D-Day The Invasion Of Normandy Essay

In the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of operation D-day, “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.” This inspired people to not give up fighting for the world. Eisenhower was the commander of operation D-day where the troops would attack five beaches in France. The events of D-day were a major turning point in World War II. First, the state of conflict in Europe had significant effects on D-day. Second, most of D-day’s goals were accomplished during the attacks. Third, the events of D-day were very crucial for winning the war.

In 1944, the United States war effort in Europe was just starting to pick up. Even though the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred just three years prior, the growing power of the Third Reich could not be ignored. During this time, France was already occupied by Nazi Germany and Hitler's war machine was on the path of conquering all of Eurasia. In an attempt to combat this immense threat, the U.S. formulated a plan to engage the German forces through an invasion of Normandy. This bloody offensive would be remembered in infamy as D-Day. Shortly before this violent clash of U.S. and German forces, the inexperienced men of the United States Third Army was given an encouraging and inspiring speech by the four star general George S. Patton.

The invasion of D-Day is the largest joint sea born invasion in the history of the world. Although very well planned, the amphibious landings were a gamble made by the Allied forces to gain foothold in Europe. Every American has heard about the Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Europe on D-Day. However, how many Americans stop and think about how much planning, preparation and luck that went into making it the success that it is remembered for? I will attempt to depict what it took to conquer the Normandy beaches using historical and military facts that make it such an iconic event in the world’s history still today.

Dwightshowed his skill of organizing the movement of large numbers of troops. Hewas then promoted several times in the next few years.Then in 1941Eisenhower was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Third Army (Hargrove49). Then shortly after the promotion to "Chief of Staff", Ike was againpromoted to the position of Brigadier General (Hargrove 50). Soon he wasput in charge of the Allied forces in Europe (Hargrove 52). He nowcontrolled the armies of the United States, Britain, and Canada (Hargrove7). Eisenhower and other Allied Generals planned the invasion of Normandy (Hargrove 12). Eisenhower would lead the 6,483 sea vessels,about 800,000 men, and 12,000 aircraft across the English Channel toNormandy France (Benson 12). Eisenhower had hoped that the Germanswould fear an invasion at the close French city of Calais ("The Beachesof..." 9). There were to be five beaches invaided with the code names;Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, and Juno ("The beaches of..." 28). In the endDwight D. Eisenhower led the Allies to victory on June 6,1944. IfEisenhower had made a wrong choice, Hitler would have continued to rainV-1 & V-2 rockets on London (Benson 7). Eisenhower had nowsuccessfully completed the most important invasion in history wiping out allmost 100% of German units. Luckily Allied forces only suffered 76% casualties (Barry 30). Dwight Eisenhower was one of the

One of the most complex military maneuvers of all time was the Allied invasion of Europe by way of the Normandy beaches of northern France. The carefully orchestrated invasion essential to the defeat of Hitler. The Supreme Allied Commander, who was General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Later to become president of the United States. The invasion took place on June 6, 1944. The weather so terrible that the invasion was delayed for a full day. American troops landing on Utah Beach. Encountered only mild resistance at first. In contrast, the landing at Omaha Beach much more treacherous. The coast itself was extremely dangerous, the landing took place too far off shore, and the Germans had double the forces at this site. Other Allied forces the British

With a strong backup, the Allied troops were able to advance through the enemy-occupied countries with lightening speed. Therefore, the attack not only led to the French people’s freedom, but also to the quick downfall of Nazi Germany. (Naval History and Heritage- D-Day, the Normandy Invasion, 6 - 25 June 1944)

Britain and France desperately awaited the moment when the US would fully join in the fighting in Europe during World War II, and D-Day brought that full fledged involvement. If not for the efforts of the United States of America, its cooperation and planning with its allies, the invasion would not have been successful. It was successful, however, due to previous planning, the level of supplies and men from the US combined with the European allies, as well as the divided German forces. D-Day was the beginning of liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. Hitler had known that in order for the Allies to be successful, there would have to be an invasion of mainland Europe - which his forces controlled most of - and that it would come from northwestern Europe, with Great Britain being the jumping off point. But if he was expecting the attack, why was he not better prepared? The planning that had gone into the invasion at the beaches of Normandy on the coast of France had been thorough and extensive, with a large part of that planning being the intentional disinformation about the location of the invasion, thus fooling the Nazi leader. These factors explain why Operation Overlord was successful, and thus became the turning point in the world war.

