D-Day is a military term that refers to the day of a planned attack or operation.  However, D-Day in American history most often refers to the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy, France.  Also known as Operation Overlord, this was an invasion by joint US, British, and Canadian troops, and it became the turning point of World War Two in Europe.  It was also the beginning of the end of German occupation of Europe.

            On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland.  Since Great Britain and France were allies of Poland, they were both drawn into what was the beginning of World War Two.  Within less than a year, British and French forces had evacuated the European mainland, and Germany had near-total control over continental Europe.  To fortify his position, Hitler ordered the construction of a system of bunkers over 3,000 miles long that covered the Atlantic coast from northern Norway to the northern border of Spain.  This “Atlantic Wall” included machine-gun sites, barbed wire fences, artillery, and a network of trenches that connected the bunkers to one another.  This wall was meant to defend the German west front while the Wehrmacht concentrated on conquering Russia.  The beaches in front of the wall were flat and barren except for the mines and anti-landing obstacles that the Germans had placed there.  There was no cover for an invading force, making the beach an easily tenable position. (Bliven 3-7, 29-30)

            In planning the attack, one of the major decisions of the Allied commanders [Lt. Gen. Bradley, Admiral Ramsay, Gen. Eisenhower, Gen. Montgomery, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, ACM Leigh-Mallory, and Lt. Gen. Smith] was the location of the invasion.  The assault had to be at a location that was less fortified than other parts of the Atlantic Wall.  On August 19, 1942, 6,100 British and Canadian troops conducted a raid against the port of Dieppe in France.  In the 10 hours of fighting, the British and Canadian forces lost nearly 5,000 men.  Above all else, this taught the Allied forces that ports were too well defended to attack successfully.  Beaches, while more open and therefore more susceptible to enemy fire, were not as well guarded as ports.  It was decided that the attack would take place on the beaches of Normandy.  The beaches themselves were divided into five zones, codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword (from east to west).  Sword and Gold were the British targets; Omaha and Utah were the American beaches; and Juno was for the Canadian forces.  The plan was for the first wave of men to establish enough of a beachhead that reinforcements could be safely brought in.  From there, the Allied forces would march inland, slowly pushing back the Germans. (Bliven; Ambrose; World War 2 Timeline)

There were several planned stages for the attack.  The first was a paratrooper drop on the night before the assault.  The paratroopers were supposed to capture several key locations, including bridges, artillery sites, and certain strategic buildings.  This was the first time that a nighttime paratrooper drop had been performed; it was an experiment.  The second step was a massive bombing/artillery barrage directly before the actual assault.  American and British bombers flew directly over the German gun emplacements at Normandy, dropping nearly 9,000 tons of bombs.  Added to this was a continuous barrage of shells from the warships of the assault force.  Out of the 6,000 ships participating in the attack, 700 of them were there solely as artillery support for the troops.  It was expected that nothing could survive an onslaught of that magnitude. (Bliven 24-25, 27)

The Allies had to consider another important factor.  This other variable was the time of the attack (both the hour and the date).  The time was itself important for several reasons.  It was necessary to catch the Germans off guard; otherwise, the plan had no hope.  The best time for this was dawn (the final time for attack was decided to be 6:30 Local Time).  The name “D-day” was specifically chosen because of its ambiguity; it told the Germans nothing about when the attack would actually occur.  It was also necessary to pick a night when there was a full moon, and the weather had to be clear as well.  This was to help both the paratroopers and the bombers.  The Allied commanders knew that dropping either soldiers or bombs accurately on a dark, cloudy night would be nearly impossible to do.  It was also necessary for the weather to be clear so that the seas would be calm, and only a minimal amount of water would be taken in by the landing craft.  If a boat swamped too far away from the shore, the men couldn’t make it to the shore to participate in the attack.  If too many boats swamped, then not enough men would be on the beach for the attack to be successful.  (Williams & Barratt; Bliven; Ambrose)

The attack also had to be as soon as possible, without rushing the process.  It was known that Hitler had plans to invade Great Britain, and if Britain had fallen, then the Allied forces would have lost not only a valuable asset, but also the staging ground for the invasion.  It was also necessary to initiate the attack as soon as possible because of the German Luftwaffe, lack thereof.  For the past few years, the Allied air forces had been wreaking havoc on German fighters and bombers.  Allied bombers had gone on raids against German oil refineries and aircraft factories.  In the few months before the invasion, the Luftwaffe had been rendered nearly inactive.  This meant that the Allies had total control of the skies; the Germans could not attack the invasion force by air.  However, this air superiority could not be maintained indefinitely, which increased the need for the attack to be instigated immediately.  By the time that all of the men were trained and all of the assault vehicles were assembled, it was June 3rd, 1944.  The only days in all of June that fit the conditions for the best assault were the 5th, 6th, and 7th.  However, as the days approached, the weather took a turn for the worse.  The question became whether to continue with the assault and risk failure, or postpone the attack for another month.  It was eventually decided to continue with the attack on the 6th. (Williams & Barratt; Bliven; Ambrose)

