguard consisted of distracting Germany’s attention of an attack on France. The Allies convinced Adolf Hitler that the attack which actually take place up north of Normandy in Pas-de-Calais. Surprisingly this worked, along with a series of decoy landings taking place at the same time, to distract Germany from the actually landing.
Germany was tremendously outnumbered in the battle. The Allies that took part of this attack were, the US, Canada, the Free France, Poland, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, and Belgium. Who were up against Nazi Germany. The Allies were led by Dwight Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery, Omar Bradley, Trafford Leigh, Arthur Tedder, Miles Dempsey, and Bertram Ramsay. The Germans were led by Gerd von Rundstedt, Erwin Rommel, Leo Geyr con Schweppenburg, Friedrich Dollman, Hans von Salmuth, and Wihelm Falley. (who was killed during the invasion). The Allied had a total of over 160,000 soldiers fighting the battle, and lost over 12,000 of them. The Germans had over 10,000 and lost roughly around 7,000 of them.
The plan of attack itself was constructed by Lieutenant Frederick Morgan. The invasion was different because it executed an amphibious invasion along with land, sea, and air elements under. The attack itself actually was the largest amphibious attack in world history still to this day. The landing on Normandy took place along a 50 mile stretch of France, because it was so long they had to split the land into different sectors: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, and Juno. Omaha being the most popular, because the majority of the heavy fighting was happening here, it didn’t help that the high hills and bluffs defended the mortars and machine guns. Because of these high hills most leaderless soldiers drifted east in their attack. So because of this when the ten tanks arrived on the beach they didn’t have enough and only two of the tanks survived the attack on Omaha beach.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings#Omaha_Beach
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