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Second World War: Europe; “Into the Jaws of Death — U.S. Troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire”, circa 1944-06-06. Chief Photographer’s Mate (CPHoM) Robert F. Sargent, Records of the US Coast Guard (NAID 355)

UK troops storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

From: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/d-day
D-DAY

The D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, marked the launch of Operation Overlord. Operation Overlord was the code name for the invasion of Normandy. The Normandy Campaign proved to be one of the most important Allied military operations of World War II. It was key to the western Allies’ victory over Germany. By the end of June, more than 850,000 Allied troops had come ashore on the beaches of Normandy.

KEY FACTS

* 1

 Operation Overlord began on June 6, 1944. This date is known as “D-Day.” D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in history. More than 150,000 primarily American, British, and Canadian troops were deployed that day by air and sea. 


* 2 

D-Day marked the beginning of the end of the German occupation of France. Two and a half months later, Allied forces liberated Paris. 


* 3

 By June 1944, more than five million Jews had been murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators in the Holocaust (1933–1945). Nevertheless, Operation Overlord likely contributed to the survival of hundreds of thousands of Jews in western and central Europe.

D-Day took place on June 6, 1944. It is one of the best-known and most important moments of the US war effort during World War II (1939–1945).

On June 6, 1944, Allied troops launched a military operation code named Operation Overlord. On that day, US, British, and Canadian troops crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. These troops were augmented by men from many other countries, including: France, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Today, “D-Day” commonly refers to June 6, 1944, the launch date of Operation Overlord. In military terminology, however, “d-day” refers to the start date of any military operation.
D-Day marked the opening of an Allied front in western Europe. In the months that followed, the western Allies (led by Britain and the United States) drove German troops out of France and other western European countries. They eventually crossed into Germany…
Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7–8, 1944, almost a year after D-Day.   

The Events of D-Day and the Normandy Campaign

Operation Overlord was organized under the overall command of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. British General Bernard Montgomery commanded the ground forces landing in Normandy. 

During the operation, 133,000 Allied ground troops landed on five beaches stretched over roughly 50 miles of Normandy’s coastline. The beaches were code named (west to east): Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. US troops hit the beaches of Utah and Omaha, while British and Canadian units stormed the beaches of Gold, Juno, and Sword. On the night before the amphibious landings, more than 23,000 US, British, and Canadian paratroopers landed in France behind the German defensive lines by parachute and glider. Some 195,000 naval personnel and merchant mariners, 7,000 vessels, and more than 11,500 aircraft supported the initial invasion.

At first, under the command of Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel, the Germans held the advantage in battle positioning. The German Seventh Army, with six divisions, including one tank division, was in place to defend northwest France from any invading forces. However, the Allies had an overwhelming advantage in naval and air power.

Moreover, a successful Allied deception plan had led the Germans to believe the point of the attack would be further north and east on the coast near Calais and the Belgian border. The Germans moved slowly to reinforce the Normandy defenses after the initial landing, just in case the Allies were trying to divert attention from a larger attack elsewhere.

“‘This is D-Day,’ the BBC announced at twelve. ‘This is the day.’ The invasion has begun…Is this really the beginning of the long-awaited liberation? The liberation we’ve all talked so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy tale ever to come true? Will this year, 1944, bring us victory? We don’t know yet. But where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.” 
—Anne Frank, diary entry dated June 6, 1944

By nightfall of June 6, more than 150,000 Allied servicemen had made it by air or sea onto French soil. Allied troops had suffered more than 10,000 casualties (servicemen who were killed, wounded, or missing), with 4,400 confirmed dead. British and Canadian forces suffered around 3,700 casualties; and US forces suffered about 6,600 casualties. German forces suffered a casualty rate of between 4,000 and 9,000 men.

