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Post by Army_Of_One on Sept 18, 2005 20:22:57 GMT -5
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Post by Wasres on Sept 19, 2005 0:58:16 GMT -5
Ill do more this evening
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Post by Army_Of_One on Sept 19, 2005 1:10:10 GMT -5
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Post by Wasres on Sept 20, 2005 1:10:55 GMT -5
whooooooooops, it slipped the mind, I SWEAR Ill do morfe this evening
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Post by Wasres on Sept 21, 2005 1:14:21 GMT -5
Battle of Bulge:
The Battle of the Bulge which lasted from December 16, 1944 to January 28, 1945 was the largest land battle of World War II in which the United States participated. More than a million men fought in this battle including some 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British. The German military force consisted of two Armies with ten corps(equal to 29 divisions). While the American military force consisted of a total of three armies with six corps(equal to 31 divisions). At the conclusion of the battle the casualties were as follows: 81,000 U.S. with 19,000 killed, 1400 British with 200 killed, and 100,000 Germans killed, wounded or captured.
In late 1944 Germany was clearly losing the war. The Russian Red Army was steadily closing in on the Eastern front while German cities were being devastated by intense American bombing. The Italian peninsula had been captured and liberated, and the Allied armies were advancing rapidly through France and the Low Countries. Hitler knew the end was near if something couldn't be done to slow the Allied advance. He soon came up with a plan to do this.
In September of 1944 Wilhelm Kertel and Alfred Jodle attended a meeting at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia. At which time Hitler gave a status of Germany's current military position. During this meeting Hitler presented Jodle with the task of coming up with a strategic plan for a major offensive on the Western front. Hitler assigned the attack to be somewhere between the Aachan area and the southern Luxembourg-France boundary. This location was favorable because there was only one armored and four U. S. infantry divisions at this location. Dietrich's Sixth Panzer-Armee would set out from a small town twenty miles southeast of Aachan. Mauteuffel's Fifthe PanzerPrum would launch from Schee Eifel plateau. Bramdemburger's Seventh Armee would launch itself from the south close to the Siegfried Line. The Sixth and Fifth armies would drive to Antwerp, with the Seventh and other units protecting the flank. At this meeting Hitler planned to launch the offensive between November 20 and November 30. He was confident the Allies would not be able to react in time to stop the offensive. His plan was dependent upon speed and accuracy. The speed would be provided via the terrain and the woods would provide the cover. Also key to the plan was the weather. Hitler was hoping the attack would occur during weather which would prevent the Allied Air forces from being effective.
The plan Hitler had requested was returned to him by Jodle on October 9. This plan had five possible avenues of attack, with the northernmost coming from the area near Dusseldorf for thirty-one divisions with one-third of these consisting of armored infantry. The estimation for fuel called for between four and five millions of gallons along with fifty trainloads of ammunition. Also Hitler enlarged the plan to include the two northern most attack routes.
This plan was code named Wacht am Rhein with the strategy of driving on Antwerp while encircling the Allied armies west of the Meuse River. Hitler thought the name of the plan would confuse the Allies into believing it was a defensive operation. The Ardennes was selected as the location for the offensive because the area provided enough cover for a massive buildup of troops and because it was the location where in 1940 Hitler had initiated a surprise attack on France. Hitler believed that by retaking Antwerp the Allies would become irritated with each other and would lead to disputes between the members of the Allies. He believed the bond between the Allies was unstable and could easily be diminished. In doing so Hitler would be able to buy some much needed time to work on secret weapons and build up troops.
During the months between October and November the Watch on the Rhine was Renamed Autumn Mist. Hitler changed the name after several of his military commanders tried to convince him to change the plans. The commanders in charge of the offensive, von Runstedt(Commander of the West), Field Marshall Model(tactical commander), Josef"Sepp"Dietrich (leader of the Sixth Panzer Army), and Hoss von Manteuffel (commander of Fifth Panzer Unit) all were skeptical about Hitler's plan. They felt that taking Antwerp was something that just could not be accomplished by the German army at the time. Field Marshall Model was quoted as saying "This plan hasn't got a damned leg to stand on". Hitler was presented with a new smaller plan which changed the objective to only launching a small attack to weaken the Allied forces in the area rather than launching an all out attack to retake Antwerp. His general's pleaded with him to change the plans but Hitler refused.
Many people think that Hitler was unstable by this time in the war. He would not listen to his advising commanders. An assassination attempt had been made on his life and this caused him to trust almost no one. Hitler's plan to retake Antwerp was irrational in that the German's would have no air support and the supplies that they would need were lacking. Also what Hitler expected to result from retaking Antwerp was irrational. The bond between the Allied powers might not have been strong, but they were definitely unified in one goal-destroying the German regime.
At 5:30 A.M. on December 6, 1944 eight German armored divisions and thirteen German infantry divisions launched an all out attack on five divisions of the United States 1st Army. At least 657, light, medium, and heavy guns and howitzers and 340 multiple-rocket launchers were fired on American positions. Between the 5th and 6th Panzer armies which equaled eleven divisions they broke into the Ardennes through the Loshein Gap against the American divisions protecting the region. The 6th Panzer Army then headed North while the Fifth Panzer Army went south. Sixth Panzer army attacked the two southern divisions of U. S. V Corps at Elsborn Ridge, but accomplished little. At the same time the 5th Panzer Army was attacking the U. S. VIII Corps some 100 miles to the south. This corps was one of the greenest in Europe at the time and their lack of experience was exploited by the Germans. They were quickly surrounded and there were mass surrenders.
On December 17 American 7th Armored divisions engaged Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army at Saint Vith. Saint Vith was a major road that led to the Meuse River and to Antwerp. The American division was successful in halting the German advance and this caused the Germans to take a path that was out of the way. This slowed the Germans down and altered the timing of the German attack plan. The same day some Americans were taken prisoner at Baugnez and were shot by Colonel Peiper's unit while on a road headed for Malmeddy. Of the 140 men taken prisoner 86 were shot and 43 managed to survive to tell the story of what had happened. Rumors of this event spread quickly through the American divisions causing the Americans to fight much harder and with more resolve.
