essay about d day

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

How D-Day Changed the Course of WWII

By: Roy Wenzl

Updated: March 13, 2024 | Original: April 23, 2018

The D-Day military invasion that helped to end World War II was one the most ambitious and consequential military campaigns in human history. In its strategy and scope—and its enormous stakes for the future of the free world—historians regard it among the greatest military achievements ever.

D-Day, code-named Operation Overlord, launched on June 6, 1944, after the commanding Allied general, Dwight D. Eisenhower , ordered the largest invasion force in history—hundreds of thousands of American, British, Canadian and other troops—to ship across across the English Channel and come ashore on the beaches of Normandy , on France’s northern coast. After almost five years of war, nearly all of Western Europe was occupied by German troops or held by fascist governments, like those of Spain and Italy. The Western Allies’ goal: to put an end to the Germany army and, by extension, to topple Adolf Hitler ’s barbarous Nazi regime.

Here’s why D-Day remains an event of great magnitude, and why we owe those fighters so much:

Halting the Nazi Genocidal Machine

German armies during World War II overran most of Europe and North Africa and much of the western Soviet Union . They set up murderous police states everywhere they went, then hunted down and imprisoned millions. With gas chambers and firing squads they killed 6 million Jewish people and millions more Poles, Russians, gays, disabled people and others undesirable to the Nazi regime, which sought to engineer a master Germanic race.

“It’s hard to imagine what the consequences would have been had the Allies lost,” says Timothy Rives, deputy director of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. “You could make the argument that they saved the world. A few months after D-Day, General Eisenhower visited a German death camp, and wrote: “We are told the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against.”

Invasion Went Beyond the Beaches

The “D” in D-Day means simply “Day,” as in “The day we invade.” (The military had to call it something.) But to those who survived June 6, and the subsequent summer-long incursion, D-Day meant sheer terror. Raymond Hoffman, from Lowell, Massachusetts, gave an oral history interview in 1978 at the Eisenhower Library about the life-and-death fear he survived as a 22-year-old paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

On D-Day he parachuted with a hard thud into a Normandy cow pasture only minutes after midnight—and he heard footsteps approaching fast, even before he could unhook himself from his parachute straps.

“Boy, here I am,” he thought. “Five minutes on the ground and I’m about to get it. And I’m flat on my back, and…I got to roll, and I can’t get to my weapon and now… I can’t find my knife! And the footsteps have stopped…and (suddenly) I am looking up into the eyes of a big, brown cow.”

That was worth a grin then. But hours later, “some mysteries in life were removed,” Hoffman said.

In a gunfight with German soldiers, where bullets flew so thick that no one dared raise their heads to look up, he removed “the mystery” he’d pondered for months—about whether fear in combat would compel him to run or to fight.

He fought. And there was no longer any mystery: “You now know what it is like to be fired upon,” he said, “as well as to fire.”

An Effort of Staggering Scale

“I had some fun here one day looking up statistics, of all the stuff the Allies piled up on the beaches of southern England to support the invasion,” says Rives. “They had massive ammo dumps, and supply dumps, and in one of those supply dumps they had piled up 3,500 tons of bath soap—which Eisenhower later sent into France so the soldiers could take baths.

“He had 3 million troops under his command, and what they all devoured in just one day was stupendous,” says Rives. According to historian Rick Atkinson, commanders had “calculated daily combat consumption, from fuel to bullets to chewing gum, at 41.298 pounds per soldier. Sixty million K-rations, enough to feed the invaders for a month, were packed in 500-ton bales.”

Steep Casualties

German machine-gunners mowed down hundreds of Allied soldiers before they ever got off the landing boats onto the Normandy beaches. But Eisenhower overwhelmed them, Rives says, with 160,000 assault troops, 12,000 aircraft and 200,000 sailors manning 7,000 sea vessels.

Their losses were steep: The eight assault divisions now ashore had suffered 12,000 killed, wounded and missing, with thousands more unaccounted for, according to Atkinson. The Americans lost 8,230 of the total.

“Many were felled by 9.6-gram bullets moving at 2,000 to 4,000 feet per second,” Atkinson wrote. “Such specks of steel could destroy a world, cell by cell.”

Three thousand French civilians were killed in the invasion, mostly by Allied bombs or shell fire. By then the French had lost so much in the war that they’d run out of medical supplies. Some injured citizens were reduced to disinfecting their wounds with calvados, the local brandy fermented from apples, according to Atkinson.

But when the Allied soldiers marched inland from the beaches, the French cheered, many of them giving soldiers flowers, many of them sobbing in happiness.

D-Day Strategy

No one thought victory was sure. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had pestered Eisenhower and President Franklin Roosevelt for two years before D-Day, pleading that they avoid Normandy and instead pursue a slower, less dangerous strategy, putting more troops into Italy and southern France.

But the Germans had killed tens of millions of civilians and soldiers in the Soviet Union, and the Soviets desperately wanted the Allies to bleed the Germany army by opening up a second front of battle. Eisenhower thought it disgraceful to avoid Normandy, and thought Normandy was the best military move, not only to win but to shorten the war.

The Allies had long planned the invasion for a narrow window in the lunar cycle that would provide both maximum moonlight to illuminate landing places for gliders—and low tides at dawn to reveal the German’s extensive underwater coastal defenses. Poor weather forced Allied troops to delay the operation a day, cutting into that window. But in a stroke of luck, German forecasters predicted that gale-force winds and rough seas would deter the invasion even longer, so the Nazis redeployed some of their forces away from the coast. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel even traveled home to celebrate his wife’s birthday, bringing her a pair of Parisian shoes.

On the night before the invasion, Eisenhower penciled himself an “In case of failure” note, to be published if necessary: “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone,” he wrote.

“Of all the documents we have from his time in the Army and in his eight years of the presidency, I regard that as our most significant document here,” Rives said of the collection at the Eisenhower Library. “It shows the character of the man who led it all.”

Eisenhower hated war. Years after the war ended, he gave a speech, with a paragraph that can be seen engraved in the marble stone wall surrounding his tomb in Abilene, Kansas.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.”

The Importance of the D-Day Victory

Most battles are quickly forgotten. But all free nations owe their culture and democracy to D-Day, which can be grouped among some of the most epic victories in history. They include George Washington ’s defeat of the British army at Yorktown in 1781, which allowed the American experiment in democracy to survive, and to inspire oppressed people everywhere.

And in 490 and 480 B.C, the small armies and navies of Greece defeated the huge invading forces of the Persian Empire at the battles of Marathon and Salamis. The Greeks saved not only themselves, but their democracy, classic literature, art and architecture, philosophy and much more.

Historians put D-Day in the same category of greatness.

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

Written by: Edward G. Lengel, The National World War II Museum

By the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain the causes and effects of the victory of the United States and its allies over the Axis Powers

Suggested Sequencing

Use this narrative with the Dwight Eisenhower, D-Day Statement, 1944 Primary Source to give students a fuller understanding of the campaign. This narrative can also be used with the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima Narrative and the Phil “Bo” Perabo, Letter Home, 1945 Primary Source to showcase American soldiers’ experiences during WWII.

Allied leaders had debated opening a second front in German-occupied western Europe as early as 1942. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin’s pressure to launch such a front was unrelenting and reiterated at every Allied conference. Developing the means to launch a successful invasion was far from easy, however. Until 1944, the United States and Great Britain lacked the forces and the means to attack the Germans in France and successfully open a beachhead to invade Normandy. And success was all important. If a large-scale invasion failed, the results would be disastrous, and not just in terms of troops lost. Assembling another invasion might take years.

By the spring of 1944, however, the outlines of what came to be called Operation Overlord were complete. Five divisions of American, Canadian, and British troops, supported by three airborne divisions of paratroopers and glider-borne soldiers, were to land on beachheads in Normandy. After securing the landing beaches, establishing a firm perimeter, capturing the port of Cherbourg, establishing portable harbors there for resupply, and assembling armored reinforcements, Allied forces could drive inland to begin the liberation of France.

Several moving pieces had to be put in place before the plan could get underway. First, adequate naval support, and especially transport and landing craft, had to be secured – an especially difficult undertaking given the demands of warfare in both Europe and the far-flung Pacific, where amphibious landings on the Japanese-held islands were frequent. Second, American and British air forces had to work in complete coordination with ground forces, not only placing paratroopers and glider-borne forces on target but also preventing German efforts to move reinforcements and especially panzer divisions toward the beaches. Third, Free French forces, some owing allegiance to General Charles De Gaulle and others not, had to be alerted to the invasion and their support coordinated. Finally, an elaborate campaign of deception was established to convince the Germans that the primary Allied invasion would take place not in Normandy but at the heavily defended and more centrally located Pas de Calais, at the narrowest point of the English Channel.

