Operation Overlord and D-Day at Normandy

Well, June 6 is a huge day in history, so I’ve chosen to post about two events today that were crucial to history in the United States. This is the first of two posts, and it concerns Operation Overlord and  World War 2. Operation Overlord was the code name for the American landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944.

To be fair, I should point out that British and Canadian troops took part as well. Combined, these three allies landed troops on Normandy beaches with names that have become famous—Omaha, Juno, Sword, Gold, and Utah. By the end of the day, about 155,000 troops were ashore and establishing a beachhead in northern France. While about a year of fighting in Europe remained, the Allies took their biggest step toward the destruction of Nazi Germany and its war machine.

The logistical challenge of the landing was considerable. Dwight Eisenhower, the US commanding general of European forces, had to pick a day when the tides would be favorable for the landing. He also needed to pick a location where the water was deep enough for large ships to move in major quantities of supplies. The northern coast of France didn’t have many of those. Then, he had to cross his fingers and hope that the wind conditions and cloud cover would allow transport planes to drop enough paratroopers to support the operation. While the landings of Operation Overlord didn’t go perfectly, they went well enough to call them a success.

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One of the iconic photos of Operation Overlord. US 1st Infantry soldiers go ashore at Omaha Beach.
One of the iconic photos of Operation Overlord. US 1st Infantry soldiers go ashore at Omaha Beach.

Why Operation Overlord was Crucial

One of the reasons is as obvious today as it was in 1944. To defeat Germany, American and British forces had to establish a front in Northern France. They’d already established fronts in Italy and other secondary locations, but those paled in comparison. Knocking Italy out of the war was helpful, but not decisive. Only the defeat of Germany would end the war in Europe.

The other reason was that the Soviet Union need Allied help. Strange as it may seem today, given the heated rhetoric in the US surrounding anything deemed socialism, the communists of the Soviet Union were allies with the US against Germany from 1941 to 1945. And, to be honest, no nation suffered more from World War 2 than the USSR. Even when enlistments in the US armed forces reached 13 million, still, three-quarters of Germany’s forces were fighting the USSR in the east. The war’s eastern front was a titanic struggle. Even with Germany fighting the Americans in the west and the Soviets in the east, it still took an entire year before its surrender.

That is why Operation Overlord was crucial. The war would only end if Germany gave up. Germany would only give up if the Allies could establish a main front in Europe. And they needed to do so before the Soviet Union ran out of bodies to fight the Germans in the east.

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