Top Ten Origins: D-Day
D-Day the Normandy Invasion of June 6, 1944 was the supreme joint effort of the Western
Allies in Europe in World War II and remains today one of the best known campaigns of the war.
Code named Operation Overlord, it was a battle marked by its courage, meticulous planning
and logistics, and amphibious approach.
It was also in many ways inevitable.
Following Germany's conquest of France in 1940 and declaration of war on the United
States in 1941, a confrontation somewhere on the shores of Northern Europe became a
waiting game, with only the date and location left to be answered.
On D-Day, over 125,000 British, American, and Canadian soldiers supported by more than
five thousand ships and thirteen thousand aircraft landed in Normandy on five separate
beaches in order to carve out a sixty-mile wide bridgehead.
This foothold would be the launching pad from which the liberation of France and Western
Europe would proceed.
Opposed by German units in strong defensive positions, the Allies suffered more than twelve
thousand casualties on the first day of the invasion alone.
To commemorate D-Day, Origins offers ten of the most important things to know about the invasion.
1. Let's set the stage.
In spring 1944, the Allied war effort had
Axis forces retreating on all fronts.
On the Eastern Front, Soviet forces had gained an undisputed advantage over the German Army
and were advancing into Poland.
The Western Allies (mainly Britain and the United States) continued their offensive in
Italy, capturing Rome on June 4, while also pummeling Germany with a strategic air bombing campaign.
In the Pacific, the British had just defeated a Japanese offensive in India while American
forces continued a steady drive towards Japan through a series of island-hopping offensives.
The long-awaited offensive to liberate Western Europe seemed imminent.
2. The invasion was a compromise
The Allied effort in World War II is generally seen as the finest example of coalition warfare.
Yet, the Allies rarely agreed outright, particularly in regards to D-Day.
The Americans, despite lacking capability to do so, argued for an invasion in 1943.
The British advocated operations in the Mediterranean and the Balkans to erode German military strength.
The Soviets simply wanted a sizeable second front anywhere against the Nazis to relieve pressure on their forces.
The resulting plan was a compromise that left all parties only partly satisfied, but met
the strategic needs of every participant.
3.
Geography determined where the Allies could land; Allied leaders chose where they would land.
An invasion of Europe required specific geographic features to ensure a reasonable expectation of success.
The landing spot had to be within range of Allied fighters flying from England, possess
large beaches for vehicular traffic, and be close to a port to supply future offensives.
Only two possible landing sites fit the bill: the area known as the Pas de Calais region
and the Normandy beaches.
Serious planning began in 1943 with the appointment of British General Frederick Morgan as the
head of a planning staff.
General Morgan's team decided on Normandy because of its lighter defenses and increased
distance from German reinforcements.
And they opted for one major assault designed to secure a lodgment as opposed to various
smaller landings designed to deceive the Germans.
4.
The successes and failures of Allied intelligence The Allies staged a massive deception campaign
prior to Overlord called Operation Fortitude.
Designed to confuse German intelligence, Fortitude involved the creation of fictitious formations,
dummy equipment, phantom radio traffic, falsified press releases, and controlled leaks of information
to known German agents.
The operation was so successful German units stayed in defensive positions for weeks after
D-Day awaiting the "real" invasion to come.
Allied intelligence, however, was not infallible.
The inability of intelligence analysts to identify reinforced German formations in Normandy
or adequately assess the defensive strength of the hedgerow terrain behind the beaches
resulted in a tougher fight for the Allies.
5.
It's important to remember that Success was not assured
In hindsight, the overwhelming success of the Normandy landings blinds us to the very
real fear among some Allied leaders that the invasion could fail.
General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, went so far as to draft a letter
to be read in the event of defeat.
In it he accepted full responsibility for the failed attack despite the fact that the plan
was in its advanced stages when he assumed command.
During the invasion, the commander of U.S. forces, General Omar Bradley, considered cancelling
further landings on Omaha Beach when the success of operations ashore appeared in doubt.
6.
The pre-invasion bombardment from air and naval forces was ineffective
Operation Neptune, the amphibious assault portion of Overlord, called for a brief but
intense air and sea bombardment to precede the landings to weaken the beach defenses.
Weather caused aircraft to miss targets, but more importantly the brevity of the bombardment
determined it would fail.
Ignoring advice from amphibious assault experts from the Pacific Theater, Allied planners
opted for a short bombardment over an extended one in order to maximize surprise.
The attack was far too short to do any real damage, leaving the troops in the initial
waves to fight generally unaffected German defenses.
7.
But Allied air superiority ultimately proved a decisive element in victory
Prior to the invasion, Allied bombers isolated Normandy by targeting transportation hubs
that could be used to move German reinforcements to the region.
During the invasion, air transport units deployed over twenty thousand paratroopers, helping
secure the flanks of the beachhead.
Allied aircraft cleared the air and ensured the ground and naval forces proceeded unmolested
from German air attacks.
Following the invasion, Allied air power proved essential in delaying German reinforcements.
8.
The Normandy campaign was a race to reinforce the area
The beach landings are what we think of when we imagine Overlord, but it was the question
of reinforcements that won the engagement.
Whichever side could gain a substantial advantage in force ratios would shift the balance in their favor.
Allied efforts were limited by the size of the lodgment, the rate at which troops could
be brought across the beaches, and poor weather conditions.
German reinforcements, which were dispersed across France and the Low Countries to counter
possible Allied landings, had to combat competing strategic demands and increasingly aggressive
attacks from Allied air power.
Allied efforts won out, and the bridgehead slowly expanded.
9.
The invasion did not decide the war, but it did shape the post-war world
Despite the remarkable achievement that was the D-Day landings, it is important to remember
that they did not constitute the decisive blow against Nazi Germany; that success belongs
to the Soviet Union.
Raging since June 1941, the Eastern Front witnessed the most massive military confrontation in history.
At the cost of more than twenty million casualties (military and civilian), the Soviet Union
swallowed the Wehrmacht, occupying the majority of its military might, and inflicting almost
eighty percent of all combat deaths.
However, had the Normandy Invasion failed, the Soviets may have advanced deeper than
they did into Germany and central Europe, moving the Iron Curtain further west and changing
the face of the Cold War.
10.
D-Day is the most heavily commemorated battle in the world
In its enduring allure and grandeur, the Normandy invasion enjoys the most prolific commemoration
of any battle in the world.
In addition to year-round tourist traffic, annual celebrations commemorating the invasions
draw thousands of visitors.
Heads of state from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Germany
have attended in order to reflect on the feat of arms that was D-Day.
Various militaries also participate, often staging commemorative parachute jumps.
All this is in addition to the cemeteries in Normandy that serve as the final resting
spot for thousands of American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers.