CNN
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Friday marks 81 years since D-Day, the first day of the Normandy landing, which laid the foundation for the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Invasion – Operation Codename Overlord – We saw tens of thousands of troops from countries including the US, UK and Canada landing five stretches on the coastline of Normandy, France.
D-Day’s plans began more than a year ago, with allies implementing substantial military deceptions to confuse the Germans about when and where the invasion would occur.
The operation was originally scheduled to begin on June 5, 1944, when the full moon and low tide were expected to coincide with the good weather, but the storm forced a 24-hour delay. The Allied Division began landing on five beaches at 6:30am on June 6th.
What does D-Day represent?
The term “d-day” is a military norm for the initiation of important operations, with the first “d” short for “day.” This means that D-Day actually represents “Sunday.”
According to the Royal British Legion, the phrase “D-Day” was used quite frequently before the Allied invasion in June 1944. However, after this, the two became synonyms, and it is now commonly understood that D-Day generally refers to the beginning of Operation Overlord.
D-Day saw unprecedented cooperation between international forces with more than 2 million troops in Britain in preparation for the invasion, according to the Imperial War Museum (IWM).
Most of these troops were American, British and Canadian, but the IWM reports, but the troops also joined the Overlord from Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Poland.
Allied invasions, which could be called amphibious landings, were coordinated across air, land and sea.
These were preceded by extensive bombing campaigns to damage German defenses and employment in deception tactics.
Operation Bodyguard was the umbrella term for the deception strategy that led to the allied invasion of Europe in June 1944. The Fortium of the Operation was a tactic under this umbrella, particularly relevant to the Normandy invasion, with Nazi Germany believing that the first Normandy attack was merely a repurposed, and that the true invasion was elsewhere.
According to IWM, Fortitude North tricked the Germans with the belief that their allies would attack Norway, and Fortitude was designed to convince the Germans that the Germans would invade Pas des Curry, a French division located northeast of Normandy, near Britain.
The US military was assigned to Cotentin Peninsula at the northern tip of the Normandy coast and to Utah Beach, at the foot of Omaha Beach. The British then landed on Gold Beach, and the Canadians of Juno, and eventually the British, on the easternmost swords of the invasion.
By midnight, the troops had secured the beach head and moved further inland from Utah, Gold, Junho and sword.
However, not all landings were successful. The US military suffered a major loss at Omaha Beach. There, the strong currents allowed many landers to move away from their intended locations, delaying and obstructing invasion strategies.
The massive fire from the German position on a steep cliff, which had not been effectively destroyed by Allied bombings prior to the invasion, caused casualties.
Germany’s response to Operation Overlord was “slowly confused,” according to IWM.
Weather conditions on June 6 were still poor, many senior commanders were not in their posts, and the Fortit of Operations convinced Adolf Hitler that the Normandy invasion was feint before the larger attack at Pas de Calais.
The German air force was operating elsewhere, countering American bombing operations through Germany. The naval ship was docked into the port or had already been destroyed by the allies. According to the IWM, this left only the Germans to protect against Operation Overlord.
In addition to this, the indomitable success of the operation meant that until July many army units were shunned from the Normandy battlefield, as Pas des Carrey’s attack was still anticipated.
The Germans defending coastal defenses “do everything they could expect,” the IWM says that they will eventually become “silent” and that the alliance units will advance inland.
D-Day alone has confirmed that around 4,440 allied forces have been killed, and more than 5,800 troops have been wounded or missing, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).
Omaha Beach was the bloodiest landing beach, and the US military lost the most men in amphibious landings. About 2,500 American troops were killed in d-day beach assault and air operations, according to the CWGC.
The exact number of German casualties on the day is unknown, but they are estimated to be between 4,000 and 9,000.
Of the tens of thousands of troops that raided Normandy beaches on D-Day, 44 were soldiers, sailors and airmen from Bedford, Virginia, USA.
Within minutes of arriving at Omaha Beach, 16 of these men were killed and four were injured. Another Bedford soldier was killed elsewhere in Omaha Beach, and three others were presumed to have been killed in action, bringing the fatal figures of Bedford’s D-Day to 20 men.
According to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, Bedford suffered from the most known per capita D-Day loss in the United States.
Despite securing bases on the French coast on D-Day, the allied forces faced the risk that German artillery could push them back into the sea.
They needed to build troops and equipment in Normandy faster than the Germans, allowing for a continuous invasion of the European mainland.
Allies used the Air Force to slow German advances into Normandy by blowing up bridges, rails and roads throughout the region. This allowed the allies to gain full control of Normandy 77 days later and proceeded towards Paris, which was released in August 1944.
The US Department of Defense calls D-Day “the successful beginning of the end of Hitler’s tyranny.” IWM calls it “the most important victory of the Western allies in World War II.”
Being able to put effort into Normandy allowed the allies to begin their advance towards Northwest Europe. While World War II lasted almost a year in Europe, the success of Operation Overlord led to the liberation of France, allowing allies to fight the Germans in Nazi-occupied Europe.
The World War II Museum in the United States says a good way to understand the importance of D-Day is to imagine what happened if the surgery failed. Another landing would have been impossible for at least a year, according to the museum.
At this point, Hitler may have strengthened coastal defenses in Europe under Nazi occupation, developed aircraft and weapons, bombed Britain more heavily, and continued his killing campaign, the museum said.
The battle between allies on the Western Front and Russian soldiers on the Eastern Front ultimately led to the defeat of German Nazi forces.
(On May 7, 1945, the German Third Reich signed an unconditional surrender in Rymes, France. The Victory (ve) Day in Europe is celebrated the following day.