Coordinating these factors, many under the control of disparate personalities who had different ideas about how the invasion should take place, took months. The Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, working with British General Bernard Law Montgomery (in command of the invading ground forces) and British commanders of the supporting naval and air forces, finally thought he had his pieces assembled at the beginning of June, but there was one final decision to be made. Because of the tides and other factors, the Allies could land at the beaches of Normandy only on certain dates, but weather reports suggested unsettled weather in early June. In a tense meeting at his headquarters in Bletchley Park, England, Eisenhower elected to gamble on a break in the weather and said “Go” for the invasion on June 6, 1944.

At this critical moment, Eisenhower’s leadership abilities came to the fore. Rather than remaining at headquarters, he made a point of visiting, encouraging, and even joking with the troops assembled to carry out the invasion. He dispatched a message to them declaring, “You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. . . . I have full confidence in your devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory. Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.” But the general also penned a draft dispatch to be sent in case the invasion failed, taking full responsibility upon himself.

American and British airborne troops carried out the first phase of the invasion by landing around the coastal villages behind German beach defenses on the night of June 5-6. Although badly scattered and forced to work in small, poorly armed groups, they succeeded in their primary mission of seizing – and, where necessary, destroying – important bridges and crossroads to hold back enemy reinforcements. U.S. Army Rangers carried out a heroic and costly assault against German cliffside emplacements at Pointe du Hoc overlooking Omaha Beach, only to discover that the enemy had already dismantled their heavy guns.

The primary invasion took place on five Normandy beaches, code-named (from west to east) Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. British and Canadian troops landed at the latter three beaches against weaker-than-expected enemy opposition and quickly seized their immediate objectives. At Utah, thanks in part to airborne support inland, the U.S. 4th Division landed successfully and laid the groundwork for the capture of the Cotentin Peninsula and the all-important port of Cherbourg.

At Omaha Beach, however, facing strong tides and mistakes by inexperienced infantry and naval forces, the invasion nearly foundered. Here, troops of the U.S. 29th and 1st Divisions (the famous “Big Red One”) faced a strong defense from well dug-in and determined German infantry that they struggled to overcome. Heavy casualties on the beaches led General Omar Bradley, commanding the U.S. First Army, briefly to consider abandoning the beachhead. But the infantry refused to give up and, with great courage and sacrifice, they finally managed to break the German defenses and establish a defensive perimeter. Fortunately, Allied ground attack aircraft also succeeded in their primary missions of supporting airborne troops inland and inflicting heavy casualties on German armored and infantry forces as they rushed toward the beaches.

Although casualties had been heavy at places like Omaha Beach, overall Allied losses for June 6 totaled 4,900 killed, wounded, and missing – far lower than Eisenhower and his generals had anticipated. The five Allied beachheads were linked together by June 12, and by the end of the month, Cherbourg had been captured. Firmly entrenched and supplied, thanks in part to elaborate and expensive portable harbors codenamed Mulberry that were established on the Normandy beaches (although one was destroyed by a storm on June 19), the Allies had succeeded in forming the long-awaited second front. Although the drive inland proved far more difficult than anticipated, the process of the liberation of Western Europe had begun.

One of the Mulberry harbors established on the D-Day beaches in 1944, which allowed the Allies to secure supplies to liberate France.

Review Questions

The outcome of the events depicted in the photograph resulted in

• the liberation of Western Europe
• the fall of Japan
• the creation of the League of Nations
• the presidential election of Herbert Hoover

2. The Allied leader overseeing D-Day was

• Erwin Rommel
• Dwight Eisenhower
• George Marshall
• Bernard Law Montgomery

3. One of the key concerns in Allied planning for Operation Overlord was

• securing the support of the Soviet Union
• amassing enough naval support to transport and land troops and equipment
• getting the help of the French resistance
• getting the approval of Harry Truman

4. The D-Day invasion marked the

• beginning of the development of an atomic bomb
• fall of Benito Mussolini’s Italy
• surrender of Adolf Hitler to Allied troops
• opening of a second front against Nazi Germany

5. The Normandy invasion in World War II was considered necessary to

• stop the spread of Japanese imperialism
• relieve the pressure on the eastern front
• save Italy from falling to Nazi Germany
• keep the Nazis from developing a nuclear bomb

6. The night before the D-Day landings American and British troops successfully

• surprised and destroyed German army headquarters
• dismantled the bulk of Nazi shore defenses
• captured vital bridges and crossroads
• captured Adolf Hitler

Free Response Questions

• Explain the need for the D-Day invasion in World War II.
• Explain the Allies’ challenges in planning the D-Day invasion in World War II.

AP Practice Questions

“SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.”

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day, 1944

1. The sentiments expressed in Eisenhower’s “Order of the Day” most directly led to

• the collapse of fascist regimes in Europe
• the fall of communism in Eastern Europe
• the dropping of the atomic bomb
• the beginning of the Cold War

2. The situation referred to in the excerpt from Eisenhower’s Order of the Day was directly shaped by

• the establishment of a fully integrated American military
• the success of the Treaty of Versailles
• the defeat of Nazi tyranny by the free nations of the world
• the success of the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater of Operation during World War II

3. The sentiments in the excerpt were most directly shaped by

• the Monroe Doctrine
• technological advances in military armaments
• rejection of the collective-security provision in the League of Nations covenant
• the belief that the war was a fight for the survival of democracy

Primary Sources

Baumgarten, Harold. D-Day Survivor: An Autobiography . New York: Pelican, 2006.

Santoro, G. “Omaha the Hard Way: Conversation With Hal Baumgarten.” http://www.historynet.com/omaha-hard-way-conversation-hal-baumgarten.htm

Suggested Resources

Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

Atkinson, Rick. The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945 . New York: Henry Holt, 2013.

Beevor, Antony. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy . New York: Viking, 2009.

Caddick-Adams, Peter. Sand and Steel: The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Chambers, John Whiteclay, ed. The Oxford Companion to American Military History . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999.

D’Este, Carlo. Decision in Normandy . New York: Harper, 1994.

Hastings, Max. Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.

Holland, James. Normandy ’44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France . New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2019.

Keegan, John. Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris . New York: Viking, 1983.

Kershaw, Alex. The Bedford Boys: One American Town’s Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice . New York: Da Capo Press, 2003.

Kershaw, Alex. The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II . New York: Dutton Caliber, 2019.

McManus, John C. The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach . New York: Dutton Caliber, 2014.

Ryan, Cornelius. The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 . Reprint. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994

Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Related Content

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

In our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment.

Educator Resources

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II. As leader of all Allied troops in Europe, he led "Operation Overlord," the amphibious invasion of Normandy across the English Channel. Eisenhower faced uncertainty about the operation, but D-Day was a military success, though at a huge cost of military and civilian lives lost, beginning the liberation of Nazi-occupied France. Read more...

Primary Sources

Links go to DocsTeach , the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.

Ordnance Depot in England, "Ready and Waiting for D-Day"

General Dwight D. Eisenhower Giving the Order of the Day

American Soldiers Landing off the Coast of France

"In Case of Failure" Message Drafted by General Dwight Eisenhower in Case the D-Day Invasion Failed

Draft of Eisenhower's Order of the Day

General Eisenhower's Order of the Day

Cable from General Dwight D. Eisenhower to General George C. Marshall Regarding D-Day Landings

Sketch of a D-Day Platoon Leader's Dress

Teaching Activities

The Night Before D-Day on DocsTeach   asks students to analyze two documents written by General Dwight Eisenhower before the invasion of Normandy on D-Day: his "In Case of Failure" message and his Order of the Day. Students will compare and contrast these documents to gain a better understanding of the mindset of Allied leaders on the eve of the invasion.

The World War II page on DocsTeach includes other primary sources and document-based teaching activities related to World War II. It includes topics such as D-Day, women in the war, Code Talkers, propaganda posters, the homefront, the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, the atomic bomb, war crimes and trials, and more.

Additional Background Information

During World War II, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill jointly planned strategies for the cooperation and eventual success of the Allied armed forces.

Roosevelt and Churchill agreed early in the war that Germany must be stopped first if success was to be attained in the Pacific. They were repeatedly urged by Stalin to open a "second front" that would alleviate the enormous pressure that Germany's military was exerting on Russia. Large amounts of Soviet territory had been seized by the Germans, and the Soviet population had suffered terrible casualties from the relentless drive towards Moscow. Roosevelt and Churchill promised to invade Europe, but they could not deliver on their promise until many hurdles were overcome.

Almost immediately after France had fallen to the Nazis in 1940, the Allies had planned an assault across the English Channel on the German occupying forces. Initially, though, the United States had far too few soldiers in England for the Allies to mount a successful cross-channel operation.