Bastogne was a strategic position which both the Germans and Americans wanted to occupy. This lead to a race between the American 101st Airborne divisions and the Germans. The Americans managed to get there first and occupy the city. The Germans were not far behind and quickly surrounded and laid siege to the city. This city was an important strategic location for the Allies because this city could be used as a base to launch a counteroffensive. On December 22 German officers under the flag of truce delivered a message from General der Panzertruppe von Luttwitz Commander of XLVII Panzerhops, demanding the surrender of Bastogne. After receiving the message Brigadier General Mcauliffe exclaimed "Aw, nuts" which was his official reply to the request for surrender. This message was delivered by Joseph Harper to the Germans. He told the Germans it meant they could all go to Hell. With that they parted and the siege continued. Because the Americans were surrounded the only way they could get supplies was by air drops. However because it was the winter and the weather was bad for a long time planes could not fly. The Americans had to survive the best they could until the weather finally cleared up. The Americans at Bastogne were relieved when the VII Corps moved down and enlarged the U. S. line. This allowed Patton's Third Army to counterattack the Germans surrounding Bastogne. The Third Army was then able to push the Germans past the border of Bastogne.
Bastogne was not out of danger however, and on December 29 troops from the 101st Airborne division left Bastogne to fight the Germans. At this time the weather had cleared up which allowed Allied air support for the first time. At the same time General Hodges 2nd Armored divisions repelled the 2nd Panzer division short of the Meuse River at Celles.
The Allies launched a counteroffensive two days before the New Year. This counteroffensive involved the U.S. Third Army striking to the North while the U.S. First Army pushed to the South. They were supposed to meet at the village of Houffalize to trap all German force. The Germans did not go easily however and the Americans had a rough time. Day after day, soldiers wallowed through the snow. Newspapers were put under clothes as added insulation.
On January first, Hitler launched a plan he called "The Great Blow." The goal of this plan was to eliminate Allied air power. At 8:00 A.M. German fighter airplanes swarmed over Belgium, Holland, and northern France. For more than two hours Allied airfields were bombarded. By 10:00 A.M. 206 aircraft and many bases layed in ruin. Hitler's plan had a great deal of damage to Allied aircraft. However, the price he paid for this was devastating. The German Luftwaffe lost 300 planes and 253 trained pilots.
On January 8, Hitler ordered his troops to withdraw from the tip of the Bulge. This indicated that he had realized his offensive had failed. By January 16, the Third and First Army had joined at Houffalize. The Allies now controlled the original front. On January 23, Saint Vith was retaken. Finally, on January 28 the Battle of the Bulge was officially over.
The 106th division played a major role in the success of the Allies. They were credited with holding the Germans back. Timing was a major part of the Germans offensive to break through to the Meuse River and capture Antwerp. The first three days of the battle were the most important for the Germans. However, the 106th division slowed the Germans down at St. Vith. The battle that ensued at St. Vith would cost the Germans much in terms of resources. The delay and extended battle would caused the Germans to lose the advantage they had in many of their previous campaigns.
The Battle of the Bulge was very costly in terms of both men and equipment. Hitler's last ditch attempt to bring Germany back into winning the war had failed. During this battle the Germans had expended the majority of there Air power and men. The Allies however had plenty of men and equipment left. With few forces left to defend "The Reich" the Germans could not prolong the inevitable. Germanys final defeat was only months away.
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Post by Wasres on Sept 21, 2005 1:16:00 GMT -5
Battle of Arnhem, Operation Market Garden Part 1, BBC History:
In May 1945 it was the Russians who hoisted their flag over the ruins of the Reichstag building in Berlin. In this way World War Two, in Europe, was signalled as being effectively over. However, the troops who captured Berlin could easily have been British or American, if events around a small town in Holland had turned out differently.
If Operation Market Garden, planned to take place in the area near Arnhem, in Holland, had succeeded, the western Allies could have punched their way across one of the last great natural barriers between them and the German fatherland.
Their tanks and troops might have reached Berlin weeks before the Russians, ending the war by Christmas 1944. The fate of post-war Europe might have been very different.
'The glittering triumph of the D-Day landings in France had become bogged down in the slow and costly progress through the Normandy fields and hedgerows ...' Market Garden was one of the boldest plans of World War Two. Thirty thousand British and American airborne troops were to be flown behind enemy lines to capture the eight bridges that spanned the network of canals and rivers on the Dutch/German border.
At the same time, British tanks and infantry were to push up a narrow road leading from the Allied front line to these key bridges. They would relieve the airborne troops, and then cross the intact bridges.
The plan was conceived by General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British forces in Europe. The glittering triumph of the D-Day landings in France had become bogged down in the slow and costly progress through the Normandy fields and hedgerows, which the Germans defended with skill and tenacity.
Despite this, after weeks of heavy fighting, the Allies had finally broken through. For the next three weeks they rolled through France and Belgium, liberating Paris and Brussels. Victory for the Allies seemed close.
But Hitler's forces were regrouping, and as the Allies pushed nearer to Germany's borders, German resistance stiffened. Montgomery believed that a powerful, narrow thrust deep into German lines would be more effective than an advance on a broad front, which had become difficult to supply from the few ports controlled by the Allies, and this was why he devised Operation Market Garden.
Part 2:
The soldiers who would carry out the operation were those of the First Allied Airborne Army, including one British and two American divisions. They had been kept in reserve in England since D-Day. Operation after operation had been cancelled. Now their skills and training could be used at last. Tony Hibbert was brigade Major of the 1st Parachute Brigade:
'My first reaction was one of enormous enthusiasm and excitement, because this was the first time that anyone on our side, had contemplated the proper strategic use of airborne forces en mA**e.' Dropping by parachute and in gliders these divisions would land near the Dutch towns of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, to take the eight key bridges. The planners called this an 'airborne carpet', along which the advancing British armour of XXX corps could push through to Germany.
