The Battle of Normandy (d-Day)

The Battle of Normandy (D-Day)

The battle of D-Day was the largest amphibious battle to ever happen in us history. It was named Operation Overlord. But since it was the biggest amphibious invasion in US history, how did it happen? What was the preparation, strategies and obstacles of D-Day?

There was a lot of preparation that went into The Battle of Normandy. Plans for the invasion were starting to be made in 1941,(history.com) but General Dwight Eisenhower wasn’t appointed leader of the invasion until January 1944(history.com) The attacks on towns and German bases began months before the actual invasion (ushistory.org) Eisenhower selected June 5th for the invasion to begin, but weather delayed it 24 hours. (history.com) The main objective for the invasion was to secure the 5 beaches of normandy. Other objectives included pushing back german forces with air support and breaking down the atlantic wall.(history.com and bliven pg. 12) The plan was to send in 1000s of paratroopers the dawn on june 6th to surprise the Germans, and to have almost 3,000,000 allied soldiers rush the beaches. (history.com)

With the date set and the troops getting geared up, what strategies would the allies use to conquer the beaches? To get to the beaches the allied soldiers would be carried on LCVPs, each carrying a basic unit of 32 men. (blieven pg.7&8)The LCVPs would end up carrying almost 3 million men to the beaches of Normandy. The allies received 50,000 vehicles and 100,000 tons of equipment along with 360,000 soldiers on the beach on June 11th. (history.com) The allies sent in 5 man demolitionist teams to blow up the wall. The wall was a concrete wall and barbed wire fence wall that stretched from Denmark to southern France, It was named the Atlantic Wall. (Bliven pg.2) The Allies sent in 300 planes to bomb the germans while landing on the beaches. Even with all those men, vehicles and equipment, the invasion was set back 24 hours due to harsh weather. That was OK though because the Germans thought the real invasion was going to happen farther north even after hours of air attacks. (bliven pg 17)