So in July 1942, Churchill and Roosevelt decided on the goal of occupying North Africa as a springboard to a European invasion from the south. Invading Europe from more than one point would also make it harder for Hitler to resupply and reinforce his divisions. In November, American and British forces under the command of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed at three ports in French Morocco and Algeria. This surprise seizure of Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers came less than a week after the decisive British victory at El Alamein. The stage was set for the expulsion of the Germans from Tunisia in May 1943, the Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy later that summer, and the main assault on France the following year.

At the Quebec Conference in August 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt reaffirmed their plan for a cross-channel assault into occupied France, which was code-named Overlord. Although Churchill acceded begrudgingly to the operation, historians note that the British still harbored persistent doubts about whether Overlord would succeed.

The decision to mount the invasion was cemented at the Tehran Conference held in November and December 1943. Joseph Stalin, on his first trip outside the Soviet Union since 1912, pressed Roosevelt and Churchill for details about the plan, particularly the identity of the Supreme Commander of Overlord. Churchill and Roosevelt told Stalin that the invasion "would be possible" by August 1, 1944, but that no decision had yet been made to name a Supreme Commander. To this latter point, Stalin pointedly rejoined, "Then nothing will come of these operations. Who carries the moral and technical responsibility for this operation?" Churchill and Roosevelt acknowledged the need to name the commander without further delay.

General Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force shortly after the conference ended. When in February 1944 he was ordered to invade the continent, planning for Overlord had been under way for about a year. By May 1944, hundreds of thousands of Allied troops from the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada, and other nations were amassed in southern England and intensively trained for the complicated amphibious action against Normandy. While awaiting deployment orders, they prepared for the assault by practicing with live ammunition.

In addition to the troops, supplies, ships, and planes were also gathered and stockpiled. The largest armada in history, made up of more than 4,000 American, British, and Canadian ships, lay in wait. More than 1,200 planes stood ready to deliver seasoned airborne troops behind enemy lines, to counter German ground resistance as best they could, and to dominate the skies over the impending battle theater. Countless details about weather, topography, and the German forces in France had to be learned before Overlord could be launched in 1944.

Against a tense backdrop of uncertain weather forecasts, disagreements in strategy, and related timing dilemmas predicated on the need for optimal tidal conditions, Eisenhower decided before dawn on June 5 to proceed with Operation Overlord. But his uncertainty about success in the face of a highly-defended and well-prepared enemy led him to consider what would happen if the invasion of Normandy failed. If the Allies did not secure a strong foothold on D-Day, they would be ordered into a full retreat. Later that day, he scribbled a note intended for release, accepting responsibility for the decision to launch the invasion and full blame, should Overlord fail.

However, Eisenhower's determination that the invasion of Normandy would bring a quick end to the war is obvious in his "order of the day," a message printed and given to the 175,000-member expeditionary force on the eve of the invasion. He had spent weeks carefully drafting the order, which would be distributed to all of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who were to participate. In it, he stated his "full confidence in [their] courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle."

Gen. Eisenhower went to visit Allied troops just before they set off to participate in the assault of occupied France on D-Day. He left his headquarters in Portsmouth, England, and first visited the British 50th Infantry Division and then the U.S. 101st Airborne at Newbury; the latter was predicted to suffer 80 percent casualties. After traveling 90 minutes through the ceaseless flow of troop carriers and trucks, his party arrived unannounced to avoid disrupting the embarkation in progress. The stars on the running board of his automobile had been covered, but the troops recognized "Ike," and word quickly spread of his presence. According to his grandson David Eisenhower, who wrote about the occasion in Eisenhower: At War 1943-1945 , the general

...wandered through the formless groups of soldiers, stepping over packs and guns. The faces of the men had been blackened with charcoal and cocoa to protect against glare and to serve as camouflage. He stopped at intervals to talk to the thick clusters of soldiers gathering around him. He asked their names and homes. "Texas, sir!" one replied. "Don't worry, sir, the 101st is on the job and everything will be taken care of in fine shape." Laughter and applause. Another soldier invited Eisenhower down to his ranch after the war. "Where are you from, soldier?" "Missouri, sir." "And you, soldier?" "Texas, sir." Cheers, and the roll call of the states went on, "like a roll of battle honors," one observer wrote, as it unfolded, affirming an "awareness that the General and the men were associated in a great enterprise.

At half past midnight, as Eisenhower returned to his headquarters at Portsmouth, the first C-47s were arriving at their drop zones, commencing the start of "The Longest Day." During the invasion's initial hours, Eisenhower lacked adequate information about its progress. After the broadcast of his communiqué to the French people announcing their liberation, SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) switchboards were overwhelmed with messages from citizens and political officials. SHAEF communications personnel fell 12 hours behind in transcribing radio traffic. In addition, an Army decoding machine broke down.

According to his secretary-chauffeur Kay Summersby, as recounted in David Eisenhower’s book, "Eisenhower spent most of the day in his trailer drinking endless cups of coffee, 'waiting for the reports to come.' Few did, and so Eisenhower gained only sketchy details for most of the day about the British beaches, UTAH and the crisis at OMAHA, where for several hours the fate of the invasion hung in the balance."

During the early hours of the D-day Normandy invasion, Eisenhower had sent a message to his superior, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, in Washington, DC. The statement reflects his lack of information about how well the landings were going, even though they were well under way at that moment. Eisenhower reported that preliminary reports were all "satisfactory." At that time, he had received no official information that the "leading ground troops are actually ashore." The incomplete and unofficial reports, however, were encouraging.

Eisenhower's comments concerning the weather speak to the one crucial factor of the invasion over which he held no control. Meteorologists were challenged to accurately predict a highly unstable and severe weather pattern. As he indicated in the message to Marshall, "The weather yesterday which was [the] original date selected was impossible all along the target coast." Eisenhower therefore was forced to make his decision to proceed with a June 6 invasion in the predawn blackness of June 5, while horizontal sheets of rain and gale force winds shuddered through the tent camp. The forecast that the storm would abate proved accurate, as he noted in his message.

Eisenhower's pride and confidence in the battle-tempered men he had met the preceding night—men he was about to send into combat—is also evident in his message. He closed on a confident note, describing the steely readiness of the men he sent to battle, recalling the resoluteness in their faces that he termed "the light of battle...in their eyes." This vivid and stirring memory doubtless heartened him throughout the day until conclusive word reached him that the massive campaign had indeed succeeded.

When the attack began, Allied troops confronted formidable obstacles. Germany had thousands of soldiers dug into bunkers – defended by artillery, mines, tangled barbed wire, machine guns, and other hazards to prevent landing craft from coming ashore.

The cost of military and civilian lives lost on D-Day was high. Allied casualties have been estimated at 10,000 killed, wounded, or missing – over 6,000 of those Americans. But by the end of the day, 155,000 Allied troops were ashore and in control of 80 square miles of the French coast. D-Day was a military success, opening Europe to the Allies and a German surrender less than a year later.

This text was adapted from an article written by David Traill, a teacher at South Fork High School in Stuart, FL, and the article: Schamel, Wynell B. and Richard A. Blondo. "D-day Message from General Eisenhower to General Marshall." Social Education 58, 4 (April/May 1994): 230-232.

Additional Resources

D-day video footage.

View a playlist of videos on D-Day and the Normandy Invasion from the holdings of the National Archives on YouTube .

D-Day Daily Situation Maps

These maps show troop dispositions and the location of the front line. View the maps on YouTube or in the National Archives online catalog .

More WWII Primary Sources

• "D-Day and the Normandy Invasion" Google Cultural Institute Exhibit
• Normandy Invasion and D-Day on DocsTeach
• D-Day in the National Archives online catalog
• WWII on DocsTeach
• WWII from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
• Online Documents from the The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

WWII Research

• Records Relating to D-Day

Finding Information on Personal Participation in World War II (PDF), a helpful starting point

Albert H. Small Normandy Institute

Participants in this institute research a soldier from their hometown who fought in Normandy, and write a biography using primary sources from the holdings of the National Archives. Their visit to Washington, DC, includes a day dedicated to researching the soldiers' unit records at the National Archives at College Park, MD. The fifteen student-teacher teams also travel to France to explore historical sites in Normandy. Learn more at  www.ahsni.com .

• X (formerly Twitter)

Why D-Day Matters

While the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, usually termed D-Day, did not end the war in Europe—that would take eleven more months—success on that day created a path to victory for the Allies. The stakes were so great, the impact so monumental, that this single day stands out in history.

Toward Which We Have Striven

The planning of d-day.

The largest land, sea, and air invasion ever attempted was years in the making. World War II in Europe began with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939. Britain and France declared war in response but could do little to help the Poles. In the spring of 1940, German leader Adolf Hitler staged successful invasions of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and other nations. German armies then moved into France, rapidly breaking through border defenses and pinning much of the British and French armies against the English Channel. While Britain was able to evacuate many of those forces from the area around Dunkirk, it left Nazi Germany dominant on the continent of Europe.