The airborne commander, General 'Boy' Browning, had just seven days to prepare for the operation. The information he was given on the German troops in the area, however, was alarming. It suggested that there were two SS Panzer divisions around Arnhem, with many tanks and vehicles. Major Tony Hibbert recalls the bleak A**essment of aerial photographs made by General Browning's intelligence officer, Major Brian Urguhart:
'He showed me photographs of German Panzer 4's; mainly I think they were tucked in underneath woods. He went to General Browning, and said that in his view the operation could not succeed, because of the presence of these two divisions.' The deadline for cancelling the operation was now close. General Browning had to weigh up the intelligence reports, which might be wrong. He decided that the operation would go ahead. The huge risks inherent in Operation Market Garden were now undermined by a series of dangerous compromises.
There were too few aircraft to deliver all the airborne troops in one go. Therefore they would be dropped over three days. Anti-aircraft defences near Arnhem itself were thought to be too effective to land gliders near the town. The troops would be dropped at a site seven miles away, losing any element of surprise.
Part 3:
On Sunday 17 September, 500 gliders and 1,500 aircraft flew over the men of XXX corps, whose job was to follow beneath them in their tanks and trucks. As the aircraft flew over, the Allied guns began a huge barrage to hit the Germans guarding the road ahead. The weather that day was beautiful, with a cloudless blue sky and a warming autumn sun. Major Tony Hibbert remembers:
'... an enormous feeling of excitement, and I think everyone at that stage felt totally confident they would win. Certainly the flight over from England was absolutely beautiful. There was an absolute mass, an armada as far as the eye could see, in both directions, and about 20 planes wide, the most extraordinary sight I've ever seen.' Moffat Burriss was a company commander in the American 82nd airborne division, charged with taking one of the crucial bridges at Grave.
'I remember standing in the door with a Sergeant, and we looked down as we flew over the bridge, and the tracer started swinging toward us and we ducked back, looked at each other and started laughing, because why were we ducking behind this little thin skin of the plane? It would not stop a bullet. And he stuck his head out and said you dirty Krauts, we'll be down there and get you in a minute.' The sergeant's prediction was right. American and British gliders and parachutists drifted down on target, gathered up their equipment and began to move towards the bridges they had to take. The road up which XXX corps would have to travel to reach the bridges was narrow, just wide enough for two vehicles to pass. It was defended by small groups of determined German infantry.
As the XXX corps tanks approached, they picked off the leading nine vehicles, bringing the whole column to a standstill. It was 40 minutes before they moved again. The Germans were quick to organise against the airborne troops.
The British paratroopers began their advance towards Arnhem, and were soon under attack. They quickly found that their radios didn't work properly. It was impossible to co-ordinate the attack properly, because no one could communicate. However, one British battalion did find a way through the German perimeter around Arnhem, and by 8pm on the first day, they had captured the northern end of the road bridge across the Rhine. The Americans had also reached their objectives. But most of the bridges had been blown up before they could be captured.
At the end of the first day, XXX corps had advanced only seven miles from their start line, and had not reached the first in the sequence of bridges. Meanwhile the Germans were reinforcing, and their tanks were moving into Arnhem ready to take on the lightly armed British paratroopers.
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Post by Wasres on Sept 21, 2005 1:17:54 GMT -5
Part 4:
On 18 September, the second day, XXX corps began to make the progress expected of them. Their tanks covered 20 miles in a few hours, hooking up with the Americans at one of the intact bridges near Grave. On the third day they reached Nijmegen, where the Americans were still fighting in the streets in their efforts to reach the bridge across the might River Waal.
Once they had taken Nijmegen bridge, only Arnhem would be left, and the north end at least was still in British hands. It seemed that Operation Market Garden might succeed.
But they could not get across the bridge. General Horrocks, XXX corps commander, ordered American troops to attack across the River Waal, so that they could capture the German end. The attack was enormously costly.
'The bullets hitting the water looked like a hailstorm, kicking up little spouts of water. When we reached about the halfway point, then the mortar and artillery fire started falling. And when a boat was hit with an artillery shell or a mortar shell, it just disintegrated, and everybody was lost.' (Moffat Burriss) Half of Burriss's company was killed or wounded on the crossing. The survivors reached the far bank, and from there successfully stormed the Nijmegen bridge. At last the route to Arnhem was in Allied hands. However, it was too late for the British parachute battalion at the north end of the bridge. The Germans had moved their tanks into the town, and one by one they were demolishing the houses in which the British were fighting.
By now the paratroops had few anti-tank weapons, they had no food, and, crucially, they had little ammunition left. Major Tony Hibbert remembers the German tanks were now devastatingly effective.
'We really had nothing we could do to them, and they drove up and down the street, firing high explosive into the side of the building, to create the gap, and then firing smoke shells through that. The phosphorus from the smoke shells burned us out. By about 8 o'clock, on Wednesday evening, the fires got out of control and of course we had by this time about 300 wounded in the cellars.' The Allied troops were forced to abandon their positions near the bridge, and to try and fight their way out. Three miles from Arnhem British paratroops were holding a pocket of land at the village of Oosterberck. By now XXX corps, commanded by General Horrocks, was on the other side of the river from the airborne troops. They could not, however, cross.
German artillery controlled the river. Horrocks decided to evacuate the British survivors; only some 2,500 eventually made the crossing. The Parachute division had left behind nearly 1,500 dead, and more than 6,500 prisoners, many badly wounded.
Operation Market Garden had failed. It would be another four months before the Allies crossed the Rhine again and captured the German industrial heartland. The war dragged on, costing the lives of many thousands of civilians and servicemen.
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Part 4/4 Complete, Ask and I will e-mail pics
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Post by Army_Of_One on Sept 21, 2005 6:28:36 GMT -5
thanks
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Post by Wasres on Sept 21, 2005 11:41:19 GMT -5
The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, remains the largest sea borne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France.
Twelve Allied nations provided units that participated in the invasion: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Normandy invasion began with overnight paratrooper and glider landings, massive air and naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious assault on June 6, "D-day". The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads. It concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Chambois pocket.
