WHAT IS D-DAY?
What Happened?
In the first week of May 1944, soldiers and saliors of the invasion force began descending on southern England and nearly two million men and nearly half a million vehicles were assembled. The plan called for three airborne divisions, one British and two American, to drop behind the landing beaches on D-Day. Their jobs were to seize beach exits, capture key transportation and communication points, and block German counterattacks. Then six divisions would assault the five landing beaches, where each division was given a different beach to cover. "They came by boat, train, bus, or on foot from bases all over Great Britain. It was the greatest mass movement of armed forces in the history of the British and American armies" (Website One). Before the attack, the Allies put out false messages of the attack. Hitler, expecting the attack elsewhere, put his commander in charge of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall. "The Allies failed to reach their goals for the first day" (Website Two), but gradually attained more of a foothold in Europe as they captured more cities and important German locations, forcing the Germans to retreat.
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Why Did It Happen?
D-Day was code-named "Operation Overlord" and the outcome of the war basically rested upon the success of the operation. The operation was to take place on the beaches of Normandy, France on June 5, 1944, though got postponed for June 6th because of bad weather. "The plan for Operation Overlord entailed landing nine divisions of sea and airborne troops, over 150,000 men, along a 60-mile stretch of coast in just 24 hours" (Website One). The whole idea of Operation Overlord was to push back the advancing German armies and to get a foothold in the war. "The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943" (Website Two). In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a military deception, Operation Bodyguard, using both electronic and visual misinformation. This tricked the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings.
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Casualties
“'Casualties' refers to all losses suffered by the armed forces: killed, wounded, missing in action (meaning that their bodies were not found) and prisoners of war. There is no "official" casualty figure for D-Day" (Website Three). We do know, however, that casualties were high on both sides of the attack. "The Allies suffered 209,672 casualties from 6 June to the end of August, including 36,976 killed, 153,475 wounded, and 19,221 missing.Estimates of German losses for the Normandy campaign range from 400,000 (200,000 killed or wounded; 200,000 captured) to 450,000 (240,000 killed, wounded, or missing, plus 210,000 captured)" (website Two). In addition to the losses of the soldiers, many aircraft, ships, and tanks were damaged or destroyed. Also, many French civilians were lost due to the bombings and overall fighting from the operation.
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Sources and Other Information
TheNationalWorldWarIIMuseum
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Wikipedia
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D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery
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