D-Day: The Normandy Invasion

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D-Day, the Normandy landings and the first day of Operation Overlord, was the largest amphibious assault in world history and a pivotal moment in World War 2. On June 6, 1944, nearly 156,000 allied troops in over 5,000 ships crossed the English Channel and invaded the coasts of France’s Normandy region from the Germans who conquered and occupied it for more than four years. Under General Dwight D Eisenhower’s leadership, the allied armada supported by strong air forces would begin landing allied troops on five beaches along the heavily fortified coast of Normandy. Soon, the Normandy landings would turn the tide of the war as the elaborate maneuver would quickly cumulate to the liberation of northern France and ultimately break the Nazi control …show more content…
Although Adolf Hitler was well-aware about the allied threat, he did not know where the attack would focus, giving the allied a chance to deceive them. In the months and weeks leading up to D-Day, the allied carried out Operation Bodyguard as a decoy to obscure the location of the invasion. With the Germans mislead into believing the invasion target was Pas-de-Calais, the allied began preparing for their actual target, Normandy. Massive amounts of equipment along with tens of thousands of allied soldiers soon began being transported to the southern shores of Britain, and by June 5, 1944, the invading force were loaded and ready for their assault. Although D-Day planned to launch on June 5, 1944, it was delayed for the following day due to inclement weather. After postponing the invasion, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to give the go-ahead for the operation, codenamed …show more content…
Less than a week after D-Day, all five beachheads were secured and over 326,000 troops, along with more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy. By the end of June, the numbers nearly tripled in size, giving the allied an upper hand as they pushed the battle inland. On August 25, 1944, the allied reached the Seine River and liberated Paris from the Nazis which overall broke their control of northwestern France. With the Soviet Union bearing down from the East and the allied advancing from the West, the European side of World War 2 end with the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, less than a year after the Normandy operation.
Had the Germans been able to overthrow the allied forces, the outcome of the war would have been much different. D-Day greatly affected the outcome of the war as the complex procedures used to prepare the amphibious assault along with a powerful well determined military force allowed the allied to gain a victorious victory at the end of Operation Overlord. Today, the bloody battles fought during the Normandy landings are still remembered as we honor the men who sacrificed their lives to change the course of
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