Almost immediately, British leaders began envisioning ways to get back across the Channel in an amphibious assault, eventually code-named Operation Overlord. Understanding the threat such an invasion would pose, Hitler began to build formidable defenses along the entire Channel coast, which he called his “Atlantic Wall.”

In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, formerly a partner. Also, by the end of that year, the United States entered the war after Japan (an ally of Germany) attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The entry of the U.S. into the Alliance meant the scope of the planned cross-Channel invasion would grow. Soon American forces began arriving in England to train for the invasion.

At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Allied leaders decided the cross-Channel invasion would occur in the spring of 1944 with American general Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander of the multinational operation. Forces from twelve Allied nations (most occupied by Nazi Germany) would take part. The invasion had to be the most intricately planned military operation in history. Such questions as where and when to land; how many soldiers, tanks, ships, and planes would be needed; what equipment each man had to carry; and the essential question of how to keep this a secret from the enemy were debated and planned. The final plan called for some 156,000 men to land on five beaches on the coast of Normandy: the Americans at Utah and Omaha in the west, and the British and Canadians at Gold, Juno, and Sword. They would be bolstered by parachute and glider landings and supported by some 5,000 ships and 11,000 airplanes.

Planners set the date of June 5, 1944, for the landings, but a storm that day meant it would be too cloudy to bombard German coastal defenses and too windy for men to disembark from landing craft. British meteorologist James Stagg advised General Eisenhower of a temporary break in the weather, clearer skies, and lighter winds, which would potentially allow the invasion to commence twenty-four hours later. With his assault, naval, and air commanders all saying “go,” Eisenhower gave the order.

Victorious Allies

The Eyes of the World Are Upon You

June 6, 1944.

In the early hours of June 6, under the cover of darkness, American and British paratroopers dropped into Normandy from more than 1,200 aircraft. Once daylight appeared, gliders brought in additional paratroopers. American airborne forces of the 82nd and 101st worked valiantly to achieve their inland objectives, including the capture of Sainte-Mere Eglise and securing key approaches to the Allied beachhead.

The largest naval bombardment ever seen began at 5:30 AM, lasting only forty minutes. American battleships supported by cruisers and destroyers and the British Royal Navy with a similar group of ships shelled gun emplacements and defensive positions around their designated beaches.

The sunrise on June 6 brought with it wave after wave of landing vessels, carrying the more than 150,000 American, British, Canadian, and French ground troops who stormed some fifty miles of coastline in Northern France, beaches fiercely defended by the Germans.

Strong currents pushed the Americans 2,000 yards south of Utah Beach, forcing them to march that distance back to the intended landing areas to seize German fortifications. They still secured Utah by day’s end.

The Germans were aware of the importance of the sector designated Omaha Beach, which the Allies would need to connect and secure the beachheads together, and made certain it was heavily defended. Fortifications and elevated terrain meant the American landing on Omaha would be the bloodiest that day.

The British secured Gold Beach with the help of artillery, tanks, and air support. Assuming Allied landing craft could not make it past the offshore rocks, the Germans did not defend Juno Beach as heavily. Canadian forces pushed the Germans out and secured Juno’s beachhead by mid-afternoon. Tasked with securing Sword Beach, the British were three miles from their intended objective at Caen by day’s end. Nightfall on D-Day found Allied forces past the German defenses on all five beachheads. Hitler’s vaunted Atlantic Wall lasted less than twenty-four hours.

Listen to the Historic Broadcast

A Dispatch from

Fifty years after D-Day, in 1994, Bruce Campbell bought an old cabin on Long Island. As Campbell began cleaning out the basement, he came across boxes containing what looked like movie film. He’d discovered 16 Amertapes and various parts of a Recordgraph machine.

Marching Together to Victory

Beyond overlord.

Many Allied soldiers would follow the D-Day forces into France, with the goal of breaking out of Normandy and pushing the Germans east. Allied forces found themselves bogged down in the infamous hedgerows of Normandy, walls of impenetrable vegetation that provided ideal defensive positions for the Germans and limited the Allies’ ability to move as quickly as hoped.

Frustrated with the failure of the British in the Caen sector to achieve a breakout, General Omar Bradley planned an American offensive, Operation Cobra, near Saint-Lô. If successful, the U.S. forces would be out of the dreaded hedgerows and able to maneuver rapidly. Cobra commenced on July 25 with a massive air assault against German positions. It worked, and soon the American mechanized army was on the move.

The success of Cobra is considered the end of the Normandy campaign and signaled the collapse of German defenses throughout most of France. Hastened by American landings on France’s Mediterranean coast beginning August 15 (Operation Dragoon), Allied forces by August 25 had liberated Paris. Soviet offenses from the east placed additional pressure on the Germans. Ultimate victory, the defeat of Nazi Germany, would only come after fierce fighting that lasted until the following May.

Frequently Asked Questions About D-Day

What does the d in d-day stand for.

D, which merely stands for day, is the designation used to indicate the start date of any American military operation. Military planners used plus and minus signs to designate days occurring before or after; two days before an operation commenced was indicated as D-2, three days after was D+3. An operation began on D Day and at H-Hour. While all American operations had a D-Day, the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, is the best-known and goes down in history as such.

Why invade at Normandy?

There was enormous thought on both sides as to where the cross-Channel attack would take place. The most obvious location was in the Calais area, where the Channel is narrowest. But it was deemed too obvious. Attacking at Normandy increased the distance to travel and lengthened supply lines, but the element of surprise was considered worth the extra difficulty and risk.

What is the difference between Operation Overlord and Operation Neptune?

Operation Overlord was the code-name for the overall invasion of Normandy. Operation Neptune was the code-name for the seaborne landings and naval aspects.  

How many men were killed on D-Day?

4,415: 2,502 Americans and 1,913 Allies from seven nations.

The Foundation’s necrology database is the most authoritative accounting of D-Day fallen anywhere in the world, but we know there are others. Precise record-keeping was not the priority in the heat of battle and dates were recorded incorrectly or not at all. When evidence suggests an individual was killed on June 6, 1944, our research team determines eligibility for inclusion on the Memorial wall.

Were women involved in the D-Day invasion? What about African Americans and Native Americans?

Women being ineligible for combat in 1944, no women landed on D-Day; although war correspondent Martha Gellhorn reportedly snuck onto a troop transport to cover the invasion. However, within two or three days American nurses were serving in Normandy; and the brave civilian women who acted within the French Resistance deserve recognition too.

African Americans were certainly present on D-Day, despite the racial segregation of the period. Most notable were the men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, which landed elements on both Utah and Omaha Beach. African Americans also acted with the quartermaster corps, as truck or bulldozer drivers, and as medics. Five African Americans are known to have given their lives on D-Day.

It is difficult to say how many Native Americans served on D-Day, because they were not always identified as such in records. But we know that members of the Comanche Tribe served as code talkers, using their native language as code unbreakable to the enemy. According to the Charles Shay Indian Memorial on Omaha Beach, about 175 American Indians invaded Omaha Beach. “Some were medics, others fought as seamen, scouts, snipers, radio operators, machine gunners, artillery gunners, combat engineers, or forward observers.”

Who were the “Bedford Boys?”

The term popularized by author Alex Kershaw’s 2003 book usually refers to soldiers from the community of Bedford, Virginia, serving in Company A, 116th Regiment who participated in the Normandy Invasion. Nineteen of those soldiers died on Omaha Beach and a twentieth Bedford native from Company F also died that day.

Why is the Memorial in Bedford?

The loss of the “Bedford Boys” is widely thought to be the highest per capita sacrifice made by any American community on D-Day. For that reason, Congress warranted the Memorial’s establishment in Bedford, Virginia, recognizing Bedford as emblematic of American homefront communities. Additionally, it is worth noting that approximately 100 other Bedford residents died during WWII in other battles and other theaters.

Is the Memorial part of the National Park Service? Does it receive government funding?

Though warranted by the United States Congress, the Memorial is not a National Park Service site. The National D-Day Memorial Foundation operates and maintains the site, with the educational mission of preserving the lessons and legacy of D-Day. The Memorial is not state or federally funded and relies on donor support. Visit our Ways to Support Us page to learn how you can support the Memorial.

Who designed and built the Memorial?

Byron Dickson – Architect

Coleman-Adams Construction – General Contractor

Jim Brothers, Matthew Kirby, Richard Pumphrey – Sculptors

Can my relative be recognized at the Memorial?

Only the names of those who died between 12:00 AM and 11:59 PM on June 6, 1944, while participating in the invasion of Normandy, are recorded on the Memorial wall. Families can honor loved ones with Memorial bricks or by purchasing a cherry tree or bench located on-site. Biographical information about Normandy veterans can be submitted to our Participant Program for inclusion in the research archive.

What is a Gold Star Family?