Several main objectives needed to be attained quickly to cripple the German ability to respond to the invasion.  These areas included the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc and the town of St. Mere Eglise.  The cliffs of Pointe du Hoc were located in the 18 miles between Utah and Omaha beaches.  The Germans had a gun emplacement with six cannons on top of the cliffs.  With these six cannons, the Germans covered about half of both Utah and Omaha beaches with a constant barrage of shells, which limited the Allied advance.  The US Army Rangers had been given the job of “taking out” the gun emplacement.  After a time, they succeeded in their mission and allowed the invasion to continue with one less hindrance.  St. Mere Eglise was a German-occupied town directly on a main road leading to the Normandy landing zones.  It was decided that the town needed to be controlled by the Allies to prevent (or at least to slow down) a heavy German counterattack to Overlord.  The US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were tasked with occupying the town.  Due to a bad drop, the paratroopers landed directly in the town, as opposed to outside the outer limits.  As a result, the German soldiers were able to easily kill or capture most of the Allied paratroopers.  Later in the morning, a makeshift squad comprised of the remaining paratroopers took the town with little resistance, due to confusion in the German forces.  Although the town was taken, it was not a victory without heavy losses for the Allied forces.  (“Normandy 1944”)

From the start, the attack was filled with small breakdowns that seemed to threaten the whole mission.  The planes filled with paratroopers flew into a cloudbank, forcing them to veer apart to avoid collision.  This scattered the paratroopers when they landed, separating them from their units, their supplies, and their objectives.  While this did confuse the Germans into thinking that the attack was much larger than it actually was, it still made things difficult for the paratroopers.  They were the first strike of the invasion, and a large portion of them never had a chance to strike.  The bombers ran into the same problems.  The clouds blocked their ability to visually target where they dropped their bombs, so they had to bomb by instrument (which was very inaccurate).  They didn’t want to risk bombing the Allied invasion force, so they waited too long to drop their bombs.  Instead of attacking the German bunkers, they blew up large fields and cow pastures in the area behind the Atlantic Wall.  The landing force had to deal with much more resistance than they had expected.  Nevertheless, in the face of adversity they pushed forward. (Bliven)

Of the five beaches, Omaha was by far the most difficult.  On Utah, there were only 200 casualties, for an advance of six miles by the end of the first day.  The British and Canadians of Gold, Juno, and Sword managed to get seven miles inland, with some advance parties as far as ten miles from the beach.  The individual casualty counts on Gold, Juno, and Sword were higher than those on Utah were, but were still light compared to the death toll at Omaha.  On Omaha beach, it took until 11 o’clock that night for the front to advance one mile inland, with over 2,000 casualties.  As slow as the first day was, though, the invasion picked up speed from there.  Within a week, the five individual zones had been joined into one continuous beachhead.  Within eleven months, the war with Germany was over. (Bliven; Ambrose; World War 2 Timeline)

Operation Overlord was the greatest amphibious assault ever undertaken in history.  Due to modern technology and tactics, nothing of its scale will probably be seen ever again.  D-Day not only made Allied victory possible, but it also raised morale for the men who had seen so much defeat in the past years.  Although the invasion did not go entirely as planned, the clever tactics of the Allied commanders and the unfathomable bravery of the Allied troops combined to make the Normandy invasion a success against bad odds.

Warspite not only served against the Germans in both World Wars she also served against the Italians and the Japanese in the Second World War.

The seventh HMS Warspite was built for the Royal Navy at Devonport and the higher speed of the Queen Elizabeth class meant that they formed the 5th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. This squadron was tasked with staying with the battle cruisers commanded by Admiral Beatty.

For the Royal Navy the biggest battle of the First World War was that at Jutland in May 1916. Technically it was a German victory but if the Royal Navy had maintained contact then the High Sea Fleet would have been in trouble. Warspite was in the thick of the action attempting to protect Beatty’s battle cruisers. She was badly damaged whilst Indefatigable, Invincible, and Queen Mary were sunk.

Warspite and her crew had a very busy time in the Second World War. At the Second Battle of Narvik in 1940 Warspite and her escorting destroyers sank a dozen German destroyers and her Swordfish plane even managed to sink a U boat. Italian entry into the war led to her transfer to the Mediterranean Fleet. She played an important role in the victories at Calabria, Taranto, and Matapan. Heavily damaged by German bombers off Crete in 1941 Warspite had to be repaired in the USA.

Whilst been repaired the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor before sinking the British ships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Warspite was made  flagship of the Eastern Fleet that was supposed to stop the Japanese, she was lucky to escape been sunk by Japanese bombers. On returning from the Pacific she supported the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy.

Later Warspite bombarded German defensive positions in support of the D Day landings. Her last action came in October 1944 when she shelled the German held Belgian island of Walcheren to enable the liberation of Antwerp.

She was ordered to be scrapped in 1947. The old ship never reached the Clyde, running aground off Cornwell during a storm. Ironically she ran aground at Prussia Cove.

