D-Day

On this day 65 years ago, one of dozens of defining moments took place in World War II. On June 6, 1944 Allied soldiers took part in the invasion of Normandy, a strip of coast in France. 160,000 soldier participated in the landings, over 195,000 navy personnel and at least 5000 ships supported these soldiers in their landings. Landings took place on 5 different stretches of beach, each designated with a code name. American, British, and Canadian forces were designated for these beaches. The Americans landed at Omaha and Utah. The British landed at Gold and Sword. The Canadians landed at Juno. The most heavily defended beach was Omaha, 5000 soldiers gave their life there. 50% of total losses from the Normandy Invasion. Many objectives set to be done on D-Day were not achieved, so progress was slow getting out of Normandy but the invasion of France continued and ultimately ended the war. For many this is where the story of D-Day ended, however the story of how it began started many years ago. From the time Russia switched to the Allies side to the time of D-Day Stalin had told the Allies to open a second front. However Allied leaders did not have the proper planning for an invasion of that magnitude. Also the U.S. had just joined the war and did not have the experience that the British had. So while forming the plans for an invasion of France, the U.S. landed in Africa under Operation Torch and later the Allies invaded Italy in Operation Husky. It was hoped that Germany could be captured from Italy however this proved improbable because of the easily defendable Italian Alps. So finally the plans for D-Day were set and put into motion. Large numbers of Allied troops were transferred to the U.K. and begun special beach landing training. At this time paratroopers also began training for landing behind the German lines and taking certain towns and other objectives. Months before this up to D-Day Allied bombings had turned from strategic bombing (the bombing of factories, cities, refineries, and anything else that helps the warmaking industry) to the bombing of sites in France, mostly transportation hubs, such as railroads. All the movement on the ground was easily noticeable so the Allies also took precautions to camoflauge all that was going on. "Dummy" tanks were also created, inflatable devices that look like tanks from the air. The art of deceiving also came into play. Somehow the Allies conveyed to the Germans that any landing at France would occur farther up the beach, not at Normandy. Therefore many German defenses were moved and not present at Normandy. One of the last deciding factors for D-Day was the weather. If there was a storm than the Higgins landing craft wouldn't be able to make it to the beach. If the clouds were too low aircraft wouldn't be able to find their targets, this included not only the fighters and bombers supporting the troops but also the planes carrying paratroopers and commandos. It also had to be done on a night that would have a full moon since paratrooper landings would take place at night and so would the preperations for soldiers getting into landing craft. The original plans for D-Day were for the invasion to take place on June 5. Weather however didn't comply. On June 4 the weather deteriorated and June 5 the weather was no better. In an emergency meeting of the commanders Eisenhower's chief meteorolgist Stagg forecast a brief improvement on June 6. Eisenhower was the supreme commander of all Allied forces. The defining moment of his career took place on this day. Finally Eisenhower gave the go-ahead. Eisenhower was still doubtful though about the invasion and that night he wrote a note for a possible speech of the failure of D-Day. Everyone began to get in their final positions before the invasion. Eisenhower went to go see members of the 101st Airborne. The planes carrying the paratroopers took off and the paratroopers landed in areas that were not their drop zones. Despite this they tried to accomplish their goals and many did. Ships began bombarding the beaches of Normandy. Than at 6:30 A.M. the D-Day landings as we know them today commenced.

"You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months"-Dwight D. Eisenhower