Gold Star Families are those American families who have lost a loved one in military service to our nation. The blue and gold star banner tradition began in World War I. A blue star indicates an active service member. A gold star denotes a service member who gave his or her life for their country.

On the west side of the Memorial grounds is a Gold Star Families Memorial Monument, a moving tribute to those families. Created by the late Hershel “Woody” Williams, the longest-surviving Medal of Honor recipient from WWII, Williams personally chose the National D-Day Memorial as the site of the first such monument in Virginia.

Ohio State nav bar

The Ohio State University website

• BuckeyeLink
• Find People
• Search Ohio State

Remembering D-Day: 10 Important Facts to Know

The Normandy Invasion (June 6, 1944) was the supreme joint effort of the Western Allies in Europe in World War II and remains today one of the best known campaigns of the war.

Code named Operation Overlord, it was a battle marked by its courage, meticulous planning and logistics, and audacious amphibious approach. It was also in many ways inevitable. Following Germany’s conquest of France in 1940 and declaration of war on the United States in 1941, a confrontation somewhere on the shores of Northern Europe became a waiting game, with only the date and location left to be answered.

On D-Day, over 125,000 British, American, and Canadian soldiers supported by more than five thousand ships and thirteen thousand aircraft landed in Normandy on five separate beaches in order to carve out a sixty-mile wide bridgehead. This foothold would be the launching point from which the liberation of France and Western Europe would proceed. Opposed by German units in strong defensive positions, the Allies suffered more than twelve thousand casualties on the first day of the invasion.

To commemorate the battle, Origins offers ten of the most important things to know about the invasion.

1. The Stage is Set

Map of World War II Europe. Axis Powers in red and Allies in blue.

In spring 1944, the Allied war effort had Axis forces retreating on all fronts. On the Eastern Front, Soviet forces had gained an undisputed advantage over the German Army and were advancing into Poland. The Western Allies (mainly Britain and the United States) continued their offensive in Italy, capturing Rome on June 4, while also pummeling Germany with a strategic air bombing campaign. In the Pacific, the British had just defeated a Japanese offensive in India while American forces continued a steady drive towards Japan through a series of island-hopping offensives. The long-awaited offensive to liberate Western Europe seemed imminent.

2. The Invasion was a Compromise

Churchill and Roosevelt meet in 1943 at Casablanca with their military brass to discuss military strategy including the policy of "Germany first"

The Allied effort in World War II is generally seen as the finest example of coalition warfare . Yet, the Allies rarely agreed outright, particularly in regards to D-Day. The Americans, despite lacking capability to do so, argued for an invasion in 1943. The British advocated operations in the Mediterranean and the Balkans to erode German military strength. The Soviets simply wanted a sizeable second front against the Nazis to relieve pressure on their forces. The resulting plan was a compromise that left all parties only partly satisfied, but met the strategic needs of every participant.

3. Geography Determined Where the Allies C ould Land; Allied Leaders Chose Where They W ould

The two possible landing spots for Overlord

An invasion of Europe required specific geographic features to ensure a reasonable expectation of success. The landing spot had to be within range of Allied fighters flying from England, possess large beaches for vehicular traffic, and be close to a port to supply future offensives. Only two possible landing sites fit the bill: the area known as the Pas de Calais region and the Normandy beaches. Serious planning began in 1943 with the appointment of British General Frederick Morgan as the head of a planning staff. General Morgan’s team decided on Normandy because of its lighter defenses and increased distance from German reinforcements. And they opted for one major assault designed to secure a lodgment as opposed to various smaller landings designed to deceive the Germans.

4. Allied Intelligence Successes and Failures

Allied soldiers hold aloft a dummy tank to deceive Germans

The Allies staged a massive deception campaign prior to Overlord called Operation Fortitude. Designed to confuse German intelligence, Fortitude involved the creation of fictitious formations, dummy equipment, phantom radio traffic, falsified press releases, and controlled leaks of information to known German agents. The operation was so successful German units stayed in defensive positions for weeks after D-Day awaiting the “real” invasion. Allied intelligence, however, was not infallible. The inability of intelligence analysts to identify reinforced German formations in Normandy or adequately assess the defensive strength of the hedgerow terrain behind the beaches resulted in a tougher fight for the Allies.

5. Success was Not Assured

(Top right) Lieutenant-General Frederick Morgan was the head of the planning staff for the invasion. (Bottom right) General Dwight Eisenhower gives his famous “Full victory—nothing else” speech to paratroopers just before the invasion. (Left) Eisenhower was not always so confident as seen in this letter he drafted should the operation fail.

In hindsight, the overwhelming success of the Normandy landings blinds contemporary observers to the very real fear among some Allied leaders that the invasion could fail. General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, went so far as to draft a letter (right) to be read in the event of defeat. In it he accepted full responsibility for the failed attack despite the fact the plan was in its advanced stages when he assumed command. During the invasion, the commander of U.S. forces, General Omar Bradley, considered cancelling further landings on Omaha Beach when the success of operations ashore appeared in doubt.

6. The Pre-invasion Bombardment from Air and Naval Forces was Ineffective

The H.M.S. Warspite of Britain's Royal Navy off the coast of Normandy, bombarding possible enemy locations

Operation Neptune—the amphibious assault portion of Overlord—called for a brief but intense air and sea bombardment to precede the landings to weaken the beach defenses. Weather caused aircraft to miss targets, but more importantly the brevity of the bombardment determined it would fail. Ignoring advice from amphibious assault experts from the Pacific Theater, Allied planners opted for a short bombardment over an extended one in order to maximize surprise. The attack was far too short to do any real damage, leaving the troops in the initial waves to fight generally unaffected German defenses.

7. But Allied Air Superiority Ultimately Proved a Decisive Element in Victory

An A-20 bomber from the 416th Bomb Group of the U.S. completing its bombing run, June 1944

Prior to the invasion, Allied bombers isolated Normandy by targeting transportation hubs that could be used to move German reinforcements to the region. During the invasion, air transport units deployed over twenty thousand paratroopers, helping secure the flanks of the beachhead. Allied aircraft cleared the air and ensured the ground and naval forces proceeded unmolested from German air attacks. Following the invasion, Allied air power proved essential in delaying German reinforcements.

8. The Normandy Campaign was a Race to Reinforce the Area

Reinforcing Omaha Beach with men and equipment

The beach landings are what we think of when we imagine Overlord, but it was the question of reinforcements that won the engagement. Whichever side could gain a substantial advantage in force ratios would shift the balance in their favor. Allied efforts were limited by the size of the lodgment, the rate at which troops could be brought across the beaches, and poor weather conditions. German reinforcements, dispersed across France and the Low Countries to counter possible Allied landings, had to combat competing strategic demands and increasingly aggressive attacks from Allied air power. Allied efforts won out, and the bridgehead slowly expanded.

9. The Invasion Did Not Decide the War, But It Did Shape the Post-war World

Soviet Army photographer Yevgeny Khaldei in Berlin, Germany, May 1945 with the Brandenburg Gate in the background

Despite the remarkable achievement that was the D-Day landings, it is important to remember that they did not constitute the decisive blow against Nazi Germany; that success belongs to the Soviet Union. Raging since June 1941, the Eastern Front witnessed the most massive military confrontation in history. At the cost of more than twenty million casualties (military and civilian), the Soviet Union swallowed the Wehrmacht, occupying the majority of its military might, and inflicting almost eighty percent of all combat deaths. However, had the Normandy Invasion failed, the Soviets may have advanced deeper than they did into Germany and central Europe, moving the Iron Curtain farther west and changing the face of the Cold War.

10. D-Day is the Most Heavily Commemorated Battle in the World

From left to right: U.S. President Barack Obama, Britain’s Prince Charles, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy at the 65th anniversary ceremony (2009)

In its enduring allure and grandeur, the Normandy invasion enjoys the most prolific commemoration of any battle in the world. In addition to year-round tourist traffic, annual celebrations commemorating the invasions draw thousands of visitors. Heads of state from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Germany have attended in order to reflect on the feat of arms that was D-Day. Various militaries also participate, often staging commemorative parachute jumps. All this is in addition to the cemeteries in Normandy that serve as the final resting spot for thousands of American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers.

Read more from Origins on war & the military here .

D-Day: The Role in World War II Research Paper

D-day is an important historical event that happened on June 6, 1944. During World War II, allied armies suffered significant losses, and D-day, also known as the Normandy landings, or Operation Overlord, resulted in terrible human losses. This invasion became one of the hugest amphibious military actions and demanded profound planning (History.com Editors, 2019). It is essential to examine facts about D-day to understand the scale of its significance in terms of World War II.