Bibliography

Ballantyne I (2001) Warships of the Royal Navy Warspite, Leo Cooper, Barnsley

Massie R K (2005) Castles of Steel – Britain, Germany and the winning of the Great War at Sea, Pimlico, London

The plan worked so well that the Germans kept somewhere around 16 reserve units at Pas-de-Calais well into the D-Day invasion as they still feared that the Normandy invasion was a diversion for the real landing. It is safe to say that without this plan of deception, Allied forces would have faced much stronger resistance and might have even failed to take the beaches of Normandy.

            The Normandy invasion or D-Day of WWII was a crucial part of the Allied victory in occupied Europe. The purpose of this essay is to argue the Canadian contributions during the Normandy invasion. On June 6th, 1944, the Canadians, British and Americans took part in the greatest invasion of all history. With a behemoth attacking force of around 155,000 soldiers[1], the allies prepared for a common goal, to defeat the impenetrable German defenses on the beaches of Normandy, France. Normandy was the beginning, if they could crush the German beaches, they could gain a foothold in occupied Europe and try to re-capture France. It was a long shot, but the Allied troops fought courageously and broke through the German defenses. This created a three front war for the Germans, which would likely cause them to lose. On D-Day and throughout the invasion, Canada played a remarkable role. The Canadians contributed on D-Day by effectively using their navy and air force. They used new technology to overcome impenetrable German defenses. And most importantly, the Canadians accomplished all their objectives and made it further into Normandy than any other allied troops. Canada gave an essential and strong contribution to the D-Day Landings and the Invasion of Normandy, as they successfully took Juno beach and broke German force with the use of the RCAF, RCN and new technology.

            The Canadians contributed to D-Day by effectively using their navy and air force. Although the ground troops of the invasion are recognized for their valiant fighting, they could not have done it without the help of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The RCAF provided many Lancaster bombers and Spitfire Fighters to weaken the German force. For example, the RCAF had been bombing roads, bridges, railways, airfields and command/communication centers months before the battle. Also on D-Day itself, the RCAF Lancaster No. 6 Bomber Group dropped thousands of tons of explosives on German costal defenses[2]. On top of that, the RCAF also fought the German Luftwaffe during the battle to ensure air dominance. The contributions of the RCAF made the fight harder for the Germans while ensuring a smoother battle for the Allies. As well, the RCN contributed a lot to the battle. Not only did the RCN provide 109 vessels for the invasion, they also provided an outstanding 10,000 sailors for D-Day[3]. The RCN used their powerful ships like the HMCS Algonquin and HMCS Sioux to demolish the German coastal defenses with their guns, which made a large dent in the resistance for the ground troops[4]. They also used the armed merchant cruisers HMCS Prince Henry and Prince David to carry troops and landing craft to the battle and then later carry the Canadian wounded back to England[5].  Also the RCN minesweeper boats cleared the harsh water of the German mines, ensuring a safe passage for not only the Canadians but also the American landing craft headed for Omaha.[6] The RCAF and RCN had an essential role in the invasion. But, on the other hand, the RCAF lost 7 aircraft and 20 pilots were killed[7]. Even considering their loses on D-Day, the RCAF and the RCN working “behind the scenes” gave a positive boost to the battle.

The Canadians used new technology to overcome impenetrable German defenses. “Juno was arguably the most fortified beach”[8]. German field marshal Erwin Rommel had ordered for massive improvements to the German coastal defenses prior to the invasion[9]. He had created many new obstacles for the Allies to overcome. Unfortunately for the Germans, the Canadians had developed and used new tanks and technology to overcome these obstacles. For example, the Canadians used Duplex Drive (DD) tanks, Flail tanks, Crocodile tanks and mulberries[10]. Learning from mistakes in Dieppe, the Canadians used DD tanks that could “swim” ashore with the first wave of infantry[11]. The Canadians used Flail tanks to get rid of mines put on the beaches by the Germans[12]. They also used menacing Crocodile tanks, which could shoot flames to wear down strong points[13]. As far as the new tanks go, the Canadians selected the right ones for the job, but they also figured out a way to unload supplies into the country without a port. The mulberries were important because they unloaded supplies, equipment, vehicles, ammo, etc[14]. This creation was a very strategic move because the Allies needed to be able to maintain their assault divisions without a port, until one could actually be captured. The new technology was good, but the Germans countered with their improved technology, so the new Canadian tech was not as good as it could have been. Nevertheless, these new technologies and tanks made the Canadians contribute to the invasion by defeating the obstacles on Juno beach.

