D-Day

=D-Day=

**"Operation Overlord"**
Operation Overlord was the codename for the invasion of Western Europe by the Allies. It began on June 6, 1944, with the landings in Normandy. Almost 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel and by the end of August, more than 3 million troops had landed. Dwight Eisenhower was in charge again. Some of his other senior commanders were Air Marshall Leigh-Mallory, Air Marshall Tedder, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery and Admirl Bertram Ramsey. These troops used their air resources to take control of bridges, road crossings, and important terrain areas. The Allies also landed on beaches to keep the Axis powers out of the water.

The Atantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall began in the Spring of 1942. Hitler had decided to build up on the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean to keep the Allies from invading, or at least give the Germans enough time to prepare themselves. When Britain raided Dieppe on August 19, 1942 showed that the formation of the Atlantic Wall was inevitable to protect against the Allies.

In 1943, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was appointed by Hitler to command part of the army group and be in charge of protecting Normandy. He inspected parts of the defenses (along the beach) and found them extremely inadequate. Rommel immediately started improving them, added more artillery, cement boxes and minefields. He believed that if the Allies attacked, which it was inevitable that they would, they would attack in the shortest part. This was near the Channel. In 1944, the long stretch of fortifications were still in construction. It stretched from Norway down to the Spanish Border. There were over 15,000 bunkers and 3,000 guns that were finished already. British Channel Islands, U-Boot bases and a few other important harbours formed the edges of the wall.

Going against everyone's expectations, the Allies landed in a different place at a very unexpected time. The attacked June 6, 1944, in the very early morning. This is now known as the D-Day attack on Normandy.

Normandy Invasion: June 6, 1944
On June 6, 1944, at 12:05 AM, the Western Allies invaded the northern part of France. The troops were commanded by U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The beaches they landed on were codenamed "Juno", "Utah", "Omaha", "Sword" and "Gold". They had a military of 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, 71 large landing crafts, along with troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen. Total, there were about 5,000 different types of ships, making it the largest armada ever put together. There were hundreds of paratroopers in England, most of them carrying over a hundred pounds of food, supplies and weapons.

Only a few hours after attacking, there were more than 100,000 men fighting on shore. Around 2 AM, Normandy was filled with fire from both sides of the war. Many of the pilots were struggling to stay up in the air long enough to drop their paratroopers. Some of them didn't even make it, accidentally drowning in the Peninsula or being overshot into Germany's Fifteenth Army headquarters. At the same time, 5,000 Allied ships were traveling through the minefields in English Channel. There were a few ships were lost to the mines, but the ones that got through formed offshore the beaches by 5 AM that morning.