The preparations for this military operation were extensive and witty. Several months before D-day, the Allies made German soldiers think that Pas-de-Calais was the main aim, not Normandy (History.com Editors, 2019). Many techniques were used to conduct such a deception, including false weapons. Moreover, the operation was delayed by one day because of poor weather conditions. Indeed, after the meteorologist predicted weather improvement, General Dwight Eisenhower approved the process. He motivated his soldiers with vital speeches, which became legendary. More than five thousand ships and eleven thousand aircraft were mobilized during D-day (History.com Editors, 2019). About 156,000 allied troops conquered the Normandy territories by the end of June 6, 1944. Next week the Allies stormed countryside areas, facing German opposition.

By the end of 1944, Paris was released after the Allies approached the Seine River. German armies left France, which signalized the victory (History.com Editors, 2019). Indeed, the critical fact was a significant mental crash during the Normandy invasion. It prevented Adolf Hitler from creating his Eastern Front against the Soviet armies. The Allies decided to eliminate Nazi Germany; Adolf Hitler committed suicide a week before the decision, on April 30, 1945 (History.com Editors, 2019). D-Day became a significant event that influenced the pace of World War II. Undoubtedly, many people died and suffered severe injuries during the event; however, it became an essential part of history.

History.com Editors. (2019). D-Day . History.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, April 8). D-Day: The Role in World War II. https://ivypanda.com/essays/d-day-the-role-in-world-war-ii/

"D-Day: The Role in World War II." IvyPanda , 8 Apr. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/d-day-the-role-in-world-war-ii/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'D-Day: The Role in World War II'. 8 April.

IvyPanda . 2023. "D-Day: The Role in World War II." April 8, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/d-day-the-role-in-world-war-ii/.

1. IvyPanda . "D-Day: The Role in World War II." April 8, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/d-day-the-role-in-world-war-ii/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "D-Day: The Role in World War II." April 8, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/d-day-the-role-in-world-war-ii/.

• Intelligence, War and International Relations
• The Events and Importance of the Battle of Carentan
• Crowdfunding Project on Kickstarter
• The Second World War Choices Made in 1940
• The World War II Propaganda Techniques
• What Role Did India Play in the Second World War?
• Could the US Prevent the Start of World War II?
• World War Two and Its Ramifications

European journal of American studies

Home Issues 7-2 The Many Meanings of D-Day

The Many Meanings of D-Day

This essay investigates what D-Day has symbolized for Americans and how and why its meaning has changed over the past six decades. While the commemoration functions differently in U.S. domestic and foreign policies, in both cases it has been used to mark new beginnings. Ronald Reagan launched his “morning again in America” 1984 re-election campaign from the Pointe du Hoc, and the international commemorations on the Normandy beaches since 1990 have been occasions to display the changing face of Europe and the realignment of allies.

Index terms

Keywords: .

1 For Americans, June 6, 1944 “D-Day” has come to symbolize World War II, with commemorations at home and abroad. How did this date come to assume such significance and how have the commemorations changed over the 65 years since the Normandy landings? How does D-Day function in U.S. cultural memory and in domestic politics and foreign policy? This paper will look at some of the major trends in D-Day remembrances, particularly in international commemorations and D-Day’s meaning in U.S. and Allied foreign policy. Although war commemorations are ostensibly directed at reflecting on the hallowed past, the D-Day observances, particularly since the 1980s, have also marked new beginnings in both domestic and foreign policy.

2 As the invasion was taking place in June 1944, there was, of course, a great deal of coverage in the U.S. media. The events in Normandy, however, shared the June headlines with other simultaneous developments on the European front including the fall of Rome. 1

1. Early Years

3 The very first anniversary of the D-Day landings was marked on June 6, 1945 by a holiday for the Allied forces. In his message to the troops announcing the holiday General Eisenhower stated that “formal ceremonies would be avoided.” 2

4 By the time the invasion’s fifth anniversary rolled around in 1949 the day was marked by a “colorful but modest memorial service” at the beach. The U.S. was represented at the event by the military attaché and the naval attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Paris. A French naval guard, a local bugle corps and an honor guard from an American Legion Post in Paris all took part. A pair of young girls from the surrounding villages placed wreaths on the beach, and a U.S. Air Force Flying Fortresses passed over, firing rockets and dropping flowers. 3

5 The anniversaries of the early 1950s reflected the tenor of the times, evoking both the economic and military Cold War projects of the U.S. in Europe: the Marshall Plan and NATO. Barry Bingham, head of the Marshall Plan Mission in France, used the occasion of the 1950 D-Day commemoration ceremony to praise France’s postwar recovery efforts. 4 Held in the middle of the Korean War, the 1952 D-Day commemoration at Utah Beach proved an opportunity for General Matthew D. Ridgway, Supreme Commander Allied Forces in Europe and a D-Day veteran, to speak of U.S. purpose in the Cold War against “a new and more fearful totalitarianism.” He warned the Communist powers not to “underestimate our resolve to live as free men in our own territories….We will gather the strength we have pledged to one another and set it before our people and our lands as a protective shield until reason backed by strength halts further aggression….” Referring to both his status as a D-Day participant and his current role as military commander of NATO, Ridgway pledged: “The last time I came here, I came as one of thousands to wage war. This time I come to wage peace.” 5

6 The tenth anniversary of the D-Day landings found President Dwight Eisenhower, who as Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) had led the Normandy invasion, strolling through a wheat field in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 6 Eisenhower sent a statement to be read at the Utah Beach commemoration ceremony by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. who was the President’s personal representative at the anniversary events. In contrast to the bellicose remarks of General Ridgway a few years earlier, Eisenhower in 1954 expressed “profound regret” that all of “the members of the Grand Alliance have not maintained in time of peace the spirit of that wartime union.” Eisenhower used this anniversary occasion to recall “my pleasant association with the outstanding Soviet Soldier, Marshall Zhukov, and the victorious meeting at the Elbe of the armies of the West and of the East.” 7 A decade later, in preparation for the twentieth anniversary of the D-Day landings, Eisenhower, no longer president, returned to the Normandy beaches in 1963 to film a D-Day TV special for CBS. 8

7 In between the tenth and twentieth anniversaries, U.S. domestic interest in the Normandy landings had been stoked by Cornelius Ryan’s 1959 best-seller The Longest Day and the 1962 Hollywood epic that Darryl F. Zanuck produced based on Ryan’s book. The film was also notable for giving separate attention to the contributions of the British and Canadian forces as well as those of the French Resistance. The German actions in Normandy were depicted without demonization. Leading German actors (speaking German) gave voice to the professional military’s criticism of Hitler’s leadership. This empathetic portrayal was an indication perhaps of West Germany’s position in the NATO alliance. Clocking in at 178 minutes and shot in black and white for a documentary feel, The Longest Day boasted a cast that was a Who’s-who of British and American male stars of the era: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Peter Lawford, Sean Connery, Richard Beymer, Red Buttons, Eddie Albert, and teen heart-throbs Fabian, Paul Anka, Tommy Sands and Sal Mineo. This display of bold-face names served to undercut the film’s intended documentary effect as their presence constantly reminded the viewers that they were watching a Hollywood production. Critics pointed out that Zanuck’s attention to period detail in weapons, equipment and language did not carry through to a realistic depiction of combat death and casualties—a charge that could not be laid against Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan a 1998 Hollywood D-Day block-buster . 9

8 In spite of this heightened public interest in D-Day, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, absorbed in both his ambitious domestic agenda—including trying to secure passage of the Civil Rights Act-- and the Vietnam War, did not travel to Normandy for the twentieth anniversary. Instead he sent General Omar N. Bradley, one of the commanders of the 1944 landings. 10

9 For the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1969 President Richard Nixon, focused on Vietnam, issued a boilerplate proclamation, calling the Allied landings in 1944 “‘a historical landmark in the history of freedom.’” 11 When the time came for the thirtieth anniversary of D-Day in 1974, Nixon again was too preoccupied to travel to Normandy. Congress had already begun impeachment hearings against him on charges of obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of Congress arising from the Watergate affair. Nixon would resign in August 1974, and Presidential attention for the rest of the 1970s was directed at the aftermath of Vietnam and at new crisis like those involving the U.S. economy, energy, and the seizing of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran. The moment for actively reinvigorating the memory of World War II had not yet arrived.

