D DAY
June 6th 1944, otherwise known as D-Day, was the Allies landed in Northern France, opening a second front against Hitler and the Germans. After fighting in Italy for more than nine months, the move to Normandy was an effort to drive the Germans from France and destroy the National Socialist Regime. This day of attack had been planned out for months and was the beginning of ‘Operation Overlord’ a codename for the Allies invading northwest Europe. The actual wartime was also known as Operation Neptune, both operations needed a beach invasion in France to be successful.
On the day, thousands of American and British paratroopers were stationed inland from Normandy and had 150,000 troops on ships going across the English channel. Germany, on the other hand, had 500,000 troops in Holland, Belgium, and France and stationed millions of mines on the beaches. The allies had a stronger air force though, and dropped bombs on railroad lines, road, and bridges to try to cut off transportation to the Germans. 5,000 allied ships brought the war back to a 60 miles stretch of beach in Normandy. Utah, Omaha, Sword, Juno, and Gold beaches were used to fight. Thousands died, but the Germans, already fighting defensively, were pushed back from the coastline.
Although D-Day is not considered the turning point of the war, because Germany was already fighting on the defense, because it was a such a huge blow to both sides it seemed to ‘speed things up.’ France was freed in a few months and the war in Europe ended less than a year later.
Although D-Day is not considered the turning point of the war, because Germany was already fighting on the defense, because it was a such a huge blow to both sides it seemed to ‘speed things up.’ France was freed in a few months and the war in Europe ended less than a year later.