On June 6, 1944, in the midst of the Second World War, the Allied forces brought in "the

How can a small county move on and heal after such a significant loss of life? What would life be like immediately after and in the future? These are a few of the questions that can be asked about Bedford county Virginia.

Although he helped American troops in North Africa, Eisenhower’s biggest feat was the invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe, better known as D-Day. As the Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War II at the time, Eisenhower gave permission for a massive invasion called Operation Overlord. He only had a window of four days to launch the attack, but jumped at the opportunity (Koves). The 40 mile stretch of the beaches of Normandy, France was divided into five sections: Juno, Sword, Omaha, Gold, and Utah (Operation Overlord Animated Map). Late at night on June 6th, 1944, aerial troops secured both the eastern and western parts of the beach. In the morning, seaborne soldiers began to attack the coast (Operation Overlord Animated Map). By June 27th, the Germans had wrecked their ports, assuming this would slow down the Allies. Their attempt failed, and finally, on August 25th, the French army successfully liberated Paris (BBC News).

D-Day, formally known as Operation Overlord, was one of the many monumental battles of World War 2 (The Reader’s Digest 298). It was led by American general Dwight Eisenhower, who was appointed the commander of the American Allied forces in 1944 (“D-Day”), In order to trick the Germans, the Allies had to put many plans into place before Operation Overlord could actually happen. Before the initial attack on the beaches of Normandy took place, the Allies had many plans to fool the Germans. They took war ships, tied balloons to the back of the ship, and sailed up the coast to another side of France. Trailing the

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a war plans assignment. Eisenhower impressed both the general as well as The President (Theodore Roosevelt) with his well thought out plan to focus on weakening Germany before assaulting the Japanese. Because of this, he was placed in command of the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942. On D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France. After heading many decisive victories for the U.S., Eisenhower accepted Germany’s surrender on May 7, 1945. He returned home a national hero.

The battle took place on the street and it became one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. German troops began to run out of supplies and thousands of people died. Between the two countries they kept on fighting until Germany surrendered because Hitler did not want to lose any more of his people. The Axis powers learned that the Allied powers had an advantage. Hitler knew that he would have to anything in his power to give his troops an advantage in the war. In the year of 1944, Allied powers hoped to regain their control of France. Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allied troops into a challenging, but important battle. Eisenhower knew that the battle would be a matter of life or death. He informed his troops of what they were getting into and mentioned to his troops that, “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you” (“D-Day”). Eisenhower’s words of wisdom towards his troops shows that he was getting his troops into a deadly situation, but he knew that they could win. Allied aircrafts traveled to Normandy to invade France and regain their power. The battle took place on five beaches, two of the beaches were Omaha and Utah. One of the soldiers said, “With a stream of lead coming towards us, we were at the mercy of the Germans” (“The D-day Invasion” 819). This means that they could not tell the result of the battle yet. At each beach they were violently

The whole war had led up to this day, especially since the plans for the invasion were being made even as early as 1942 or 1943, after the Soviet Union requested help to relieve pressure on their military in Eastern Europe following the Battle of Stalingrad, where they and Romania lost over 250,000 men combined. The thoughts of a soldier who had been fighting all throughout World War II would have probably consisted of, one, wanted to go home already, but two, thinking that nothing could be worse than what they had already experienced. They knew in their minds that they were ready for this mission, and had the plans of the military backing up their claims of definite victory. A soldier would, of course, hold their personal doubts and fright, but when counted among many fellow troops willing to fight for the same cause as their own, they can’t help but feel the collective morale of their comrades and themselves. This personal morale was only boosted by the genius work of WWII’s commanders’ skills in speech. The day before the actual attack, General Eisenhower gave his men a motivational speech they’d never forget. An excerpt from the speech: “Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the greatest crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.” Though General George Patton also gave his own speech that day, I won’t bore you with another quote (though Patton was far from a boring individual). Instead, you should now be able to reflect on how important morale was for the forces getting ready to siege Normandy. The Allied troops were physically and mentally prepared, while the Germans in Normandy, if anything, had lost morale as they believed there was nothing to do when stationed in that

One of the most significant encounters of World War II was the Battle of Normandy (the first day of which is commonly referred to as D-Day). Nearly three million soldiers were deployed for the invasion. Those deployed consisted mainly of American and British soldiers, however Canadian, French, Polish, Belgian, and Czech forces were represented as well (Jensen). The battle was fought in an effort to gain European ground and to reduce the German potential for overrunning Russia (Lucas). The Battle of Normandy was significant in that it was the turning point of World War II, incurred heavy casualties on each side, and was the greatest amphibious landing in history (Cohen).