On D-Day itself, the Allies initially failed to reach their planned objective of linking the beachheads or driving inland to a distance of 9 miles. On June 11, however, Allied troops overcame German resistance. They united the invasion beaches into one large beachhead. But despite Allied military superiority, the Germans contained Allied troops in their slowly expanding beachhead for six weeks. Today, this battle is commonly known as the Battle of Normandy….” Read more and see more photos here:  https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/d-day

The invasion of Normandy in June 1944 was the culmination of three years of planning and preparation gathering by Allied forces in Britain… Instrumental to Allied success was the American, British, and Allied naval and amphibious contingents at Normandy. In the year before D-Day, U.S. and Commonwealth forces trained and prepared for amphibious operations out of ports in southern England…https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/art/exhibits/conflicts-and-operations/wwii/the-invasion-of-normandy.html

Universal News Volume 17, Release 300, Reels 1 & 2 of 2. June 6, 1944. Eve of Battle tells the story of the preparation for the Normandy invasion through motion pictures produced by service film units of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. Universal News Volume 17, Release 300, Reels 1 & 2 of 2. June 6, 1944https://youtu.be/botR0QvS8Fg

The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later Western Europe)… Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were deemed suitable. Adolf Hitler placed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower in command of Allied forces.

The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06:30. The target 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialised tanks….” Excerpt from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings

Allies: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Australia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Greece, South Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings

The invasion of Normandy in June 1944 was the culmination of three years of planning and preparation gathering by Allied forces in Britain. Landing in the face of determined German resistance, units of the British Commonwealth and U.S. armies established a beachhead, defeated German counter-attacks, and eventually broke out into a fast-moving campaign in France. By September 1944, Allied forces had liberated most of France and were poised to cross the Rhine river into Germany itself. In conjunction with Allied forces in northern Italy… the total defeat of Nazi Germany was in sight.
 
Instrumental to Allied success was the American, British, and Allied naval and amphibious contingents at Normandy. In the year before D-Day, U.S. and Commonwealth forces trained and prepared for amphibious operations out of ports in southern England. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, minesweepers cleared the channel of mines while escorts and patrol aircraft attacked any German submarines that tried to operate in the English Channel. Battleships, cruisers and destroyers provided crucial bombardment of enemy fortifications both on the Normandy shore and, with the aid of Navy spotter teams, further inland. During the actual invasion, navy-manned landing craft shuttled troops ashore in the face of fierce enemy resistance. Once there, Navy beach battalions served under fire to facilitate the orderly flow of men, vehicles, and supplies from cargo and amphibious ships offshore. Navy field hospitals also provided aid to the wounded and transported them to ships for the voyage to hospitals in England…
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/art/exhibits/conflicts-and-operations/wwii/the-invasion-of-normandy.html

Eve of Battle, June 6, 1944 – Story of the Preparation for Allied Invasion of Normandy on D-Day

Never Forget: the US and UK Saved World From Tyranny During WWII

The USSR may have ended World War II on the winning side, but it began the war conquering its neighbors alongside Hitler following the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop nonaggression pact signed in 1939 between Germany and the Soviet Union…. As the Red Army rode into Berlin, it did so riding American-made Jeeps and Studebaker trucks that were an essential component of the Soviet war effort“ (Jarrett Stepman, May 21, 2021, The Daily Signal) See: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2023/05/09/never-forget-the-us-and-uk-saved-world-from-tyranny-during-wwii/


Who made the military equipment? American Women at work on bomber, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif. LOC.

During WWII, the USA sent to Russia (USSR) the 2023 equivalent of $215 billion: 400,000 jeeps & trucks, 14,000 airplanes, 8,000 tractors, 13,000 tanks, 1.5 million blankets, 15 million pairs of army boots, 107,000 tons of cotton, 2.7 million tons of petrol products, 4.5 million tons of food. https://ru.usembassy.gov/world-war-ii-allies-u-s-lend-lease-to-the-soviet-union-1941-1945/ US aid/technology and the weather defeated Germany in the USSR. Germany and the USSR started WWII as allies who invaded Poland together. The world is still paying dearly for the mistake of helping the USSR. We should have let the USSR and Germany finish each other off, with the help of the weather. Russia still owes over $200 billion in unpaid aid: Read more here: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2023/03/14/the-us-should-demand-russia-pay-back-over-200-billion-still-unpaid-for-wwii-lend-lease/

The US Should Demand Russia Pay Back Over $200 Billion Still Unpaid For WWII Lend Lease

Victory in Europe US Army Units May 8, 1945; During WWII, 40% of US GDP Spent on Defense; Ungrateful Russia Still Owes the US Over $200 Billion in “Lend Lease”

Diet Eman: Dutch Resistance Worker During World War II; Righteous Among Nations

Africa’s Critically Important Role in Stopping Hitler During World War Two