10 As the G-7 leaders 12 gathered in Paris for their meetings at Versailles in early June 1982, President Ronald Reagan made D-Day the focus of his radio broadcast to U.S. audiences on June 5. He also prepared taped remarks on D-Day for broadcast on French television. 13 Although the President himself did not travel to the landing sites in 1982, U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan paid a three-hour visit to Normandy to mark the thirty-eighth anniversary of D-Day. 14 Accompanied by the Defense and Army attachés of the U.S. Embassy in Paris, she laid a wreath at the memorial statue in the U.S. cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer and made some brief remarks to a small crowd: “If my husband were here today, he would tell you how deeply he feels the responsibilities of peace and freedom. He would tell you how we can best insure that other young men on other beaches and other fields will not have to die. And I think he would tell you of his ideas for nuclear peace.” 15

2. “Morning Again in America”

11 Two years later on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day in June 1984 her husband President Ronald Reagan would get the chance to personally address those gathered to commemorate the Normandy invasion. But this time the crowd was no longer small. Speaking at the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc at 1:20 p.m. (timed to coincide with the morning TV programs on the U.S. East Coast and designed as part of Reagan’s re-election campaign) President Reagan delivered his now-famous “boys of Pointe du Hoc” address to a television audience of millions as well as to the veterans and Allied leaders gathered on the Normandy coast. In remarks carefully crafted by Peggy Noonan, Reagan first paid tribute to the Ranger veterans, recreating dramatically their heroic deeds in scaling the cliffs: “They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only ninety could still bear arms.” He went on to pay tribute to the Allies, mentioning by name “the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's ‘Matchbox Fleet’ and you, the American Rangers.” Not leaving out Germany and Italy, Reagan spoke of the reconciliation with former enemies “all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall plan led to the Atlantic alliance -- a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.” Toward the Russians, Reagan presented two faces. 16 First, he lamented: “Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war.” Then he added: “It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: 20 million perished…. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest.” After his remarks he unveiled two memorial plaques honoring the Rangers. 17

12 The Pointe du Hoc speech served as the opening salvo in Reagan’s “morning again in America” re-election campaign. Using snippets from this speech in a popular television advertisement, the campaign transformed a look back at a forty-year-old battle into a new beginning for the nation. 18

13 A few hours after the Pointe du Hoc speech Reagan gave another address on Omaha Beach, this time paying special tribute to the efforts of the French Resistance, directing his remarks at President Mitterrand, who had participated in the Resistance. “Your valiant struggle for France did so much to cripple the enemy and spur the advance of the armies of liberation. The French Forces of the Interior will forever personify courage and national spirit.” Reminding Americans and Europeans of the importance of postwar efforts like NATO, he concluded: “Our alliance, forged in the crucible of war, tempered and shaped by the realities of the postwar world, has succeeded. In Europe, the threat has been contained, the peace has been kept.” 19

14 Later that same day President Reagan joined President Mitterrand and other Allied leaders (Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands, King Olav V of Norway, King Baudouin I of Belgium, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau of Canada) at Utah Beach. Mitterrand’s remarks stressed reconciliation with Germany: “‘the adversaries of yesterday are reconciled and are building the Europe of freedom.’” 20 Chancellor Helmut Kohl had not been invited to the ceremonies, but the day’s events and speeches buttressed a NATO alliance that included (West) Germany.

15 This emphasis on the continuing importance of the NATO alliance was far from accidental. There are been widespread protests in Europe in 1984 over the installation of U.S. Cruise and Pershing missiles in accordance with a 1979 NATO decision. The “family portrait” of the assembled Allies on Utah Beach and the tribute to their absent member Germany sent a signal to publics on both sides of the Atlantic about the continuing commitment to joint defense of “the Europe of freedom.” The 1984 celebrations set a new standard for D-Day commemorations and established a pattern that would be followed (with variations) for the next twenty-five years. By looking at these variations in subsequent years we can monitor changes in transatlantic relations.

3. A New Europe

16 By the time of the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day the map of Europe had shifted once again. The Warsaw Pact had dissolved; Germany had reunited; Czechoslovakia had split; the Soviet Union was no more. In June 1994 leaders of all the countries that had participated in the invasion gathered at Normandy: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the UK and the U.S. and this year for the first time leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic and Slovakia—a visible symbol of the changed faced of Europe since 1989 and yet another new beginning for the continent. In addition the year marked a generational shift, with the U.S. represented in Normandy by President Clinton who had been born after the end of World War II.

• 22  Jeffrey Birnbaum, “Reporter’s Notebook: Clinton, Facing Comparison with Reagan’s D-Day Speech Rise (...)

17 Clinton, of course, had a hard act to follow given the iconic status that Reagan’s “boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech had attained over the past decade. He also had the disadvantage of never having served in the military and of having famously avoided serving in the Vietnam War. In a new wrinkle to D-Day celebrations, Clinton, along with Queen Elizabeth and other Allied leaders, sailed from Portsmouth, England to the French coast in a “massive flotilla” accompanied by Lancaster bombers to recreate and commemorate the 1944 invasion. 21 In France Clinton participated in four ceremonies marking the anniversary of the landings. In his address at the American cemetery he turned his seeming disadvantage of lack of WWII experience into an advantage as he stressed the ties between generations: “‘We are the children of your sacrifice,’” he told the veterans of D-Day. “‘The flame of your youth became freedom's lamp, and we see its light reflected in your faces still, and in the faces of your children and grandchildren…. We commit ourselves, as you did, to keep that lamp burning for those who will follow. You completed your mission here. But the mission of freedom goes on; the battle continues. The `longest day' is not yet over.’” 22

18 D-Day anniversaries were not only occasions for major political gatherings and speeches, but had also become important tourist attractions and income generators for Western Europe, especially France, with Normandy hotels and guest houses fully booked for early June. In 1994 France alone hosted more than 350 events commemorating the D-Day landings. Many specialized tours were designed for veterans and their families. The QE2 even offered a cruise to Cherbourg featuring 1940s big bands, Vera Lynn and Bob Hope. 23 Across the Channel, thousands of veterans and their families were also welcomed at anniversary events in England. 24

19 Ten years later for the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day President George W. Bush faced a double challenge: how to repair the Alliance after the visible rupture over the Iraq War and how to compete with the memory of Ronald Reagan, whose exquisitely timed death on June 5, 2004 insured that the Great Communicator’s 1984 D-Day speeches would be replayed prominently on June 6, making comparisons between the two presidents unavoidable. The attack on Iraq in 2003 had become a point of contention among NATO Allies, with France and Germany refusing to support the war. French President Chirac as host of the Normandy commemorations invited German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to the commemorations held in Caen and Arromanche , the first time a German leader had been included in the celebrations. 25 Although Chirac’s predecessor Mitterrand had gone out of his way to emphasize conciliation with Germany in his remarks twenty years before, on the fiftieth anniversary in 1994 Chancellor Helmut Kohl had not been invited to attend any Normandy events. At the time Kohl remarked, “There was ‘no reason’ for a chancellor of Germany ‘to celebrate when others mark a battle in which tens of thousands of Germans met miserable deaths.’” Schröder declared that his invitation to the 2004 Normandy commemoration “meant that ‘Germany's long journey to the West has now been completed,’” 26 signaling a new beginning for German identity within the community of Western nations.

20 The 1944 Normandy invasion had been, of course, an attack on German forces occupying France, but Schröder had been allied with Chirac in opposing the 2003 Iraq War. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, who supported the Iraq War, on the other hand, was not invited to the 2004 celebrations. However, Tony Blair, Bush’s close ally in the Iraq War, was there along with Queen Elizabeth. President Vladimir Putin of Russia also attended-- another first. During the Cold War the Soviet Union had not been included in the Normandy celebrations, in spite of its contributions to the Allied victory in World War II. Leaders and royalty from Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and New Zealand also participated in the sixtieth anniversary events.

• 27  Richard W. Stevenson, “In Normandy, Bush Honors Veterans of D-Day,” The New York Times, 6 June 200 (...)

21 President Bush addressed the gathered veterans and heads of state at the Normandy American Cemetery above Omaha Beach, with a speech that focused on recounting the events of 1944 and on paying tribute to those who had participated in the invasion. “Mr. Bush said those who faced the hail of German machine gun fire and artillery, some who made it up over the cliffs and some who did not, had served ‘the noblest of causes’ and would never be forgotten.” 27 He turned toward President Chirac to add “And America would do it again, for our friends.” After the speech Chirac warmly clasped Bush’s hand. 28

29  Richard W. Stevenson, “In Normandy, Bush Honors Veterans of D-Day,” New York Times, 6 June 2004.

22 Bush in his remarks also reminded the Allies present that the “nations that battled across the continent would become trusted partners in the cause of peace, and our great alliance of freedom is strong, and it is still needed today,” a not-so-subtle hint to the French about the need for solidarity in the War on Terror. At the same event President Chirac vowed that “France will ‘never forget what it owes to America, its friend forever.’” 29 Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, the star and director of Saving Private Ryan , were among the crowd—a mixing of real veterans with those who represented them in Hollywood.

4. A New Generation

• 30  Andrew Pierce, “Prince of Wales to attend 65 th D-Day Anniversary,” The Daily Telegraph, 2 June 200 (...)

