On May 10, 1940, the Germans invaded France and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Just about two weeks later, on May 24, the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force had been pushed back to the town of Dunkirk, in the north of France. Responding to the Prime Minister’s request, thousands of small privately owned British ships joined the Royal Navy on a rescue effort. Between May 27 and June 4, a total of 338, 226 men, including Pole, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were rescued. Sizing on what was to be called the Spirit of Dunkirk and responding to Soviet and American pressure for a second front in Northern Europe, Churchill vowed to return to France.
Initial Preparations for Operation Overlord
Early planning called for the invasion to take place in 1942, but lack of military resources as well as the British desire to avoid casualties and future Soviet influence in Europe delayed the operation. The British wanted to invade Italy- the weakest Axis power - and from there move on to Austria and Germany denying the Soviets control of Central Europe. The Americans, who wanted to win the war as soon as possible and stick to the promises made in Tehran to Soviet leader Stalin, would have none of it. The U.S high Command wanted to go to Berlin through the shortest route from the strongest Allied base (Great Britain).
The allied planning for the invasion of Europe was based on two main directives: avoid a direct attack on a well fortified port and chose an area that was within the range of British fighters, which had been designed mainly for defensive purposes.
The Germans, however, did not know that and believed - greatly encouraged by Allied disinformation - the attack would come at the Pas de Calais, the heavily fortified closest point in the European mainland to England.
While the Soviets battled the Germans in the Eastern Front, the Western Allies spend the first half of 1944 assembling their forces in Great Britain. During this time, the American Army Air Force and the Royal Air Force bombed railways and industries in the continent, conducted photography missions, dropped supplies to the French resistance and all but eliminated the Luftwaffe from the air. In Britain the nine Allied army divisions that were to participate in the invasion, trained.
For their part, the Germans, under the leadership of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel improved the “Atlantic Wall,” a series of fortifications along the beaches and ports of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
At the beginning of May, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower set the date for the invasion: June 5. Bad weather caused him to halt the operation even though the ships that were to carry the troops were full of seasick soldiers. Some tense hours passed until the weather forecast gave Eisenhower a window of opportunity on the early hours of June 6.
The D-Day Attack Begins
Finally, a bit past midnight on June 6 Eisenhower gave the orders and the greatest armada (about 6,000 ships) ever seen sailed to France. As the ships parted, 1,000 transport airplanes were dropping paratroopers to secure key road junction, bridges and towns as well as to harass the rear guard of the Nazis.
After heavy naval and aerial bombardment, the landing began at 6:30 a.m. along a 50 miles front. The invasion area was divided in five sections: Gold and Sword beaches were to be taken by the British, Juno by the Canadians and Omaha and Utah by the Americans. It should be pointed out that Free French, Polish, Belgian, Dutch and forces from various other countries also took part on the invasion. The assault not only defied the conventional wisdom of attacking in good weather, but also the number of troops required. It is military acumen that an attacker needs to have three times the troops of the defenders. In Normandy, the Allies had a little less than half (175,000) soldiers than the Germans (380,000).
Allied casualties were the lightest at Sword and Utah beaches. But at Juno, Gold and Omaha, the allies met heavy resistance. At the end of the day, the invaders had more casualties, 10,000, than the defenders – an estimate of between 4,000 and 9,000.
While most of the first day objectives had been too optimistic and were not met, at the end of the day, the Allies held a beach head in the continent – the British had advanced as much as five miles after landing in Sword Beach –, the German high command was still confused and expecting the main thrust of the invasion at the Pas de Calais.
By July 25, the Allies had landed 1,452,000 men at a cost of 226,386 casualties, 4,000 planes and a little less than 4,000 tanks and were well on their way to wrest the continent form the Nazis.
The Great Crusade, as Eisenhower called the liberation of Europe, had begun.
Sources
www.jewishvirtualibrary.or/jsource/ww2/Overlord.html
www.history.army.mil/documents/wwII/g4-OL.g4-ol.htm
www.historylearningsite.co.uk> ... >D-Day Index
