D-Day Overview
"Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely." -General Dwight D. Eisenhower |
"We got on the beach and they have all these people laying down on the beach that were killed, it was chaos"
-D-Day veteran Walter Ehlers |
The Plan
Throughout time there have been many battles fought, some wars won and some lost, many people live and some die, sacrifices are made in order to bring order, there is much death and deceit, D-Day is no exception. D-Day, or “Operation Overlord” was an elaborate plan that the Allies used to hammer the final nail in Hitler’s coffin and start the Battle of Normandy, it was also one of, if not the deciding factor of who would win World War II. The planning for D-Day began on at the Trident Conference between the heads of the American and British government on May 12-25th of 1943. Future president Dwight Eisenhower was appointed Commander for the attack.
Execution
The Allies had misled the Germans into believing that they were going to set up an invasion along the Atlantic wall, they even went as far as to set up dummy ships, which the Germans believe. Leading up to Operation Overlord, the Allies had ensured that they had everything in place, they had targeted many of Germany’s aircraft production, roads and rails leading up Northern France were bombed in order to cut off the reinforcements. The Germans had no idea because the attacks were intentionally widespread. The Germans had also thought that they had uncompromised spies in Britain, but the British had captured all of their spies and “replaced them”. A day before the attack the some of the code words for D-Day were found in one of Britain’s newspaper, such as Juno, Overlord, D-Day, H-Hour etc. The newspaper was later cleared by British intelligence, but it has not been revealed as to how they got those code names to this day. D-Day was originally planned to take place on June 5th, 1944, but due to weather conditions, the attack had to either be delayed a day or a couple months, which would have made it impossible anyway due to the unforeseen weather conditions that would happen the following month. The Canadians were in charge of invading Juno beach, the Americans had the Utah and Omaha sectors, and the British had the Sword and Gold sectors.
The Attack
On June, 6th, 1944, the landings and airstrikes happened so fast although some veterans say that it felt like days before it was over. The soldiers at the front of the landing ships were usually the first to go, and the German anti-aircraft weapons didn’t help anything either. Operation Overlord lasted till August 30th, 1944 when the German troops finally retreated. There has been an estimate of 425,000 Allied and German soldiers that never got to return home. Roughly 200,000 Germans killed and 16,714 Allied deaths. All in all, D-Day was a nightmare become a reality that only one could dream of, and one that will hopefully never be repeated ever again.
“And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred.” — Winston Churchill
D-Day Veteran
Works Cited
"Canadian Virtual War Memorial." Veterans Affairs Canada. N.p., 15 Sept. 2016. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
"D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery." D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"History | From Vimy to Juno." History | From Vimy to Juno. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
@HISTORYUK. "D-Day." HISTORY. N.p., 06 June 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"Operation Overlord." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"World War II - D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy - National D-Day Memorial." Worrld War II - D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy - National D-Day Memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"Canadian Virtual War Memorial." Veterans Affairs Canada. N.p., 15 Sept. 2016. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
"D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery." D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"History | From Vimy to Juno." History | From Vimy to Juno. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
@HISTORYUK. "D-Day." HISTORY. N.p., 06 June 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"Operation Overlord." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"World War II - D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy - National D-Day Memorial." Worrld War II - D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy - National D-Day Memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.