Contents [hide] 1 Prelude 1.1 Allied preparations 1.2 German preparations 1.3 The Allied invasion plan 1.3.1 Codenames 1.4 German defenses 2 The landings 2.1 The French Resistance 2.2 Airborne landings 2.3 Sword Beach 2.4 Juno Beach 2.5 Gold Beach 2.6 Omaha Beach 2.7 Pointe du Hoc 2.8 Utah Beach 3 After the landings 4 Chronology 5 Political considerations 6 Aftermath and strategic appraisal 7 Notes 8 Dramatizations 9 See also 10 External links 11 Bibliography
[edit] Prelude [edit] Allied preparations Invasion Training in England - Hitting the beach. Training with live ammunition in England. Eisenhower addresses U.S. paratroops before they depart on D-day.After the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), the Soviets had done the bulk of the fighting against Germany on the European mainland. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill had committed the United States and United Kingdom to opening up a "second front" in Europe to aid in the Soviet advance on Germany, initially in 1942, and again in spring 1943.
Rather than repeat the head-on frontal assaults of World War I, the British, and Churchill in particular, favoured attacking the peripheries of western Europe and allowing the insurgency work of the SOE to come to widespread fruition, while making a main Allied thrust from the Mediterranean to Vienna and into Germany from the south. Such an approach was believed to also offer the advantage of creating a barrier to limit the Soviet advance into Europe. However, the U.S. believed from the onset that the optimum approach was the shortest route to Germany emanating from the strongest Allied power base. They were adamant in their view and made it clear that it was the only option they would support in the long term. Two preliminary proposals were drawn up: Operation Sledgehammer for an invasion in 1942, and Operation Roundup for a larger attack in 1943, which was adopted and became Operation Overlord, although it was delayed until 1944.
The planning process was started in earnest in March 1943 by British Lieutenant General Sir Frederick E. Morgan. His plan was later adopted and refined starting in January 1944 by the SHAEF, led by General Dwight Eisenhower.
The small operating range of Allied fighters, including the British Spitfire and Hawker Typhoon, from UK airfields greatly limited the choices of landing sites. Geography reduced the choices further to two sites: the Pas de Calais and the Normandy coast. While the Pas de Calais offered the shortest distance from the UK, the best landing beaches and the most direct overland route to Germany, it was for those reasons the expected invasion point, and thus the most heavily fortified and defended. Consequently, the Allies chose Normandy for the invasion.
Largely because of the lessons learned in the disastrous 1942 Canadian raid on Dieppe, the Allies also decided not to directly assault a French seaport in their first landings. Landings in force on a broad front in Normandy would permit simultaneous threats against the port of Cherbourg, coastal ports further west in Brittany, and an overland attack towards Paris and towards the border with Germany. Normandy was a less-defended coast and an unexpected but strategic jumping-off point, with the potential to confuse and scatter the German defending forces.
It was not until December 1943 that General Dwight Eisenhower was named as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, effectively giving him overall charge of the Allied forces in Europe. In January 1944, General Sir Bernard Montgomery was named as operational commander for the invasion ground forces.
At that stage the plan required sea landing by three divisions, with two brigades landed by air. SHAEF quickly increased the scale of the initial attack to five divisions by sea and three by air, reflected in the plans for an additional assault at Utah Beach. In total, 47 divisions would be committed to the Battle of Normandy: 26 divisions of British, Canadian, Commonwealth and free European troops, and 21 American divisions.
About 6,900 vessels would be involved in the invasion under the command of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, including 4,100 landing craft. 12,000 aircraft under Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory were to support the landings, including 1,000 transports to fly in the parachute troops. 10,000 tons of bombs would be dropped against the German defenses, and 14,000 attack sorties would be flown.
The objectives for the first 40 days were to:
create a beachhead that would include the cities of Caen and Cherbourg (especially Cherbourg, for its deep-water port); break out from the beachhead to liberate Brittany and its Atlantic ports, and to advance to a line roughly 125 miles (200 km) to the southwest of Paris, from Le Havre through Le Mans to Tours. The three-month objective was to control a zone bounded by the rivers Loire in the south and Seine in the northeast.
In order to persuade the Germans that the invasion would really be coming to the Pas de Calais, the Allies prepared a massive deception plan, called Operation Bodyguard. An entirely fictitious First U.S. Army Group was created, with fake buildings and equipment, and false radio messages were sent. This made the Germans think that the Allied army was more than twice the size it really was. Well known Lieutenant General George Patton was even mentioned as the unit's commander. The Germans were eager to find the landing location, and had an extensive network of agents operating throughout Southern England. Unfortunately for them, every single one had been "turned" by the Allies as part of the Double Cross System, and was dutifully sending back messages confirming the Pas de Calais as the likely attack point. To keep the pretence running for as long as possible, the deception was continued into the battle, with air attacks on radar and other installations in the area. With the Germans fooled, Hitler ordered "Case 3," Rommel's elite Panzer division to defend the Pas de Calais, thinking that a much larger assault was coming, and ordered his generals to ask him before mobilizing them. By the time Hitler recieved word that the Assault on Normandy had begun, it was too late to stop it.
Another deception, Operation Skye, was mounted from Scotland using radio traffic, designed to convince German traffic analysts that an invasion would be also mounted into Norway, or perhaps Denmark. Against this phantom threat, German troops that otherwise could have been moved into France were instead sent to Norway. A smaller but effective deception, Operation Titanic, was carried out by 6 SAS commandos early on D-Day. Rubber dummy paratroopers and sound effects confused the enemy and took reinforcements away from the landings.
Some of the more unusual Allied preparations included armoured vehicles specially adapted for the assault. Developed under the leadership of Major-General Percy Hobart, these vehicles (called 'Hobart's Funnies') included "swimming" Duplex Drive Sherman tanks, mine-clearing tanks, bridge-laying tanks and road-laying tanks. Some prior testing of these vehicles had been undertaken at Kirkham Priory in Yorkshire, England.
The plan also called for the construction of two artificial Mulberry Harbours in order to get vital supplies to the invading forces in the first few weeks of the battle in the absence of deep-water ports, and Operation PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean), a series of submarine pipes that would deliver fuel from Britain to the invading forces.
Allied forces rehearsed their roles for D-Day months before the invasion. On April 28, 1944, in south Devon on the English coast, 749 U.S. soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger.
