D-Day - June 6, 1944 - A/H

The following information

Normandy – D-Day in France: June 6th, 1944

U.S. army soldiers approaching the Normandy beech on the morning of June 6th - This is from a movie, but it does show what it was like

Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, had been pushing President Roosevelt (Of The U.S.A.) and prime Minister Churchill (Great Britain) to open up a “Second Front” for some time. The Soviets had been doing most of the fighting and dying for some time. Yes, there had been fighting at many places around the World, but Stalin wanted something big. He wanted a MAJOR attack by the British and Americans  to come from Western Europe. He wanted to force the Germans to have major battles on two sides (With the Soviet Union in the East, and with the rest of the Allies in the West.).

That meant an attack somewhere in Occupied France. It was called occupied because who was there running things? The French??? NO!!! It was the Germans in charge. They had been since they conquered France back in 1940.

Occupied France is in red

In fact we were already close. The English Channel (body of water that separates France and England)  at its smallest place separates England and France by only 21 miles.

Why Did We Do It:

Was it simply to please Communist leader Joseph Stalin??? NO!!! Everyone knew that if Germany was not forced to fight The Allies from several directions at once we might NEVER defeat them. They needed to be dealt with and controlled.  Like a mad dog in the streets.

Mad dog in street

Looking at this map of Major Nazi Concentration camps all through the areas of Europe they had conquered SHOWS you WHY we needed to crush them once and for all.

Map of German concentration camps

(click for larger version of the map)

So a team was put together,  led by Gen. Eisenhower of The United States. The official name for the plan was “Operation Overlord.”

Preparation:

The attack would come across the English Channel from England.  

Path of the D-Day Invasion of France

The goal was to hit the “Atlantic Wall” of forts and “Strong Points” that the Germans had built along much of the coast of countries they had conquered. 

The red line shows where the Germans built their "wall," which was a line of forts.

They had about four years (1940-1944) to get ready for the invasion attempt they knew would some day come.  

French people forced to build the wall

They never finished all they planned, but they did prepare VERY strong and deadly forts that would make it hard to push them out. 

A strong and deadly fort

They even prepared some obstacles (An obstacle is something that stops you from going where you want to go and doing what you want to do.) on the beaches in case they were attacked from the sea.

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The pictures show two different types of beach obstacles

In order to keep the Germans guessing about where they would attack the Allies built fake bases with fake airplanes, fake buildings, and even fake inflatable tanks.

Decoy inflatable tank. How can you tell it is not a tank made out of metal?

From the air all these things looked like they just might be real. Then the Allies even spread news of the creation of a HUGE new army group (The truth was that it did not really exist.)

Fake airplane - Would look real from high in air

All the time we were building up REAL armies with HUGE piles of supplies. There were over 2,000,000 men preparing to participate in the invasion and attack the Germans.  They estimated they would need 215,570 vehicles (jeeps, trucks, tanks, etc.) and 32,890 planes for just the first 6 months after landing to attack the Germans.  

A field full of tanks in England before D-Day

Cans of gas for use in the invasion

This chart shows what the expected need for supplies would be in just that first 6 months for ONLY the U.S. army:

For some time (a long time) leading up to the actual day of invasion our air force bombers dropped bombs over LARGE areas to destroy German soldiers, German cannons, German tanks, and German forts. They even dropped bombs in areas they did not plan to attack right away so they could fool the Germans right up to the last minute.  

U.S. bombers coming back from dropping bombs on Germans in France before D-Day

The Invasion of “Fortress Europe”

It was called “Fortress Europe” because Europe had been locked up for 4 years by the Germans like it was a fort. Also like a fort, to get in , we had to attack in a very strong way. It was supposed to start on June 5th, 1944, but the weather was so bad our ships could not safely go across the English Channel from England to a place in France called Normandy.  

Map of D-Day attack plan - They left from England and headed to France

The weather improved, and the decision was made to go on June 6th. The first ones to go in were our Paratroopers. Over 24,000 U.S., British, Canadian, and Free French airborne troops jumped out of airplanes as early as 1:00 AM.

U.S. paratroopers getting ready to jump out of the plan EARLY in the morning on June 6th, 1944

We can only imagine the thoughts going through their minds as they prepared to jump into the unknown.

Look at the different facial expressions. What were they thinking?

This part of the attack did not go as planned, but was so confusing the Germans thought there were many more Allied soldiers than there actually were.

At about 4:00 AM our army soldiers started heading from the boats carrying them toward the shores where the Germans were.  

Little boats full of soldiers leaving the bigger boat, and heading to the beach to kick the Germans out

They got there at about 6:00 AM. (Some of the beaches attacked were easier to capture, and some were MUCH harder.

Both images show U.S. soldiers trying to get on the beach to attack the Germans

The Germans had some of their best troops guarding the beach code named Omaha.  They killed and wounded many of our men, some of them before they even got out of the water.  They were trapped on the beach with many of their leaders killed.  

Soldiers on the beach waiting for more help while sitting safely out of the line of fire

German soldier Franz Gockel, firing a machine gun from above the beach that day later said:

“"We shot at everything that moved. The beach was soon covered with the bodies of American soldiers."”

Eventually an American General named Norman Cota arrived in the area where our troops were hiding on the beach getting killed and wounded, reluctant to go forward.

Soldiers on the Omaha Beach right at the water hesitating to move forward due to the danger

He said to them:

“Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed.”

His words had the effect he wanted, and the men started to move to attack the Germans. Other Allied soldiers on other beaches in the area did the same, and started to push the Germans back.  

Soldiers attacking - moving off of the beach to get at the Germans

The brown arrows show where the U.S. soldiers went after getting off of the beach

There were two different views that day: The Allied one, and The German one. Look at these videos to see some of what happened. Do you see any similarities? Any differences?

U.S. viewpoint

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German viewpoint

German Perspective: Do you see propaganda at work???

Result:

The Germans counter-attacked with strong power, but we kept pushing them back.  By the end of August, 1944 ( 3 months time from the landing) we had moved them back over 200 miles. What was started on that day would eventually push the Germans all the way back into Germany and defeat.