D-Day
On D-Day-June 6, 1944-Allied armies landed in Normandy on the northwestern coast of France, possibly the most critical event of World War II unfolded; for upon the outcome of the invasion hung the fate of Europe. If the invasion failed, the United States might turn its full attention to the enemy in the Pacific-Japan, leaving Britain to fend for itself. That would enable Nazi Germany to muster all its strength against the Soviet Union. By the time American forces returned to Europe-if indeed, they ever returned-Germany might be master of the entire continent, and possibly the Eastern Hemisphere. American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named supreme commander for the allies in Europe. British General, Sir Frederick Morgan, established a combined American-British headquarters known as COSSAC, for Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander. COSSAC developed a number of plans for the Allies most notable was that of Operation Overlord, a full scale invasion of France across the English Channel. Eisenhower felt that COSSAC's plan was a sound operation. After reviewing the disastrous hit-and-run raid in 1942 in Dieppe, planners decided that the strength of German defenses required not a number of separate assaults by relativel
Many of them were already seasick, and the shock dealt to them from the death all around them made them panic. Rommel came up with several ideas that were pure genius, but for some reason nobody listened to him. Failure at Normandy would have meant the failure of the allied cause. At first light, the Germans found themselves facing thousands of ships that had appeared to materialize out of the night. This was made possible by the British early in the war having broken the code of the standard German radio enciphering machine, the Enigma. For months before June 6, the Americans and British had been sending easily de-coded messages between fake armies, making plans for an invasion one hundred miles from the actual one. Later in the war, there was a slight glimmer of hope for the Germans with the Battle of the Bulge, where the German army made a major break in the American lines. (Vail 7)Although fewer Allied ground troops went ashore on D-Day than on the first day of the earlier invasion of Sicily, the invasion of Normandy was in total history's greatest amphibious operation, involving on the first day 5,000 ships, the largest armada ever assembled; 11,000 aircraft (following months of preliminary bombardment); and approximately 154,000 British, Canadian and American soldiers, including 23,000 arriving by parachute and glider. The Navy destroyer Frankford moved in close to the shore, and directed her guns at the heavier gun emplacements. If Germany was not forced to split it's forces and fight a two front war, they might have been able to defeat the Russians in the East, and then the Americans and British would have the full weight of the German army to deal with on their next attack. Although the Allied commanders could not know it until their troops were ashore, their deception had been remarkably successful. The average infantryman carried 70lbs of equipment, plus his weapon (Patrick, 75).
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Acceptance Essays
