The Day of Defeat

The Day of Defeat

Operation Overlord, more commonly known as D-day, took place on June sixth, 1944; though, it was not originally planned to happen when it did. In August 1943, "President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, meeting in Quebec, Casablanca, or at Yalta with Stalin, would approve or disapprove these plans. One of the first decisions to be made was the agreement to defeat Germany first and fight a holding action in the Pacific until Hitler fell." (Dank, 7). They agreed that an invasion of Western Europe would be appropriate, almost a necessity, to defeat Germany, and they felt early May would be the proper time for such an undertaking, which was unprecedented at this time in world history due to its sheer size and scope. This would allow enough time for the detailed planning of the invasion, the practicing of paratrooper drops, the build up of troops, and the never ending briefings. After additional planning, the leaders decided that, in the best interests of the invasion, it should be postponed until a later date. "...this operation is fraught with hazards. Unless these hazards are squarely faced and adequately overcome, the operation cannot succeed. There is no reason why they should not be overcome, provided the energies of all concerned are bent to the problem." (www.army.mil/cmh-pg/documents/wwii/g4-OL/g4-OL.htm). The date that the invasion would finally take place would be June sixth. June sixth was chosen as the date for Operation Overlord because of many factors which included; a lack of troops that would be available at the original set date; tidal conditions; weather; and a late rising moon. Originally the invasion was going to take place sometime in early May, but when early May approached some of the troops were still engaged in battles elsewhere and would not be available by the time the invasion was scheduled to take place. If the invasion was to have been carried out when it was originally planned, the troops would have had to have been spread so thinly, in an attempt to try and cover for absent troops, that the outcome of the mission might have been jeopardized. Since every man was needed for the invasion to succeed it was decided to delay the start date. This invasion would be either a victory over Hitler, or an unfathomable defeat. No matter which outcome, there was going to be a large fatality rate and every man had to be present for it to succeed.

A new date had to be chosen, and it had to be sometime in the near future since troop buildup had already begun and there was concern that Hitler would discover this and prepare for the upcoming invasion. There were many conditions that had to be factored into the selection of a date, and June sixth was the soonest date available that had conditions favorable to the success of the mission. One condition that was necessary was low tide. The tide had to be low in order for the ships to drop soldiers behind obstacles placed under water. "Since Hitler's Atlantic wall was not completed and would not be sufficient enough to halt the invasion" (www.thirdreichpages.org/normandy.htm), Field Marshal Rommel ordered huge obstacles to be placed under the water around the Normandy shore, so that any invasion would be harder to carry out. They used concrete walls, large steel beams, war debris from the first World War, and just about anything that could be piled up to create an underwater barrier. With the low tide, the allied soldiers and artillery could use the debris as protection from the massive amounts of gunfire they were expecting

to encounter. June sixth was the first of four days that would have a low tide, which allowed the invasion to happen the first day, and if successful, supplies could then be shipped in the next three. June sixth was also a day that was going to have nice weather. The sun was going to be out, and a light breeze was going to be blowing inland; all around it was going to be a nice day. These were the best conditions for fighting because the troops would not be slowed down by rain