[edit] German preparations Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (center) discusses the upcoming Allied invasion of France with Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz and Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt.In November 1943, when Hitler decided that the threat of invasion in France could no longer be ignored, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel was appointed Inspector of Coastal Defences, and later commander of Army Group B, the ground forces charged with the defense of Northern France. Rommel was of the firm belief that the only way to defeat an invasion was to counterattack the beaches as early as possible with armour, and wanted at least some armour placed close enough to the beaches to deliver an immediate counterattack. But Rommel's authority was rather limited, since he was not the overall commander of German forces in the West; that title was held by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. And Rundstedt—supported by the commander of Panzer Group West, Geyr von Schweppenburg, who was, in turn, supported by Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, the Inspector General of Armoured Troops—favoured concentrating the Panzer divisions farther inland so that the primary enemy line of advance could be determined, and then a counter-attack in force could be launched to blunt it.
The operational debate reflected the differing experiences in the war of the key decision-makers. Rundstedt and Guderian gained the bulk of their command experience when the Luftwaffe controlled the skies over the battlefield or, in the vast expanses of the Eastern Front, where neither side was able to claim air superiority over the entire front when these two commanders last had a combat command. Rommel's experiences, however, were vastly different, and would turn out in hindsight to seem far more applicable. Rundstedt and Guderian apparently never considered Allied airpower in terms of the Luftwaffe's heyday in 1939–1941, of which Allied air power was now several magnitudes greater. Rommel, however, having fought the Allies in the Western Desert Campaign under a decidedly unfavourable air power disparity, knew the stark reality of the Allied tactical bombers' capabilities.
In attempting to resolve the dispute, Hitler split the six available Panzer divisions in northern France, and allocated three directly to Rommel. The remaining three were placed a good distance back from the beaches, and could not be released without the direct approval of Hitler's operations staff. The air defences of the north French coast comprised just 169 fighter aircraft, since airfields in northern France had been seriously pummelled by incessant Anglo-American air attacks.
Uncertainty about the Allied landing place also upset German plans. In order to sustain an offensive, the Allies would have to take a deep-water port, or land at Pas de Calais and simply use the shorter shipping route to make up for the slower offloading. This being the case an invasion would have to take place near Brest, France, Cherbourg or le Havre, the only ports within easy shipping and aircraft range of bases in England. (In retrospect Brest was rather unlikely; it was out of range of the RAF, heavily defended due to the large U-Boat bases there, and far from the interior of France.) This meant that the forces would almost certainly be landing near Cherbourg-le Havre or Pas de Calais (which are only a short distance from each other), yet the German forces were spread throughout western France to counter an invasion at many different points.1
Rommel inspected the shoreline defences, known as the Atlantic Wall, and ordered many improvements before D-Day. Some bunkers were still under construction when Allied forces landed.
[edit] The Allied invasion plan D-day assault routes into Normandy. Operation Overlord - The Bomber Offensive and German depositions 6 June 1944.The order of battle was approximately as follows, east to west:
British 6th Airborne Division, comprising 8th and 9th Parachute Battalions of 3rd Parachute Brigade and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, airlifted and delivered by parachute and glider to the east of the River Orne to protect the left flank. 1 Special Service Brigade comprising No.3, No.4, No.6 and No.45(RM) Commandos landed at Ouistreham in Queen Red sector (leftmost). No.4 Commando were augmented by 1 Troop and 8 Troop (both French) of No.10 (Inter Allied) Commando. British 3rd Infantry Division and the 27th Armoured Brigade on Sword Beach, from Ouistreham to Lion-sur-Mer. No.41(RM) Commando (part of 4 Special Service Brigade together with Nos.46(RM), 47(RM) and 48(RM) Commandos), landed on the far right of Sword Beach. Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Armoured Brigade and No.48 (RM) Commando on Juno Beach, from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer to La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur. No.46(RM) Commando at Juno to scale the cliffs on the left side of the Orne River estuary and destroy a battery. (Battery fire proved negligible so No.46 were kept off-shore as a floating reserve and landed on D+1). British 50th Division and 8th Armoured Brigade on Gold Beach, from La Riviere to Arromanches. No.47(RM) Commando on the West flank of Gold beach. U.S. V Corps (U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division) on Omaha Beach, from Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to Vierville-sur-Mer. U.S. 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc (The 5th diverted to Omaha). U.S. VII Corps (U.S. 4th Infantry Division plus others) on Utah Beach, around Pouppevile and La Madeleine. U.S. 101st Airborne Division by parachute around Vierville to support Utah Beach landings. U.S. 82nd Airborne Division by parachute around Sainte-Mère-Église, protecting the right flank. Activities by the French resistance forces, the Maquis, helped disrupt Axis lines of communications. Large landing craft convoy crosses the English Channel on June 6, 1944.Prior to the battle, the Allies had carefully mapped and tested the landing area, paying particular attention to weather conditions in the English Channel. A full moon was required both for light and for the spring tide. D-Day for the operation was originally set for June 5, 1944, but bad weather forced a postponement. The weather on June 6 was still marginal, but General Eisenhower chose not to wait for the next full moon. This decision helped catch the German forces off-guard, as they did not expect an attack in such conditions—so much so that, on June 4, Rommel returned to Germany for his wife's 50th birthday.
The 82nd Airborne had originally been tasked with dropping further west, in the middle part of the Cotentin, allowing the sea-landing forces to their east easier access across the peninsula, and preventing the Germans from reinforcing the north part of the peninsula. The plans were later changed to move them much closer to the beachhead, as at the last minute the 91 Luftlande Division was found to be in the area.
[edit] Codenames The Allies assigned codenames to the various operations involved in the invasion. Overlord was the name assigned to the establishment of a large-scale lodgement on the Continent. The first phase, the establishment of a secure foothold, was codenamed Neptune. According to the D-day museum [1]:
"The armed forces use codenames to refer to the planning and execution of specific military operations. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of north-west Europe. The assault phase of Operation Overlord was known as Operation Neptune. (...) Operation Neptune began on D-Day (6 June 1944) and ended on 30 June 1944. By this time, the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy. Operation Overlord also began on D-Day, and continued until Allied forces crossed the River Seine on 19 August 1944." German coast artillery in the Pas-de-Calais area, with laborers at work on casemate. Mined stakes were part of the German defences on the Normandy beaches.[edit] German defenses The Normandy defenses were under the command of the German LXXXIV Korps (Erich Marcks), German Seventh Army (Friedrich Dollman). The order of battle in the landing area was approximately as follows, from east to west.