            The Canadians accomplished all their objectives and made it further into Normandy than any other allied troops. Canada had an ambitious objective. With 14,000 troops assaulting Juno Beach and 450 more parachuting behind enemy lines[15], taking Juno was a big responsibility for them. Standing between the two British objective beaches, Canada had big shoes to fill. Taking Juno looked like a suicide mission for many soldiers; however, within hours of landing, the Canadians penetrated the “in-penetrable” Atlantic wall[16]. The Canadians were of the first of the Allies to capture a beach. Capturing Juno allowed more supplies and troops to enter the battlefield, supporting the other allied assaulting forces. The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division and the 4th Canadian Armored Division arrived, adding even more firepower to the Canadian troops[17]. With these additional forces, the 1st Canadian army, led by Lieutenant-General Crerar[18], took command in the eastern part of the Allied front, heading towards Caën. Capturing Caën would also be a big contribution. Fighting in close quarters and hand-to-hand combat, the Canadians captured it despite the increased German resistance. When they captured Caën they dealt a huge blow into the German command and communication. The Canadians paid a price for their accomplishments, 340 soldiers were lost and 580 were wounded[19]. But it was not in vain because the Canadians had penetrated around 9 Km[20] into Normandy (further than any other Allied troops) and with this, came the victory on D-Day for the Canadians.

            D-Day and the invasion of France was the key part in the Allied victory of WWII. D-Day was a victory for all the allies, but for the small country of Canada, it was more than just a victory. Canada had proved that it could contribute to the world stage along side super-power countries like Britain and USA. Canada gave an essential and strong contribution to the D-Day Landings and the Invasion of Normandy, as they successfully took Juno beach and broke the German force with the use of the RCAF, RCN and new technology. The RCAF and the RCN worked “behind the scenes” to ensure dominance throughout the battle. The Canadian ground troops used technology to overcome in-penetrable obstacles. And lastly, at the end of the day, the Canadians accomplished all their huge objectives and pushed the furthest into Normandy.

[1] Veterans Affairs Canada, Normandy 1944, Canada Remembers (1998). < http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/SecondWar/Normandy/dday> [April 2010]

[2] Veterans Affairs Canada

[3] Canada At War, Canadians on D-Day: June 6th, 1944 (2007). <http://wwii.ca/content-14/world-war-ii/canadians-on-d-day/> [April 2010]

[4]Tillman, Barrett. Brassey’s D-Day encyclopedia: the Normandy invasion A-Z. Potomac Books Inc, 2004, 32

[5] Rowland, Robin, D-Day Minute By Minute, CBC News Online (2003). <http://www.cbc.ca/news/dday/minute.html> [April 2010]

[6] Rowland, Robin

[7] Canadian National Defense, D-Day from the air, Air Force Articles (2009). <http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/v2/nr-sp/index-eng.asp?id=8669>  [April 2010]

[8] Canada At War

[9] Veterans Affairs Canada

[10] Roy, Reginald, 1944, The Canadians and the Normandy Landings June 1944. Ottawa: CEF Books, 2001, 5.

[11] Veterans Affairs Canada

[12] Roy, Reginald

[13] Roy, Reginald

[14] Veterans Affairs Canada

[15] Rowland, Robin

[16] Roy, Reginald

[17] Roy, Reginald

[18] Roy, Reginald

[19] Lane, D.W, Juno Beach: The Canadians on D-Day (2002). <http://www.members.shaw.ca/junobeach/juno-4-0.htm> [April 2010]

[20] Veterans Affairs Canada

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AVRE stands for Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers, a British Army term. Since before the start of the Second World War the British Army had experimented with fitting some of the equipment used by engineer units to clear obstacles onto a tank to allow them operate under fire. The emphasis was on tank-mounted bridges at first, but then experience against large German minefields in North Africa showed the value of fitting mine clearing equipment to tanks such as the Covenanter AVRE version. And the disastrous Dieppe raid of 1942 showed the need for obstacle clearing tanks that could fire large explosive shells to destroy concrete obstacles and bunkers.

The result was that before the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, the British had developed an all-round combat engineer version of the Churchill tank, the Churchill AVRE. It had an unusual main gun, a petard mortar that lobbed a massive explosive charge (nicknamed the flying dustbin) at low velocity over short range, pretty useless against enemy tanks because of the short range but good against concrete defences (not known for their ability to evade!). It could also be fitted with a bridge, or mine clearing rollers or flails, or a fascine (a massive bundle of sticks or metal rods that could be dropped into a large ditch or trench to allow other vehicles to drive over it).

Figure 1: Churchill AVRE

The Churchill AVRE was the mainstay of mechanised combat engineers in the British Army throughout the 1944-45 Northwest Europe campaign.

The petard mortar had one disadvantage: it had to be be reloaded from outside the turret. But although awkward this didn’t involve the loader exposing himself to enemy view as much as might be expected. The barrel hinged down into a sliding hatch in the hull in front of the turret, allowing the loader to insert a new round with barely his hands exposed. (Thanks to Vincente Ancheta for clarifying this and correcting my misunderstanding in the original version of the article.) Maximum rate of fire was about three shots per minute, but a high rate of fire wasn’t necessary since the vehicle was generally brought forward to deal with particular troublesome bunkers from close range (its thick armour allowing it to get near the enemy) so the difficulties reloading didn’t render it useless.

