Jared Moser English 9 Mr.

Adams 14 March 2011 D-Day: The Normandy Invasion By 1941, the German Army had made victory after victory, taking control of most of Europe. The Allies were losing the war and they needed to find a way to conquer Germany. They decided that the only way to do this was to make a mass ive invasion across the English Channel. This invasion would be called the Norma ndy Invasion and lead the Allies to victory. Interest in an invasion started in late 1941. The British Army was pushe d out of France and back to Britain. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, said they would fight on and make it back into France. This, however, seemed impossi ble for Britain until Hitler focused his army towards the Soviet Union. Britain gained Russia as an ally and the United States joined after the Pearl Harbor bom bing. Britain could now open a second front and plan an invasion of Europe. The planners of the invasion dreamt up many schemes. Captain the Lord Lo uis Mountbatten, a cousin of the King and a brilliant and forceful organizer, ap pointed Captain John Hughes-Hallett, a creative Royal Naval officer, as senior s taff officer. Hughes-Hallett became one of the most outstanding planners of D-Da y. He had planned the Saint-Nazaire raid, which took the Germans by surprise, bu t was misleading in showing that the Allies could attack heavily fortified forts as long as they took the Germans by surprise. Meanwhile, American Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, ordered plans for an emergency invasion of France. Two plans were drawn up by Major Gene ral Dwight D. Eisenhower. One plan code named Sledgehammer called for a landing of 12 divisions in the autumn of 1942. This would later be joined by Operation R oundup in the spring of 1943 where many more Americans would be available to joi n. The Germans, however, were too strong for such a vast operation. The Allies w ere too weak and lacked men and supplies. Instead of full-scale invasion, they w ould have a rehearsal at a smaller French port. From a list of ports, Mountbatte n and his planners chose Dieppe on the English Channel. The Dieppe raid, Operati on Jubilee, was altered many times, and was overambitious. There was no flexibil ity and the odds were completely against the Allies. During the raid, no objecti ves were entirely completed and it was, all in all, a complete disaster. It had been intended to relieve pressure on Russia but failed in doing so. The Dieppe r aid, however, did convince Hitler that the Allies would attack a fortified port next, and he neglected to defend the open beaches. The Allies would use this as an advantage for the D-Day invasion. British Lieut. General Sir Frederick E. Morgan joined the planning in 19 43, and gave the order for the planning of a large-scale invasion of Europe to b e launched as early as possible in 1944. His team immediately set the ultimate g oal as the defeat of Germany and drew up a master plan, code-named Overlord. Win ston Churchill once said, What a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the mos t complicated and difficult that has ever taken place.- (Military Photos). They th en worked backwards through the stages of Overlord to its first assault, Operati on Neptune. Now, they had to find a way to provide millions of soldiers and sup plies to carry out this operation. Fortunately, they had a wealth of data with w hich to begin detailed work. They had to pick an invasion spot, which was narrow ed down to either Pas-de-Calais or the Caen sector of Normandy. Normandy had few er drawbacks and was less obvious so it was chosen for the invasion. The Allies created many specialized equipment, which included artificial harbors, new tanks , and mounted mortars and rocket batteries on landing craft and gunboats. It see med almost impossible, but the build-up of materiel and soldiers was acceleratin g at an almost unmanageable rate. Even though these were all amazing accomplishm ents, the greatest was the D-Day deception, Operation Fortitude. The deception w as to convince the Germans that the real invasion was to be in Pas-de-Calais and that a diversion was in Normandy. This kept Germany from sending large amounts of troops to protect Normandy. Instead they focused on Pas-de-Calais. By the tim e of D-Day, all the Allied troops had been thoroughly trained. The weather had b

