Subjects:
June 6, 1944 will be remembered for many reasons. Some may think of it as a
success and some as a failure. The pages following this could be used to prove
either one. The only sure thing that I can tell you about D-Day is this: D-Day,
June 6, 1944 was the focal point of the greatest and most planned out invasion
of all time. The allied invasion of France was long awaited and tactfully
thought out. For months the allied forces of millions trained in Britain
waiting for the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, General
Eisenhower to set a date. June 6, 1944 was to be the day with the H-hour at
06:30. Aircraft bombed German installations and helped prepare the ground
attack. The ground forces landed and made their push inland. Soon Operation
Overlord was in full affect as the allied forces pushed the Germans back towards
the Russian forces coming in from the east. D-Day was the beginning and the key
Operation Overlord was in no way a last minute operation thrown together. When
the plan was finalized in the spring of 1944 the world started work on preparing
. . .
enough vehicles being able to get off the beach other craft were unable to land
due to the lack of room. Also, like at Omaha, regiments decided to bring their DD
Sherman tanks on their LCD transports instead of floating them in. Their mission was to reduce beach
fortifications and to move inland. The risk of grounding the destroyers took and the arrival of
tanks lead to the eventual fall of the German beach defences.
Like at most of the beaches that day, armoured divisions started to bring their
tanks in on the landing craft but like on all the other beaches this caused
problems.
Once on the beach the amount of German defences surprised the allied forces,
once again the air assault on the German gunneries were not as successful as
planned. During the
ten week period before June 6 countless missions were flown with objectives of
taking out German radar installations. This greatly increased the speed and accuracy
of the landings and the first Canadian wave was on the beach by 08:15. Unfortunately
Bayeux was not taken but most of the area's hidden bunkers and trenches were.
The second wave of troops consisted of 32 craft carrying combat engineers and a
naval demolition team. Luckily
the British were ready with artillery, fighter-bombers and a special “Firefly”
Sherman tank that was fitted with a seventeen pound anti-tank gun instead of the
normal seventy-five mm. Tides rose four feet per hour, shrinking the beach by eighty
feet in the same time period. These two groups decided on a joint mission to
save their allies who were pinned on the beach. This
left a two mile gap in the beaches and would be the area of the only German
counterattack of the day.
Essay's Topics
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