German 21st Panzer Division (Edgar Feuchtinger), comprising the 22nd Panzer Regiment (partly with old French tanks), 200th Assault Guns Battalion, and the 125th and 192nd Panzer Grenadier Regiments. This veteran panzer unit (although during rearming) was located in the Caen region, and formed part of Rommel's panzer reserve. German 716th Static Infantry Division (Wilhelm Richter), comprising the 441 Ost Battalion, 726th and 736th Infantry Regiments. This coastal defense division protected the coastal area of the Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno landing zones. German 352nd Infantry Division (Dietrich Kraiss), comprising the 914th, 915th, and 916th Infantry Regiments (only 2 battalions per regiment). This regular infantry division defended the Omaha landing zone, and city of St. Lo. German 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment (Frederick von der Heydt). This was an elite parachute regiment belonging to the German 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division. Defended Carentan. German 91st Air Landing Division (Luftlande – air transported) (Wilhelm Falley), comprising the 1057th and 1058th Infantry Regiments. This was a regular infantry division, trained, and equipped to be transported by air (i.e. transportable artillery, few heavy support weapons) located in the interior of the Cotentin Peninsula, including the landing zone of the American airdrops. German 709th Static Infantry Division (von Schlieben), comprising the 729th, 739th (both with 4 battalions, although 4th were Ost), and 919th Infantry Regiments. This coastal defense division protected the eastern, and northern (including Cherbourg) coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, including the Utah beach landing zone. German 243rd Static Infantry Division (Generalleutnant Heinz Hellmich), comprising the 920th (2 battalions), 921st, and 922nd Infantry Regiments. This coastal defense division protected the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. German 30th Fast Infantry Brigade, comprising of 3 bicycle battalions. The Germans had extensively fortified the foreshore area as part of their Atlantic Wall defences, causing the landings to be timed for low tide. It was guarded by four divisions, of which only one (352nd) was of high quality (in fact, the only quality was from a cadre of 321st Division—the core of 352nd). The other defending troops included Germans who, usually for medical reasons, were not considered fit for active duty on the Eastern Front, and various other nationalities such as Soviet prisoners of war from the southern USSR who had agreed to fight for the Germans rather than endure the harsh conditions of German POW camps.
The 21st Panzer division guarded Caen, and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was stationed to the south-east. Its soldiers had all been recruited directly from the Hitler Youth movement at the age of sixteen in 1943, and it was to acquire a reputation for ferocity and war crimes in the coming battle. Some of the area behind Utah beach had been flooded by the Germans as a precaution against parachute assault.
[edit] The landings Pathfinders synchronising their watches in front of an Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle.[edit] The French Resistance The BBC in its French service from London would regularly transmit hundreds of personal messages. Only a few of them were really significant. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard the first line of Verlaine's poem , Chanson d'Automne, "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" (Long sobs of autumn violins) which meant that the "day" was imminent. When the second line "blesse mon coeur d'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a montonous langour) was heard, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. They then knew it was time to go about their respective pre assigned missions, which included destroying selected water towers, telephone lines, roads and railways.
[edit] Airborne landings The British 6th Airborne Division was the first full unit to go into action, at sixteen minutes past midnight, in Operation Tonga. One set of objectives was Pegasus Bridge and other bridges on the rivers at the east flank of the landing area. The bridges were very quickly captured by glider forces and held until relieved by the Commandos later on D-Day. Another objective was a large gun battery at Merville. Although this larger glider and paratroop force was widely scattered, the battery was destroyed. However, the diminished assault team suffered 50% casualties in the attack.
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Post by Wasres on Sept 21, 2005 11:41:38 GMT -5
The 82nd (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne (Operation Chicago) were less fortunate in quickly completing their main objectives. Partly due to inexperienced piloting and difficult terrain, many units were widely scattered and unable to rally. Efforts of the early wave of pathfinder teams to mark the landing zones were largely ineffective. Some paratroopers drowned when they landed in the sea or in deliberately flooded areas. After 24 hours, only 2,500 of the 6,000 men in 101st had assembled. Many continued to roam and fight behind enemy lines for days. The 82nd occupied the town of Sainte-Mère-Église early in the morning of June 6, giving it the claim of the first town liberated in the invasion.
[edit] Sword Beach Allied troops under fire behind Czech hedgehog beach obstacles. Photographed by Robert Capa.Main article: Sword Beach On Sword Beach, the regular British infantry got ashore with light casualties. They had advanced about five miles (8 km) by the end of the day but failed to make some of the deliberately testing targets set by Montgomery. In particular, Caen, a major objective, was still in German hands by the end of D-Day.
1 Special Services Brigade went ashore in the second wave led by No.4 Commando with the two French Troops first, as agreed amongst themselves. The British and French of No.4 Commando had separate targets in Ouistreham: the French a blockhouse and the Casino, and the British two batteries which overlooked the beach. The blockhouse proved too strong for the Commando's PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti Tank) guns, but the Casino was taken with the aid of a Centaur tank. The British Commandos achieved both battery objectives only to find the gun mounts empty and the guns removed. Leaving the mopping-up procedure to the infantry, the Commandos withdrew from Ouistreham to join the other members of 1 SAS Brigade (Nos.3, 6 and 45), in moving inland to join-up with the 6th Airborne.
[edit] Juno Beach HMS Warspite during D-DayMain article: Juno Beach The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach. The first wave suffered 50 percent casualties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads (the highest was Omaha Beach).
Despite the obstacles, within hours the Canadians were off the beach and beginning their advance inland. The 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) was the only Allied unit to meet its June 6 objectives, when it crossed the Caen–Bayeux highway 15 km inland.
By the end of D-Day, 14,000 Canadians had been successfully landed, and the 3rd Canadian Division had penetrated further into France than any other Allied force, despite having faced such strong resistance at the beachhead. The 21st Panzer division launched the first D-Day counter-attack between Sword and Juno beaches, and the Canadians held against several stiff counter-attacks by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend on June 7 and 8.
