dday Essays - Military History By Country, Operation Overlord

Castillo 1 Hugo Castillo Mrs. Tobon American History(H) 4 October 2010 D-Day ?You will enter the continent of Europe and? undertake operations at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces,? General Dwight D. Eisenhower?s orders. What was D-Day? D-Day is used in the military to express the day an operation is initiated. The ?D? in D-Day is derived from the word Day, creating the phrase Day of Days. D-Day took place on June 6, 1944, where 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France (The United States Army Homepage) Preparation The U.S had different views on how to underttake the invasion compared to those of British plans. British wanted to avoid the costly frontal assaults of World War I and concentrate on attacking the weaker Axis ally, Italy and by doing so limiting Soviet advance into Europe. The U.S had a different plan they believed that an optimum approach was the shortest route to Germany emanating from the strongest Allied power base and was the only Castillo 2 option they would support in the long term. The operation was named Operation Overload and was carried out on June 6, 1944 (AbsoluteAstronomy). In planning, the invasion detailed planning was undergoing months before the actual day of the attck. Pictures of France for holiday and tourist cards for an exhibition were taken and from there Normandy beaches were singled out to create detailed geological maps of the area. Tests on similar beaches in Norfolk in 1943 showed the beaches were not capable of weight of heavy tanks and transport, so detailed maps of the area were required. In December 1943, Operation Postage Able used an X-craft to collect suitable data for all of the beaches (AbsoluteAstronomy). New technology were developed for this operation. The "mulberry", a mobile, prefabricated concrete harbor, allowed the Allies to supply their beachhead without capturing one of the heavily defended Channel ports. A great asset in the operation was Major-General Percy Hobart was an unconventional military engineer, he created a force of modified Sherman and Churchill tanks known as Hobart's Funnies (AbsoluteAstronomy). They were a number of unusually modified tanks operated during World War II and created in light of problems that more standard tanks experienced, which were used at Normandy to great effect (Time). Two Deception plans that were created by the Allies were Operation Bodyguard, created to persuade the Germans that areas other than northern France would be threatened as well, and in order to persuade the Germans that the main invasion would really take place at the Pas de Calais The other was Operation Fortitude, to lead them to expect an invasion of Castillo 3 Norway, the Allies prepared a massive deception plan. Op. Fortitude was broken up into two sub-ops ?North? which would lead the Axis to expect an attack on Norway; and ?South? which was designed to lead the Germans to expect the main invasion at the Pas de Calais, and to hold back forces to guard against this threat rather than rushing them to Normandy. Other strategies to deceive was deployed dummy paratroopers over Le Havre and Isigny, these dummies led the Germans to believe that an additional airborne assault had occurred; this tied up reinforcing troops and kept the true situation unclear (Time). Also, an illusion of a massive naval convoy sailing for the Cap d'Antifer (15 miles north of Le Havre) was created and intercepted on German radars (AbsoluteAstronomy). Operation Overload On June 6,1944, under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies on the northern coast of France. It was the first stage in the liberation of western Europe and a major step towards the defeat of Nazi Germany. The campaign was code-named Operation Overlord. The invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments, early morning amphibious landings on five beaches codenamed Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah, and Sword and during the evening the remaining elements of the parachute divisions landed. The "D-Day" forces deployed from bases along the south coast of England. The greatest invasion in history relied on an intricate multi-attack plan. The U.S invaded Omaha and Utah beach on its