D-Day
IntroductionJune 6, 1944 will be remembered for many reasons. Some may think of it as asuccess and some as a failure. The pages following this could be used to proveeither 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 invasionof all time. The allied invasion of France was long awaited and tactfullythought out. For months the allied forces of millions trained in Britainwaiting for the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, GeneralEisenhower to set a date. June 6, 1944 was to be the day with the H-hour at06:30. Aircraft bombed German installations and helped prepare the groundattack. The ground forces landed and made their push inland. Soon OperationOverlord was in full affect as the allied forces pushed the Germans back towardsthe Russian forces coming in from the east. D-Day was the beginning and the keyOperation Overlord was in no way a last minute operation thrown together. Whenthe plan was finalized in the spring of 1944 the world started work on preparing
With soldiers pinned down and notenough vehicles being able to get off the beach other craft were unable to landdue to the lack of room. Also, like at Omaha, regiments decided to bring their DDSherman tanks on their LCD transports instead of floating them in. Their mission was to reduce beachfortifications and to move inland. The risk of grounding the destroyers took and the arrival oftanks lead to the eventual fall of the German beach defences. Like at most of the beaches that day, armoured divisions started to bring theirtanks in on the landing craft but like on all the other beaches this causedproblems. 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 asplanned. During theten week period before June 6 countless missions were flown with objectives oftaking out German radar installations. This greatly increased the speed and accuracyof the landings and the first Canadian wave was on the beach by 08:15. UnfortunatelyBayeux 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 anaval demolition team. Luckilythe 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 thenormal seventy-five mm. Tides rose four feet per hour, shrinking the beach by eightyfeet in the same time period. These two groups decided on a joint mission tosave their allies who were pinned on the beach. Thisleft a two mile gap in the beaches and would be the area of the only Germancounterattack of the day.
Common topics in this essay:
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B-26 Marauder's,
Operation Overlord,
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Acceptance Essays