[edit] Gold Beach Main article: Gold Beach At Gold Beach, the casualties were also quite heavy, partly because the swimming Sherman DD tanks were delayed, and the Germans had strongly fortified a village on the beach. However, the 50th division overcame its difficulties and advanced almost to the outskirts of Bayeux by the end of the day. With the exception of the Canadians at Juno Beach, no division came closer to its objectives than the 50th.
No.47(RM) Commando was the last British Commando unit to land and came ashore on Gold east of Le Hamel. Their task was to proceed inland then turn right (west) and make a ten-mile (16 km) march through enemy territory to attack the coastal harbour of Port en Bessin from the rear. This small port, on the British extreme right, was well sheltered in the chalk cliffs and significant in that it was to be a prime early harbour for supplies to be brought in including fuel by underwater pipe from tankers moored offshore.
[edit] Omaha Beach Troops in an LCVP landing craft approach Omaha beach June 6, 1944.Main article: Omaha Beach Omaha Beach was the bloodiest landing beach on D-Day. The U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division faced the German 352nd Division, some of the best trained on the beaches. Omaha was the most heavily fortified beach, and pre-landing bombardment of the bunkers was ineffective. Almost all of the swimming DD tanks swamped en route to the beach. The official record stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded [...] It had become a struggle for survival and rescue". There were about 2,500 killed, most in the first few hours. Commanders considered abandoning the beachhead, but some survivors regrouped and pressed inland.
[edit] Pointe du Hoc Main article: Pointe du Hoc The massive, concrete cliff-top gun emplacement at Pointe du Hoc was the target of the U.S. 2nd Ranger battalion. The task of the 225 men, led by Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, was to scale the 30-metre cliffs under enemy fire with ropes and ladders, and then attack and destroy the guns, which were thought to command the Omaha and Utah landing areas. The emplacement was successfully reached, and the guns, which had been moved out (probably during the preceding bombardment), were found and destroyed.
[edit] Utah Beach Main article: Utah Beach Casualties on Utah Beach, the westernmost landing zone, were 197 out of around 23,000 landed, the lightest of any beach. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division was able to press inland relatively easily and succeeded in linking up with parts of the airborne divisions, which had helped secure the beachhead and confuse the enemy prior to the landings, with heavy casualties.
[edit] After the landings Landing supplies at Normandy. How the beachheads were supplied on D-Day. Photo taken 6 June 1944 by Steck SC190631 public domain. The build-up of Omaha Beach: reinforcements of men and equipment moving inland.Once the beachhead was established, two artificial Mulberry Harbours were towed across the English Channel in segments and made operational around D+3. One was constructed at Arromanches by British forces, the other at Omaha Beach by American forces. The Omaha harbour was destroyed in severe storms around D+13. Around 9,000 tons of materiel was landed daily at the Arromanches harbour until the end of August 1944, by which time the ports of Antwerp and Cherbourg had been secured by the Allies, and had begun to return to service.
The German defenders positioned on the beaches put up relatively light resistance, being ill-trained and short on transport and equipment, and having been subject to a week of intense bombardment. An exception was the 352nd Infantry division, moved earlier by Rommel from St. Lo, which defended Omaha beach. The tenacity of the 352nd's defence, and perhaps also the indication by Allied intelligence that there would be only two 2 battalions of the 716th Division there, was responsible for Omaha's high casualty rate. Other German commanders took several hours to be sure that the reports they were receiving indicated a landing in force, rather than a series of raids. Their communication difficulties were made worse by the absence of several key commanders. The scattering of the American parachutists also added to the confusion, as reports were coming in of Allied troops all over northern Normandy.
Despite this the 21st Panzer division mounted a concerted counter-attack, between Sword and Juno beaches, and succeeded in reaching the sea. Stiff resistance by anti-tank gunners, and fear lest they be cut off, caused them to withdraw before the end of 6 June. According to some reports the sighting of a wave of airborne troops flying over them was instrumental in the decision to retreat.
The Allied invasion plans had called for the capture of Carentan, St. Lo, Caen and Bayeux on the first day, with all the beaches linked except Utah, and Sword (the last linked with paratroopers) and a front line six to ten miles (10 to 16 km) from the beaches. In practice none of these had been achieved. However, overall the casualties had not been as heavy as some had feared (around 10,000 compared to the 20,000 Churchill feared), and the bridgeheads had withstood the expected counter-attacks.
Priorities in the days following the landing for the Allies were: to link the bridgeheads; to take Caen; and to capture the port of Cherbourg to provide a secure supply line.
The German 12th SS (Hitler Youth) Panzer division assaulted the Canadians on June 7 and June 8, and inflicted heavy losses, but were unable to break through. Meanwhile, the beaches were being linked—Sword on June 7, Omaha June 10, Utah by June 13. The Allies were actually reinforcing the front faster than the Germans. Although the Allies had to land everything on the beaches, Allied air superiority and the destruction of the French rail system made every German troop movement slow and dangerous.
The country behind Utah and Omaha beaches was characterised by bocage; ancient banks and hedgerows, up to three metres thick, spread one to two hundred metres apart, and so both being impervious to tanks, gunfire, and vision, and making ideal defensive positions. The U.S. infantry made slow progress, and suffered heavy casualties, as they pressed towards Cherbourg. The elite airborne troops were called on again and again to restart a stalled advance. Hitler expected the Cherbourg garrison to resist to the end, and deny the port to the Allies, but the Cherbourg commander surrendered on June 26.
Believing Caen to be the "crucible" of the battle, Montgomery made it the target of three separate attacks from June 7 to July 1, before it was surrounded and bombed on July 7 in Operation Charnwood. Seeking a decisive breakout into the open country that led to Paris, between July 18 and July 20 Montgomery launched a major offensive from the Caen area with all three British armoured divisions, codenamed Operation Goodwood. Initially successful, it was eventually stopped by determined and improvised resistance from the 1st and 12th Panzer divisions, supported by German engineers acting as infantry. The British tank casualties were very high; yet the German reserves had been committed to hold the line, and could not now be used to combat the American Operation Cobra, launched on July 24. With the German troops committed to the north, Cobra succeeded, and the advance guard of the U.S. VIII Corps rolled into Coutances at the western end of the Cotentin Peninsula, on July 28, penetrating the German line for Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army to advance through into northwestern France. The bulk of German resistance in the region was finally eliminated on August 21, with the successful closure of the Falaise Gap by Canadian and Polish troops. The clandestine French Resistance in Paris rose against the Germans on August 19; and a French division under General Jacques Leclerc, pressing forward from Normandy, received the surrender of the German forces there and liberated Paris on August 25.