Other tank articles by the same author:

Little-Known Tanks of the Second World War: British Matilda I

Little-Known Tanks of the Second World War: German Panzer I command tank

Little-Known Tanks of the Second World War: French B1 bis heavy tank

Little-Known Tanks of the Second World War: French FT17

Little-Known Tanks of the Second World War: French Renault UE tracked supply vehicle

TankFest 2010 – a festival of tanks at the Bovington Tank Museum, UK

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It was September 2010 and I was cycling my way along the coastline of Normandy, in France, from Cherbourg down and along to Caen, with the specific aim of visiting D-Day sites, memorials and cemeteries en route. This was my first port of call – the remains of a German coastal defence battery, part of Hitler’s much vaunted Atlantic Wall, now turned into a museum.

The Crisbecq Battery (or Marcouf Battery as it’s sometimes called) is located on a minor road near the village of Saint-Marcouf. It’s well signposted and quite easy to find. Approaching from the coast as I did, there’s a large concrete bunker to the left, which you can visit without paying to enter the main museum, and there are steps round the back to climb it and get a view back down towards the coast. On the opposite side of the road is a car park, and a wooden hut where you pay to gain entrance to the rest of the site, which consists of artillery bunkers and shelters (some with recreations of the life of the garrison here). It’s one of the museums that accept the Normandy D-Day pass, which you can buy here and which gets you a discount into many other places (one euro when I visited, and well worth it even if you only visit one or two other places).

On entering you get a laminated sheet to guide you round a path encompassing the different bunkers and shelters, with a brief explanation of each. It has a rather home-made feel but that has its own charm. Certainly no flashy audio-visual presentations here.

The Crisbecq Battery was one of the most powerful along the east coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula of Normandy. It had three 210-mm (8.2-inch) calibre guns (that being the diameter of the shell they fired). These weapons had a range of 20 miles, enough to reach the planned American landing beach codenamed Utah and to fire on ships and landing craft out to sea. It was therefore a serious threat to this sector of the D-Day landings.

Of the three main guns, two were mounted in massive concrete bunkers which still survive, albeit in a battered state. There were also open roofless circular bunkers for 155-mm (6-inch) guns, though I believe those had been removed prior to D-Day. These circular gun pits certainly look very exposed, and though they would have had camouflage netting over them to disguise them from the air it wouldn’t have stopped shell-fire and bombs if the entire area was bombarded.

One of the bunkers for the 210-mm guns (split open in the explosion after its capture)

And bombarded the battery certainly was. From spring 1944, months before the invasion, British and American heavy bombers dropped a prodigious amount of high explosive both here and on many other defence sites all along the Normandy coast, softening them up but without giving the Germans any clue exactly where and when the invasion would come. The main bunkers, with their massively thick concrete, survived, but lesser structures were flattened (such as the original kitchen).

As well as the bunkers for the battery’s armament, there were also other bunkers and shelters for ammunition, for the garrison and for the various functions needed for daily life (kitchens, medical bay, etc.). Most of these can be entered and some have displays of garrison life behind glass windows, recreated with life size manikins and real artefacts.

The various concrete structures would have been joined by trenches, probably with a roof over them, and part of the looping visitor path follows these.

An infantry shelter with a “Tobruk” machine-gun post on top for close defence

Taking the designated path, one wanders through and around the bunkers, marvelling at the thickness of the concrete and wondering what it would have been like for the garrison, bombarded from the air night after night unable to strike back, peering out to sea every dawn for a glimpse of landing craft and the long-expected invasion, their entire reason for being stuck in damp bunkers on this cold ridge. One also thinks of the fate of those who built the battery, labourers conscripted against their will from all over German-occupied Europe, torn from their homes and families to dig and pour concrete for the Todt Organisation, a construction company that worked hand in glove with the Nazi state to build many of the German defensive works.

An observation or command post outside the museum area (and the bicycle I toured Normandy on)

On the morning of D-Day the main guns of the battery were still in operation despite an even heavier bomber raid than normal during the night. As soon as the Allied fleet was visible, the guns engaged it, sinking one American destroyer and damaging others. It took the combined fire from three battleships to silence the battery, which was achieved by 9 am, several hours after the landings had started. Even then one of the guns was repaired and opened fire again for a while two days later.

The Allied plan had been to take control of key points such as critical road junctions and villages using paratroopers and airborne infantry in gliders, landing behind the main coastal defence works, though still within the defended zone. In some areas this went smoothly but here the 101st US Airborne Division landed scattered over a wide area and wasn’t able to reform well enough to achieve all its objectives. German infantry were still fighting on not far inland days after the landings, and so it was that the Crisbecq Battery was able to hold out. When US infantry started to make their way inland off the beaches there were several attempts to capture the battery, but these failed – in one case being beaten off by shell fire from another German battery which the Crisbecq garrison called down on themselves, secure in the knowledge that their bunkers were strong enough to cope.

The fall of Crisbecq was an anticlimax. On 11th June, five days after the first landings, German infantry units were ordered to fall back to a new defensive line and rather than be isolated the Crisbecqgarrison were told to go with them, abandoning the site. American infantry walked in unopposed the next day.

Sadly Crisbecq hadn’t seen the last of death. It was briefly used by the Americans and in an accident one of the main bunkers exploded, killing around a dozen American soldiers.

