D-Day - Invasion, Facts and Significance

D-Day was important because it was when the Allies invaded Normandy and got the beachhead advantage. France had not been completely liberated at the time but the first step was to get the beachhead advantage. That single day that leads to the victory over Germany was remembered for decades, but most just think about the peace it gave. D-Day was one of the most significant battles in WWII and was the start of France’s liberation.

The Uprising The only thing France wanted now, was the burning desire to kick the German’s butts out of their country. They hated every single thing about the Germans taking their freedom. They revolted, the started a revolution against the Germans. The Allies convinced the resistances to help them. France’s enraged people ganged up to attack choke points of New Germany, train stations where they delivered cargo, attacked the cargo, roads, and railroads to block the German military. They helped ally planes land, and they went running around German territory and just caused havoc and carnage.

A Hope Charles De Gaulle a French military leader teamed up with Teddy Roosevelt and the British leader seeing the possibility of getting “his” country back. They worked together to form a plan that consisted of a series of lies, tricks, and the hope they would have enough men, weapons, and time to save France. The hope that was offered, would boost them to try their best for the good of the rest of the world.

Germany

Germany was a problem, they moved around Europe trying to take over the entire country. Adolf Hitler, Germany’s leader at the time was a man without reason. The Germans came in on France just as they did to the other countries of Europe. They very quickly took over northern France without a problem. France boosted Germany with all the natural resources it offered. France had gasoline, coal, and much more in abundance. With the power growing for Germany the Allies had to somehow take France’s fuel for themselves.

Cargo

France was a very fueled upcountry, they provided everything the Germans needed to defeat the Allies. France had factories everywhere, coal, gasoline, transportation, the entire package. With the railroad tracks, Germany could transport fuel to different places fast. The factories would provide fuel or coal. This was a huge disadvantage for the Allies, France was the first and most important step to “saving” the rest of Europe.

Operation Overlord

This was the crazy first step to get France back, Operation Overlord, better known as D-Day. Coming up to this one day after months of preparation for this one day, the rain comes in and the weather could not be worse, lightning flashes thunder rumbles. Luckily in the middle of the night, as general Eisenhower is thinking about what to do, and R.A.F meteorologist comes in. His name is James Martin Stagg, and he might have made the wildest weather prediction in the history of the world, he believes the storm will calm down. The men poured onto the beaches getting slaughtered, after a very hard day of fighting, even with nearly everything of the mark, the Allies took the beaches of France.

Operation Fortitude

A battle like D-Day would need months of preparing, Garbo, the Allies' most trusted spy, gather up a group of spies that would create a plan formed up of a series of tricks. This formed Operation Fortitude the most deceiving plan in military history. They weren’t trying to convince the Germans there would be no attack, but to trick them by location, time, and amount of men. They stationed men in Scotland fooling the Germans into thinking they would attack Pas De Calais, instead of the Allies' final decision of Normandy. Garbo’s group of secret agents pretended to be agents for Germany and told the Germans the Allies would attack Pas De Calais. This completely fooled the Germans when the Allies attacked Normandy. France World War II was brewing and like what Germany did to so many other countries, Germany moved into France. France did not object because they would fight Germany!

The most powerful nation at the time, after taking over southern France without a sweat, Germany made an uneasy truce with one of the French military leaders. They worked together and built the Atlantic Sea Wall. It was a wall with defending artillery, bombs to destroy the Allies ships, barbed wire on the shore to hurt troops, and patrolling men day and night.

Equipment

As men were preparing to invade, they were readying their equipment. They had clean underwear and socks, they were polishing their guns. “A majority of soldiers carried the 30 calibers M1 semi-automatic rifle.” Each soldier carried a lot of weight, a 30 lb machine gun, two 20 lb boxes of machine gun ammo, and then heavy assault jackets, extra rifles, more ammo, hand grenades, gas masks, medical equipment. Probably a total of 100 lb, so much weight actually caused casualties from drowning. Usually, soldiers wouldn’t carry so much, but they were intended to last at the beach for 3 days.