[edit] Chronology June 5/June 6 U.S. 82nd Airborne Division (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne Division (Operation Chicago) and British 6th Airborne Division (Operation Tonga) were airlanded. June 6 — Seaborne D-Day landings (Operation Neptune) June 7-17 3rd Parachute Brigade of the British 6th Airborne Division repulse several German Attacks at Le Mesnil Crossroads. June 12 101st Airborne Division captures Carentan June 13 101st Airborne Division repel a German Counter Attack west of the city at a place called Hill 30, Elements of the 2nd Armoured Divison is ordered to help relieve the paratroopers June 25–June 29 Operation Epsom, an offensive to the west of Caen, was repulsed by the German defenders. July 7 — Caen finally captured. July 17 — Erwin Rommel was severely injured when his car was strafed by a Royal Canadian Air Force Spitfire. July 18–July 20 — Operation Goodwood initiated. August 3–August 9 — Operation Totalize, a trap to capture retreating German armour starts. August 16 — Operation Dragoon, a joint American/French landing on the French Riviera, begins. [edit] Political considerations The Normandy landings were long foreshadowed by a considerable amount of political maneuvering amongst the Allies. There was much disagreement about timing, appointments of command, and where exactly the landings were to take place. The opening of a second front had been long postponed (it had been initially mooted in 1942), and had been a particular source of strain between the Allies. Stalin had been pressing the Western Allies to launch a "second front" since 1942, but Churchill had argued for delay until victory could be assured, preferring to attack Italy and North Africa first.
The appointment of Bernard Montgomery was questioned by some Americans, who would have preferred the urbane Harold Alexander to have commanded the land forces. Montgomery himself had doubts about the appointment of Dwight Eisenhower, because Eisenhower had very little field experience. In the event, however, Montgomery and Eisenhower cooperated to excellent effect in Normandy: their well-known disagreements came much later.
Normandy presented serious logistical problems, not the least of which being that the only viable port in the area, Cherbourg, was heavily defended and many among the higher echelons of command argued that the Pas de Calais would make a more suitable landing area on these grounds alone.
[edit] Aftermath and strategic appraisal An American military cemetery in NormandyAlthough ultimately successful, the Normandy landings were extremely costly in terms of men and materiel. The 3rd Division's failure to take Caen, an overly ambitious target, on the first day was to have serious repercussions on the conduct of the war for well over a month, seriously delaying any forward progress. The fortuitous capture of Villers-Bocage followed by the failure to reinforce it, and its subsequent recapture by the Germans, was again to hamper any attempt to extend the Caen bridgehead and push on. By D+11, June 17, the assault had stagnated.
A lot of the problem came down to the nature of the terrain in which much of the post-landing fighting took place, the bocages. These were essentially small fields separated by high earth banks covered in dense shrubbery, which were eminently defensible.
In the end, the Normandy invasion succeeded in its objective by sheer force of numbers. Many more troops and equipment continued to come ashore after D-Day. By the end of July 1944, some 1 million Allied troops, mostly American, British and Canadian, were entrenched in Normandy.
The success of the battle opened up the long-awaited Western Front. Germany had to divert much-needed manpower and resources from the Russian and Italian fronts to fight on the new battlefields in western Europe.
The toehold established at Normandy was vital for the Western Allies (largely the British Commonwealth and the U.S.) to bring the war to the western border of Germany. By this time the Soviet forces had the capacity to crush Germany in Europe on their own, and therefore a western invasion was not strictly required to defeat the German Reich. On D-Day, the Red Army was steadily advancing towards Germany and four-fifths of the German forces were in the East. In France, the Allies faced only about 20% of the German army. The second front, however, certainly diverted German resources and attention from the eastern front, and shortened the war.
Given the Soviets' later domination of Eastern Europe, if the Normandy invasion had not occurred there might conceivably have been a complete occupation of northern and western Europe by communist forces. American and British presence helped define the extent that Communism would spread into Europe. Thus the battle of Normandy needs to be understood both within the strategic context of World War II and the strategy of the Cold War which followed.
The visitor to Normandy today will find many reminders of June 6, 1944. Most noticeable are the beaches, which are still referred to on maps and signposts by their invasion codenames. Then come the vast cemeteries, row upon row of identical white crosses and Stars of David, immaculately kept, commemorating the Allied dead. Streets near the beaches are still named after the units that fought there, and occasional markers commemorate notable incidents. At significant points, such as Pointe du Hoc and Pegasus Bridge, there are plaques, memorials or small museums. The Mulberry harbour still sits in the sea at Arromanches. In Sainte-Mère-Église, a dummy paratrooper hangs from the church spire. On Juno Beach, the Canadian government has built the Juno Beach Information Centre, commemorating one of the most significant events in Canadian military history. In Caen is a large Museum for Peace, which is dedicated to peace generally, rather than to the battle itself. The people of Normandy will continue to remember Operation Overlord long into the future.
Every year on June 6, American cartoonist and World War II veteran Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) reserved his Peanuts comic strip to memorialise his comrades who fell at Normandy.
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Post by Wasres on Sept 21, 2005 11:41:53 GMT -5
E-mailing pics and extra links
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Post by Army_Of_One on Sept 21, 2005 11:56:36 GMT -5
ok
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Post by Wasres on Sept 21, 2005 12:39:04 GMT -5
e-mailed, go check them
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Post by Army_Of_One on Sept 21, 2005 12:42:44 GMT -5
ok i check
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Post by Army_Of_One on Sept 21, 2005 12:52:21 GMT -5
I think its time to make a new ctw Scenario of battle of Bulge
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