Nowadays the site is quiet, but if you close your eyes it’s not too hard to imagine the howl and crash of incoming shell-fire, the zing of bullets and the guttural German of barked orders. Visit it, if you get the chance, for it is an evocative place.

The Americans joined WWII in 1941, shortly after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. The Americans weren’t involved in the war long, but they had to deal with a lot, like the German submarines that was destroying the navy, and the Japanese who went to great lengths like suicide to kill the Americans. 

What did they wear? Like the British Forces, the Americans wore top of the line armor and guns. They mainly used early versions of Thompsons, M1 Grands, Springfields, and other effective weaponry. They, like their British allies, had superior air power, and nearly inferior tank fire. They wore bullet proof vests, which at the time wasn’t that reliable, 5 lb. helmets, and holsters.

What did they do? In Japan, they fought in the enemy’s homeland, as well as China because of the little empire that Japan was developing. After Pearl Harbor, much of the American forces were concentrated on taking down Japan until 1942, where they reacted to Winston Churchill’s request for American reinforcements for Operation Overlord (cross from Africa into Sicily and take back Italy) and, of course, D-Day. The Americans took heavy losses in Sicily, but retook the island plus Italy, however, Italy was convinced to join the Axis again by the German army, and, motivated by this, Italy was retaken. 

D-Day was and still is one of the hardest battles the Americans had to go through. They entered the beaches of Normandy, France on June 6th. The beaches was code named Omaha, Utah, Gold, Silver, and Star. Omaha was where most of the Americans were and where the battle was the most intense. Most of the Americans were sick and nervous by the time they landed, and when they did, machine gun nests on top of the hill that sits very close to the beach, fired down on the Americans. Most died on the beach, being left alive with near death wounds that must have seemed a life time to them. With the remaining troops who survived, they managed to reach the foot of the cliff and climb it, which also placed more losses on the American’s side. Once they reached the top, artillery guns, 155 mm wide, fired on them, while anti-aircraft guns tested their fire on both American planes and infantry. Somehow, the Americans pulled through all of this and captured the beach, however, they were shortly counter attacked. The Americans repelled the German reinforcements, but only 90 Americans, out of the 250 soldiers that fought on D-Day, survived. 

After this historic day, they joined the British forces and took back European land from the Germans, until they reached the Rhine river, once the Americans crossed it, the Allies knew that victory was imminent. 

What was the army like? The air support did very well, taking down nearly the entire German Air Force, and even destroying submarines with a military tactic that FDR thought of, which was to sight a submarine and drop either a mine or bomb on it. (Also, FDR placed a 25 mile long mine field in the Atlantic sea to destroy submarines, unfortunately, it estimated between 8-22 kills, not a lot for a 25 million dollar project). The Navy was superb. They were able to support the Marines and Army, and they were successful at taking back Midpoint from the Japanese, which would have forced America to surrender to to the fact that Midpoint is only miles away from Hawaii. The Army and Marines took heavy losses, but they were able to come out on top and defeat the German Empire.

God Bless the WWII Americans! The citizens, who were struggling with the Depression, gave away food (they received rations, and bacon oil and grease were sold to the army for explosives, bacon oil being the main ingredient in explosives. We also made history by dropping the first 2 atomic bombs for war purposes on Japan, one of them being Hiroshima (The atomic bomb material was shipped to Hawaii by the USS Indianapolis, which sunk afterwards. 316 survived, 900 died, and they were at sea for about 4-5 days, God bless them). If it weren’t for America, the result of the war may have been different.

The Japanese were hard to beat. In order to get to Tokyo, where cannons sprouted from everything, the allies would have to go through the islands. It required a massive assault one at a time. These were the bloodiest battles of the war, made bloodier by what happened whenever the allies surrendered. Wake Island and Bataan were Japanese victories. Death marches up to a hundred miles in the heat, with the survivors tortured and starved. Many allies would get try to get killed on the way to the POW camps.

Finally the tide turned in our favor after the taking of Iwo Jima and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the whole world was now at war with each other in some form or another. Places like Greece were fighting Cyprus. Southeast Asia was at war with each other. The Middle East. But the main event would be the long awaited Nazi campaign into Russia. Reeling from the loss in Northern Africa, Hitler would move the bulk of his army into the East and jump over the lines. Hitler was able to surprise the Russians in the Baltic States and march through with ease that even surprised Hitler. Hoping to get there before the winter, the Nazis began the Russian campaign in early March and were now suddenly a mere 30 miles from Moscow before the summer came around. 

It is then that Hitler makes the dumbest move of anyone who ever made a dumb move.

He splits his brigade, sending one group north to Leningrad and the other south to Stalingrad. And it is in Stalingrad where they encounter a town where the people have dug a wide trench around the downtown area. What entailed was trench warfare where the Russians had more then drastically evened the odds. The Nazis there would run low on ammunition and supplies, and Hitler refused to send them reinforcements. The Germans on the homefront would begin rebelling against Hitler as much as they dared. The idea of the German government telling their fathers and brothers and sons “f you” was not something that any banners, songs or movies was going to fix.

