06/22/09

D-Day (Operation Overlord landings)

On June 6^th 1944 D-day began to kick out the German Wehrmacht out of France. For four years France has been under German control. Hitler ordered the construction of the Atlantic wall to stop an invasion. It ran from Norway all the way to the border of Spain.

Before D-day the Allies won air superiority for the invasion. The Allies made plans to fool the Germans to make them think that the main invasion was going to happen in the Calais area. So the Germans devoted more resources and men from the real landing.

Before the landings 20,000 paratroopers parachuted in to capture bridges towns, and to knock out artillery. When the Allies invaded they had divided the beaches into 5 sections called Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha, and Utah. Utah had the least amount of resistance. Omaha had the most resistance. Of the DD tanks some showed up on the beaches but a lot were sunk on way to the beach because of the rough channel. On the other beaches resistance was lighter with the help off the DD tanks. But on Juno they faced a counter attack by the 21^st panzers. After the landings they moved inland several miles.

Map of Omaha above

By end of the day 156,000 Allied troops would land in Normandy. The toll to the Allies of D-Day was 9,000 causalities.

D-Day