D-Day+(The+invasion+of+France)


 * __Therese Long__**

After World War Two began, Germany invaded and occupied northwestern France beginning in May 1940. The Americans entered the war in December 1941 and by 1942 they, and the British were considering the possibility of a major allied invasion across the English Channel By May of 1944, the invasion force was ready. Dwight D. Eisenhower planned to strike the coast of Normandy, France. This operation was code named " Operation Overload". This was the greatest land and sea attack in history.

The Day chosen for D-Day was June 6, 1944. At dawn on June 6th, British , American , French , and Canadian troops fought on a 60 mile stretch of beach in Normandy. The Germans had a lot of weapons, which included of machine guns , rocket / launches , and cannons. They even used 3 feet thick concrete walls to protect themselves. 3,000 american soldiers died on the beach that day. One month later, one million additional troops had landed. On August 25th, the allies marched into Paris. The battle had advanced upwards as the allied troops began to take German occupied land, which spread through Western Europe. The countries involved were Australia, Belgium , Canada , Czechoslovakia , France , Greece , the netherlands , New Zealand , Norway , Poland , The United Kingdom , and the United States. Germany was also involved.

On D-Day, for the allied troops, 53,700 people died. There were 18,000 missing and 155,000 wounded. For the German it was 200,000 dead, wounded , and missing as well as 200,000 captured. The Allies won the battle. They liberated France, and Western Europe from the German Army. This battle helped win the war against Hitler. By 9:00 am, the water was crammed with bodies.
 * This was a well organized attack with no mistakes
 * The Allies had 800 warships and 11,000 aircraft.
 * There were 175,000 assault troops, 5,000 vessels , 20,000 vehicles and 11,000 aircraft of the allied troops invading
 * The first wave of assault troops went on landing crafts that prepared to go to shore at 6:30 am

The commander for the United States was Dwight Eisenhower, Omar bradley. The United Kingdom commanders were Bernard Law Montgomery, Trafford Leigh-Mallory , Arthur Tedder , Miles Dempsey , Bertram Ramsay. The commanders for Germany were Erwin Rommel, Gerd von Rundstedt , and Friedrich Dollmann.

As this happened, Hitler was supposedly sleep. None of his generals wanted to order re-enforcement without his permission and no-one DARED to wake him. By the days end, about 156,000 Allied troops had successfully stormed Normandy's beaches. This proved that "operation overload" WAS the greatest land and sea attack in history.

By June 11, with the beachheads firmly secured , more than 326,000 troops had crossed with more than 100,000 tons of military equipment.

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