Then the vicious Russian winter hit with the first inkling of September. Suddenly the overwhelmed and depleted Nazis were facing Russian soldiers who were trained in Siberia, and had grown accustomed to weather as low as -50 degrees.

The Nazis had lost in Africa to the south and Russia to the east. And on June 6, 1944, their campaign in the west was about to go for naught as well.

Their special encryption techniques would be intercepted by Eisenhower’s men in the Atlantic following a debacle in 1941 in which Rudolph Hess of Germany tried to parachute out of harms way in France only to land in Southern England.

General Dwight Eisenhower would send the allies from England into the northern part of France, into a little industrial town on the beaches called Normandy. The Germans had managed to put up trenches similar to the ones the Russians had, which meant that they could fire away from the high towers at incoming boats, while the soldiers had to go down a hill before climbing up another one. Within eight hours of June 6th, what was left of the first allied brigades would make it in, and England never stopped sending soldiers. They piled it on and liberated France within a month. As a roucous and jubilant Paris watched tank after tank come through, they would have parades all ready around their paths, tossing poon and flowers at them as the French flag went back up…and the Nazi flag came down. 

Inspired by what they saw happen in France, the Italian citizenry would turn on Mussolini. Several of them would beat him, shoot him, and hang him in a town square outside a movie theatre. The Italians were never down with Mussolini. They were never down with this Third Reich nonsense, nor will you arguably find a more welcoming people in Europe when it comes to the Jews. Italy was now officially out of World War II.

The Nazi fighting force by now, what with traitors and dissidents among those still alive, would have nothing on the allied forces that swept down on them. Several of the top high commanders had sustained assassination attempts, including Hitler, who for the last seven months of his life would be deaf in one ear due to a bomb detonating under a desk in his office. 

Hitler and his ladyfriend Eva Braun would lock themselves up in a bunker several hundred feet under Berlin along with whatever Nazis he could find. He was happy for whatever he could get. A far cry from the bad ass who got to pick and choose who he valued and who he didn’t.

They take cyanide caplets on the morning of May 7, 1945 as four million armed Russians can be plainly spotted by the lookout approaching Berlin. To the west, they could see about 800,000 Americans, Brits and French.

When the allies arrived at the extermination camps, they could not believe their eyes. They would take not only Nazis by the ears to look at what they had done, but townspeople. Did you know that Auschwitz is the name of an actual Polish town? These camps existed and functioned down the street from people’s homes and schools!

LOOK AT THIS YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! they yelled in Polish in Sorbibor, Treblinka and others. LOOK!!! YOU GONNA TELL ME YOU DIDN’T KNOW THIS WAS GOING ON?!!! (smack)

The treatment of the townspeople as the camps were liberated…the walking skeletons…the mounted corpses…the horrible stench of the crematoriums…would result in Poland being the most anti-semitic place in the world ever since, made worse by the fact that anyone smart enough to know it was the Nazis fault, had been killed off. 

At the Yalta Conference it would be ruled that it was finally, finally time to give the Jews their own homeland so this crap couldn’t happen so easily. Especially now that they were severely outnumbered in mainland Europe by people who didn’t like them. 

So V-E day had taken place. Victory in Europe. 

What about V-J day?

It was estimated that to invade mainland Japan and get into Tokyo would result in a 1 million dead Americans. Just taking the islands had turned up that many in injures. And so the Americans would go with a plan that they had been working on for numerous years, taking place in the deserts of New Mexico…

A man named Albert Einstein will soon become the most significant human being in the next fifty years and beyond. He was a German Jew who managed to get out of there in 1933, when it was still easy to. He shared with the American government something of grave importance — a formula that he had discovered that several of the world’s best engineers back in Germany were trying to follow, one that could be used to make the world no more. See, Einstein’s theory of relativity — all things relative — had originally encountered a dilemma…what do you do about two things that appear to be exactly the same? Well, though Einstein, maybe there’s something different about their inner workings. And so a big part of E = Mc2 would be the study of these inner workings…molecules, atoms, the science of substances at their most basic level. It was through these notes and progresses that Einstein discovered that if an atom is to split…a reaction could form that would unleash ALOT OF POWER. And with Hitler working hard with these very protegees of German science who were now about ten years older and held more prominent positions in the field and had protegees of their own, Hitler told Roosevelt…we need to build this weapon before they do.

The atomic bomb.

Finally completed in America, with the Nazis too decimated and distracted to ever get around to finishing the protoype.

By now, Roosevelt was dead after a massive heart attack in Warm Spring, Georgia while he was getting a painting drawn of him. He collapsed in a rocking chair, and it made the Americans, who had elected this man four times to office, pissed.

His fourth vice-president Harry Truman would be sworn in, and echo these sentiments by giving Japan a request to surrender without telling them what was to happen to them if they didn’t. They of course said “SCREW YOU HOLMES!” which Truman more then happily predicted.

Tokyo was out of the question for annihalation because of all the American POWs. So was Osaka.

So on the morning of August 6, 1945, it would be Hiroshima.

