D-Day – June 6, 1944 – The largest seaborne invasion in military history

“We are going to have peace, even if we have to fight for it” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower. June 1, 1944

“Sure, we want to go home. We want this war to end. The quickest way to end this is to go find the bastards who started it. The sooner they get flogged, the sooner we can get home. The shortest way home it’s through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I’m personally going to shoot that son of a bitch Hitler hanging paper. Like I’d shoot a snake!” General George S. Patton (just before the Normandy invasion) June 5, 1944

In the summer of 1944, Hitler’s Wehrmacht (armed forces) was still largely in command of all the territories the Germans had fought for and won during their 1941-1943 Blitzkrieg campaign. Most of the entire region of Europe was still at war. stranglehold from Hitler’s clutches, and the Allies were in a desperate position to somehow loosen their grip on Europe by any means necessary. A year before that summer of 1944, Franklin Roosevelt commissioned General Dwight D. Eisenhower to come up with a grand military plan to invade Fortress Europe that the German army was holding its ground against. The first proposal for the invasion was called “Operation Roundup” and was later changed to “Operation Sledgehammer” a few months later. The invasion was put on hold until May 1944 due to the insistence of Joseph Stalin and FDR against the protests of Winston Churchill, who wanted to go ahead with Eisenhower’s plan in August 1943. The turning point that finally changed Churchill’s mind was the agreement that Stalin would help the Allies by mounting an offensive against Hitler in Eastern Europe at the same time the US Army and Marines were invading Normandy, which would help launch a deadly two-pronged attack on the germany army.

On June 1, 1944, the new name of the campaign for the invasion of Normandy was changed for the last time. Operation Overlord. was the new title for what would become the largest seaborne invasion the world had ever seen, with over 3 million Allied troops taking action against the Germans and over 6,900 ships bringing Allied troops to shore. of sand in Normandy. In the late hours of June 5, massive airstrikes and bombing began to awaken all sleeping French citizens and German troops stationed near Omaha Beach. A French woman who lived in a castle overlooking the beach gives us a very descriptive first-hand account of what happened that night. “The airplanes deafen us, they make an endless turn, very low; obviously what I thought were German planes are simply English, protecting the landing. Coming from the sea, a dense artificial cloud; its ominous and starts to get alarming; the first whistle over our heads. I am cold.

A full two-thirds of the first bombardments were launched outside the actual invasion area to convince the German Army that the sea landings would be made in the vicinity of the Seine, rather than at Omaha Beach. Because of the decoded messages the Allies were able to obtain from a group of American spies, the US Army knew where the Germans would attempt any countermeasures against the invasion. During that same night of June 5, 822 planes carrying hundreds of military personnel by parachute began dropping soldiers off at their designated landing zones near Normandy. The American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions did the best job possible and achieved their goals of eliminating German machine gun turrets and blowing up 75 tanks and military vehicles behind enemy lines.

The full-scale invasion began in earnest at 6:30 a.m. on June 6, when more than 11,000 boats and ships came ashore and more than 80,000 soldiers began pouring out of their landing craft to begin the fierce attack on the Germans. forces waiting to control machine gun fire on American soldiers. The Germans lurked in their hiding places on the ramparts of the rocky hills of Normandy that overlooked the beach. As the troops landed on Omaha Beach, the Germans unleashed the fury of hell, slaughtering nearly two-thirds of the brave soldiers who arrived first. The German 352nd Army Division hit the US 1st Division with all its fury, taking the lives of more than 2,000 American soldiers. The American campaign was in trouble during this horrific phase of the invasion, and US military intelligence needed to come up with a counterplan soon, or the entire mission would be in shambles.

Had Hitler begun unleashing his Panzer armored tank division against the Allies for a full counterattack on that terrible morning of June 6, Operation Overload would have been a complete failure. But because Hitler was unwilling to risk sending hundreds of tanks and other armored military vehicles to eliminate the Allied forces, he waited too late to take advantage of the Allies’ misfortunes at Omaha Beach. By the time Hitler finally began sending his Panzer division to Normandy, the US Army had created a new plan of attack using British forces to overrun the area of ​​the strongest German stronghold at Périers-sur-le-Dan. close to the main battle lines behind the Normandy beachfront.

The French woman who had witnessed the first air raids against the Germans, had also witnessed British tanks arriving from the southeast to attack the German Panzer division at Périers-sur-le-Dan. She describes the English invasion and the British soldiers in particular with great clarity. “English tanks are silhouetted from time to time on the road above Periers. Great passionate exchanges on the road with the farm people; we are all dumbstruck at the suddenness of events. I take a few steps down the road, towards the Deveraux’s house, and suddenly I see the replacement Speiss and his comrade hugging the wall in the pasture. I tell him he must still have mates in the guns, as we can still hear the battery shots. You feel these two men are lost. . , disoriented, sad. Later, almost at night, I see them again, their faces deliberately blackened with charcoal, crossing the park. What will their fate be? How many of them are still in the area, hiding and watching?

British anti-tank gunners wiped out the larger German tank divisions, resulting in the crippling of any counter-attacks the Germans might instigate against the Allies. So, on the night of June 6, before the early morning hours of June 7, the Allies were enjoying a military victory that showed they were more than ready to defeat the Germans and reclaim Europe for the Allies. But on June 13 that joy was replaced by dread.

During the constant battles that were taking place between June 8 and 13. the allies had destroyed almost 1,500 German aircraft and armored tanks and had claimed more than 7,500 German lives. But on June 13, in a small town called Villers-Bocage, the British armored division lost more than 40 British tanks and suffered 200 casualties against a well-equipped German tank division. A large-scale infantry offensive west of Caen, called Operation Epsom, was also defeated on June 25–29, casting a large shadow of doubt on the ultimate success of Operation Overlord. The only hope the Allies had at the time was the fact that top German military leaders had begun to fall victim to a sudden series of deaths involving suicides and attempted bombings of many members of the high command.

The utter disorderliness of the German military leadership led to major blunders in Germany’s counterattacks against American troops at Saint-Lô, where 1,500 American soldiers overwhelmed Hitler’s anti-aircraft and tank divisions. American forces were able to surround and attack all German soldiers and armored vehicles, thus setting the stage for the last Allied strategy that would ultimately force the Germans back to their homeland.

In the last remaining days of July, most German tank divisions were forced west by the British tank strategy known as Operation Goodwood. The Allied forces used the lack of German tanks to open a huge wound in the general German military offensive. Operation Cobra, as it was called, would open a devastating air attack on the German Army front line in the evening hours of July 25. The US Army took advantage of the gaping hole in the German front line, and Eisenhower rallied his Army troops and ran like hell into the French region of Avranches, where they tore apart all remaining German troops. The newly formed Third Army joined the advance. A huge American spearhead now threatened to enter Brittany and, with a swing to the left, encircle the Germans in Normandy from the rear.

That effort causes the final withdrawal of the Germans, and American troops would cross the Seine River and finally liberate Paris during the month of August. The classic “Battle of the Bulge” would be the last major battle of World War II, causing the Germans to surrender to the Allies in 1945.

The invasion of Normandy was the main plan of attack against the German war machine that marked the definitive end of Hitler’s domination of Europe. Without the bravery and courage of all the military divisions of the Allied forces, Hitler’s devastation of the world would have continued for many more years, claiming millions of lives in the process. We should all be grateful and remember June 6, 1944 as the day justice would finally be done.

“I came back many times to honor the brave men who died…every man who stepped foot on Omaha Beach was a hero.” Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, Commander of the US First Army in the Normandy Invasion