ecome a problem and it seemed that they would not be able to carry out the invas ion. When it seemed hopeless, the weather was announced to have a small interval where they would have good conditions from June 5 to June 6. Supreme Commander Eisenhower made the announcement on June 4, 1944 that they should proceed with O peration Neptune. You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and secur ity for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy oneThe free men of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confidence in your co urage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.- (Famous Quotes). In the morning of June 5, 1944, the Ally troops set sail for Normandy. While sailing, they were briefed on where they were to land. That afternoon, the Allied airborne forces prepared themselves for the invasion. They started filli ng the sky that evening. Soon after midnight, pathfinders and glider troopers ar rived over France. While the airborne invaders dropped over their targets, the G ermans thought that an invasion in this weather would be ridiculous and were not fully alert. All messages warning of the invasion were ignored and none of the Germans were prepared for the invasion. As the first gliders crashed into fields , Germans piled into the trenches to defend themselves, but the glider troopers had already started to overtake them. Paratroopers were beginning to drop over t he drop zones and attack German-controlled villages. Some paratroopers missed th eir drop points and were scattered. Many of the bridges in the area were destroy ed to delay German counterattacks. About 800 American planes crossed the coastli ne at about 1:15 on the morning of D-Day. Through a lot of hard work, the Americ ans captured the main road between Cherbourg and Carentan. With the capture of S ainte-Mere-Eglise, the Americans had accomplished most of their major missions. All through the morning, German commanders failed to take action because of Fort itude. A fleet had been detected on German radars heading towards Pas-de-Calais, but the radars were being deceived by the Allies, and the real invasion was mas ked by radio jammers. Warnings sent around by the Germans were either not believ ed or ignored. Those who knew about the invasion could not persuade upper genera ls to start a defense against it. By morning, the first boats had started to fir e on the coast. Other boats were beginning to land and the Germans were without the full support of their High Command. American and British warships, fighters, and bombers were bombarding the 59 miles of the Normandy shore. During the invasion, Colonel Francis W. Dawson said, Rangers, lead the way!- (American History). The coast was divided into the co de-named beaches Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. At Utah Beach, the U.S. 4th division landed to find that the naval bombardment had killed many Germans, des troyed their weaponry, and left the survivors demoralized. It was lucky for the Americans because they had landed in the wrong place. 2000 yards north where the y should have landed, there were two powerful German batteries. The American tro ops headed out for their real landing point, but decided they would start the in vasion of France from where they were. More men, tanks, gun, vehicles, and suppl ies landed on Utah and obtained more routes off the beach. Progress was slow, bu t the Americans pushed to link up with the airborne divisions. The bloodiest bat tle of D-Day was fought on Omaha Beach. It was not a good place for an assault, for at both ends there were 100 feet high cliffs with pebble banks and dunes whi ch made the beach impassable to vehicles. The Germans had also made it a bad pla ce to land by planting mines all along the routes leading off the beach. The Ame ricans believed that Omaha wouldnt be heavily defended. The information of Omaha being strengthened was never passed on to the American invaders. They also ignor ed lessons learned from the Dieppe raid. The situation at Omaha was getting so b ad that they considered abandoning it and transferring to another beach. On the left flank of Omaha, they climbed the cliffs and continued on to Port-en-Bessin where they would link up with the British. On the right, the Americans blew a ga p through the barb wire and walked along the mined path. The Americans needed he lp. They got that help but still had to advance inland to Coleville. The British landings were gone about differently. On Gold Beach, the Bri tish were able to pierce through the German defense easily and move inland quick

ly. This was good because they had put themselves in a good position, but bad be cause they failed to link up with the Americans. On Juno Beach, the Canadians we re delayed by choppy seas. The beach was a narrow strip cluttered with tanks, tr ucks, and guns. All in all, action on Juno was a success because they were in si ght of Caen, but were separated from Sword Beach by two and a half miles of Germ an territory. On Sword Beach, the British were to capture Caen, which would prov ide good tank country all the way to Paris. They landed a little late and were m et by prepared defenders. It took a long time to take the beach and to untie a t raffic jam built up from the battle. The tanks were delayed and they had to set off on foot to Caen. The British ran into trouble with German forces moving to t he beach, but were reinforced with a huge glider force. The Germans saw this and lost heart. They called off the counterattack. For the Germans, D-Day began and ended in delusion and confusion. For th e Allies, D-Day had brought a huge victory. The Atlantic Wall had been breached and the air was mastered. Operation Overlord had worked along with Fortitude. Af ter D-Day, the Allies were ready to move on and capture more of Europe. The Germ ans had already decided that they were losing the War. The invasion continued on in the days to follow and because of the actions made by the Allied soldiers, t hey were able to take much of Europe and later win World War II.

Works Cited Howarth, David. D-Day: The Sixth of June 1944. 1st ed. United States of America: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1959. Print Botting, Douglas. World War II: The D-Day Invasion. Collectors Ed. U.S.A.: Time-L ife Books, 1978. Print Kevin M Hymel. (2005, January). The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944-Th e American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise [review of the Army, 5 5(1), 62-63. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from ProQuest Central. (Document ID: 778689411). The D-Day Order Speech by Dwight Eisenhower. Famous Quotes. N.P., n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2011. <http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/Eisenhower/index.htm> Quotes about D-Day. American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2011. <htpp://America n history.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/ddayquotes.htm> D-Day Quotes. Military Photos. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2011. http://www.milit aryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?13998-D-DayQuotes&s=2cad5744745c0f2 289fdaea1bdd58385.