Even Einstein couldn’t believe what came out of it –

The bomb did not even drop all the way to the ground before going off. It created a bright, blinding white light that froze back up into fire which was about a 1/10th of its’ temperature. The fireball came back into itself…and then formed a wall spreading out in every direction. The instant the bomb entered the epicenter of Hiroshima, 80,000 people were dead within a single second. Everybody in the vicinity and everything was vaporized within an instant save for a grand total of about five individuals, all of which have been on the History Channel to tell us about it. The farther away you were from the bomb, the slower you died later on.

Yet the Japanese…betting that the U.S. had only one of these crazy weapons…still wouldn’t surrender.

Finally that changed when Truman dropped a second one in southern Nagasaki three days later.

That was it.

V-J day was at hand on August 11th.

World War II was over, with 289,000 American soldiers dead, 8 million Germans, 12 million European civilians killed by Nazis, and over 20 million Russians.

A line was drawn between Russian and American ideals directly down the center of downtown Berlin because this was where both campaigns came to a stop. The Berlin Wall.

Why a wall?

Because the Americans had wised up about the role that Stalin had played in this.

The Russians might not have dug on capitalists, but the United States was now sick to death of lying communists…

End of Part 10 of 25

Frank Tweitmann

Mr. Holland

US History 2

14 May 2009

Operation Overlord: The Turning Point for Europe

            June 6, 1944 marks the date of the most impressive display of force and organization in history.  Operation Overlord was designed and carried out under the leadership of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a major character in World War II.  At approximately 6:30am, local time, the massive assault began.  Even with the strength of 5 separate countries, it was an extremely risky maneuver.  With one swoop, the Allies turned the tide on the Germans and the Axis powers.  The storming of the Normandy beachfront, without a doubt, marks the turning point of World War II in Europe.

            The day or so prior to the attack, German defenses in the areas of Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach were put under pressure by bombings and the dropping of thousands of paratroopers.  “Local French Resistance forces, alerted to the imminent invasion, engaged in behind-the-lines sabotage and combat against the occupying Germans” (History Guy).  The small-scaled chaos that ensued helped the Allies gain a foothold on the beaches.  The Germans on the beach were stuck on the beach area, between attacking French forces and the assaulting Allies.  The Germans had mostly been caught with their proverbial pants down, and the Allies were taking full advantage of it.

            The assault itself was on a massive scale.  Operation Overlord called for “over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men” (D-Day Education).  Out of the incredible numbers involved, there was a very high casualty rate.  Some sources say that in the initial assault, the Allies suffered over 9,000 casualties.  By the end of the Normandy Campaign, it is estimated that roughly 425,000 troops died, suffered injuries, or went missing (History Guy).

            The planning up to the assault was very carefully carried out.  This was due to the sheer numbers involved and what was at stake, all of Europe.  Through fake radio messages, Eisenhower created a phantom army ready to attack further up the coast.  This fooled the Germans into concentrating their defenses and readying for an attack that would never come.  This trickery saved many Allied lives, and might have been the Ally’s saving grace in the storming of the beaches.

            The Normandy beachfront was divided into 5 areas.  Each area had specific units assigned to it.  Sword beach and Gold beach were the responsibility of the British troops, Juno beach was for the Canadians, and Omaha and Utah beaches were attacked by the Americans.  Each beach had different geography, meaning each beach had to be approached in a different way.  Some areas had reefs and shoals leading up to a gently sloping beach. Others, namely Omaha beach, had cliffs that the troops would have to scale.  This was a cause for many casualties, as the Germans would cut the ropes anchoring ladders to the cliffs.  Each beach area required specific training to survive and continue the mission.

            The participating soldiers were the key part of Operation Overlord.  Obviously, without soldiers, the assault couldn’t have taken place.  But the preparation, bravery, and sacrifice of the soldiers helped to turn the war in favor of the Allies.  Many soldiers gave up their lives to see Operation Overlord through, and each and every one was needed.  The men that served participated in D-Day are heroes beyond all others.

            The topic of D-Day was chosen because it is the turning point of the war against Germany and the Nazis.  Operation Overlord helped the Allies get back land lost in mainland Europe, and from there, they could move onto assaulting Germany directly.  Also, D-Day was such a grand attack that it earns respect.  It is nigh impossible for an attack that large to be planned and not have the enemy get information on it.  Not only were the Nazis not expecting an attack at Normandy, they expected a massive attack on a completely different beach.  Without D-Day, World War II could have ended with many more casualties.  D-Day ranks in importance with the dropping of the atomic bombs.  When one thinks of World War II, one of the first thoughts to pop up is the massive rush up the beaches at Normandy.  D-Day will be remembered for years to come as the attack that turned back the Nazis.

Works Cited

Encyclopedia – Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 15 May 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/dday/browse?browseId=237147>.

“The History Guy: World War 2: The Invasion of Normandy (1944).” The History Guy: A Resource for History, Military History, Politics, and Biography. 15 May 2009 <http://www.historyguy.com/normandy_links.html>.

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation. 15 May 2009 <http://www.dday.org/index.php?page=history>.