23 In 2009 with the numbers of surviving WWII veterans drastically shrinking, heads of state again returned to Normandy to mark D-Day—the 65 th anniversary of the landings. If President Chirac had made history by inviting Chancellor Schröder and President Putin, President Sarkozy made headlines when it was learned that Queen Elizabeth had not been invited to the anniversary celebrations. French and British officials traded charges about where the blame lay and in the end, after intervention by the Obama administration, Prince Charles attended the Normandy commemoration along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown. 30 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also took part. The generational shift first evident in 1994 was now complete. With the absence of Queen Elizabeth, all the Allied leaders taking part in the ceremonies had been born after World War II and had no direct personal memories to contribute. A fresh generation had assumed command, but continued to honor the past while celebrating the new. President Obama “invoked his deceased grandfather, ‘who arrived on this beach six weeks after D-Day and marched across Europe in Patton’s Army.’ And he introduced his great-uncle, Charles Payne, who fought in Germany and traveled here from Chicago.” 31 More than had his predecessors Obama also paid extensive tribute to America’s World War II home front “On farms and in factories millions of men and women worked three shifts a day, month after month, year after year. Trucks and tanks came from plants in Michigan and Indiana, New York and Illinois. Bombers and fighter planes rolled off assembly lines in Ohio and Kansas, where my grandmother did her part as an inspector.” 32 With President Sarkozy beaming on screen behind President Obama throughout the U.S. President’s remarks, the 2009 showcased a visibly warmer Franco-American relationship than had been on display five years earlier. In his own remarks, Sarkozy noted: “The great totalitarian systems of the 20th century have been defeated. The threats that loom over the future of humanity today are of a different kind, but they are no less serious.” 33 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was so dazzled to be in the presence of the new American president that he made the Freudian slip of referring to Omaha Beach as “Obama Beach.” 34

24 Placing himself in the tradition that had started with President Reagan, Obama acknowledged, “I’m not the first American President to come and mark this anniversary, and I likely will not be the last.” 35 Over the twenty-five years since the invention of the Normandy “summits,” these events have become useful indicators of the state of the transatlantic relationship as well as of intra-European alignments. As the number of WWII veterans decreases to the point of elimination and the ties of the participating Allied leaders to the events become ever more attenuated, the meanings of D-Day become more about the present than the past. But looking back at even the early celebrations of the 1950s where the Marshall Plan and NATO were showcased we see that this has always been the case. The D-Day commemorations simultaneously honored the past while marking new beginnings in domestic politics and transatlantic relations.

1  Marianna Torgovnick, The War Complex: World War II in Our Time (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) 23. Torgovnick also points out (pp. 40-41) that the total U.S. casualty figures for D-Day were 3581, 2403 of whom were killed. These numbers are much lower than those for some other WWII battles that have not acquired D-Day’s iconic status.

2  “D-Day Anniversary to be holiday for troops,” The New York Times , 3 June 1945, 2.

3  “Normandy Marks D-Day Anniversary,” The New York Times , 6 June 1949, 1.

4  “Recovery in France is Hailed,” The New York Times, 6 June 1950, 2.

5  “Reds Warned by Ridgway to Avoid War,” Washington Post , 7 1952, 3.

6  “Eisenhower Day Serene,” The New York Times, 6 June 1954, 30.

7  “Eisenhower Cites D-Day Solidarity,” New York Times, 6 June 1954, 30.

8  Val Adams, “Eisenhower going to Normandy to film D-Day program,” The New York Times, 15July . 1963, 43.

9  Robert Brent Toplin, “Hollywood’s D-Day from the Perspective of the 1960s and 1990s,” in:  Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor, eds. , Why We Fought: America’s Wars in Film and History (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008) 306.

10  “British Ceremonies on Observances of 20 th D-Day Anniversary,” Washington Post , 4 June 1964, A8.

11  “D-Day Noted,” The New York Times, 1 June1969, 34.

12  The G-7, of course, included nations that fought on both sides of WWII: U.S., France, Britain and Canada representing the Allied forces on D-Day and Germany, Italy and Japan the Axis Powers in WWII.

13  Douglas Brinkley, The Boys of Pointe de Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Army 2 nd Ranger Battalion (New York: HarperCollins, 2005) 4-5

14  Nancy Reagan had received much negative criticism during the first year of the Reagan presidency for wearing designer dresses and spending large sums redecorating the White House (including purchasing a new china service) during a recession. The D-Day program as well as her visit to the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris would serve to polish the First Lady’s public image and divert the focus from fashion during the Reagans’ time in France.

15  Enid Nemy, “Mrs. Reagan Visits U.S. Cemetery in Normandy on D-Day Anniversary,” The New York Times, 7 June 1982, D7.

16  These two approaches towards the Soviet Union reflect an internal administration debate over the address. See Brinkley, 156.

17  URL: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/60684a.htm (accessed 3/20/2010)

18  Gil Troy, Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005) 161.

19  URL: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/60684b.htm (accessed 3/20/2010)

20  John Vinocur, “Mitterrand Stresses Conciliation,: New York Times , 7 June 1984, A12.

21  William Tuohy, “Allies Sail for D-Day plus 50,” Los Angeles Times, 6June 1994.

22  Jeffrey Birnbaum, “Reporter’s Notebook: Clinton, Facing Comparison with Reagan’s D-Day Speech Rises to occasion,” The Wall Street Journal, 7 June 1994, A16.

23  Mary Blume, “Normandy’s 50 th Anniversary Invasion,” The New York Times , 22 January 1994.

24  William Schmidt, “The D-Day Tour: Reminiscences,” The New York Times , 4 June 1994.

25  Schröder, however, was not present for President Bush's address at the American Cemetery.

26  Richard Bernstein, “Europa--So far, only silence for a remarkable visit,” The New York Times,   28 May 2004.

27  Richard W. Stevenson, “In Normandy, Bush Honors Veterans of D-Day,” The New York Times, 6 June 2004.

28  Carl M. Cannon, “Obama in Good Company on D-Day,” Politics Daily URL:

  http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/06/06/obama-in-good-company-on-d-day/ (accessed 3/20/2010)

30  Andrew Pierce, “Prince of Wales to attend 65 th D-Day Anniversary,” The Daily Telegraph, 2 June 2009.

31  Jeff Zeleny, “Obama Hails D-Day Heroes at Normandy,” The New York Times, 6 June 2009.

32  URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-d-day-65th-anniversary-ceremony (accessed 3/21/2010)

33  Jeff Zeleny, “Obama Hails D-Day Heroes at Normandy,” The New York Times, 6 June 2009.

35  URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-d-day-65th-anniversary-ceremony (accessed 3/21/2010)

Electronic reference

Kate Delaney , “The Many Meanings of D-Day” ,  European journal of American studies [Online], 7-2 | 2012, document 13, Online since 29 March 2012 , connection on 21 May 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/9544; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.9544

About the author

Kate delaney.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC 4.0 . All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

• Cited Names

Full text issues

• 19-1 | 2024 Special Issue: Figurations of Interspecies Harmony in North American Literature and Culture
• 18-4 | 2023 Special Issue: Memory, Identity, Belonging: Narratives of Eastern and Central European Presence in North America
• 18-3 | 2023 Special Issue: Obsessions in Melville and Hawthorne
• 18-2 | 2023 Summer 2023
• 18-1 | 2023 Special Issue: Hamilton and the Poetics of America
• 17-4 | 2022 The Boredoms of Late Modernity
• 17-3 | 2022 Special Issue: Louisa May Alcott and Love: A European Seminar in Rome
• 17-2 | 2022 Summer 2022
• 17-1 | 2022 The Greek War of Independence and the United States: Narratives of Myth and Reality
• 16-4 | 2021 The American Neuronovel (2009-2021)
• 16-3 | 2021 Special Issue: Video Games and/in American Studies: Politics, Popular Culture, and Populism
• 16-2 | 2021 Summer 2021
• 16-1 | 2021 Spring 2021
• 15-4 | 2020 Special Issue: Contagion and Conviction: Rumor and Gossip in American Culture
• 15-3 | 2020 Special Issue: Media Agoras: Islamophobia and Inter/Multimedial Dissensus
• 15-2 | 2020 Summer 2020
• 15-1 | 2020 Special Issue: Truth or Post-Truth? Philosophy, American Studies, and Current Perspectives in Pragmatism and Hermeneutics
• 14-4 | 2019 Special Issue: Spectacle and Spectatorship in American Culture
• 14-3 | 2019 Special Issue: Harriet Prescott Spofford: The Home, the Nation, and the Wilderness
• 14-2 | 2019 Summer 2019
• 14-1 | 2019 Special Issue: Race Matters: 1968 as Living History in the Black Freedom Struggle
• 13-4 | 2018 Special Issue: Envisioning Justice: Mediating the Question of Rights in American Visual Culture
• 13-3 | 2018 Special Issue: America to Poland: Cultural Transfers and Adaptations
• 13-2 | 2018 Summer 2018
• 13-1 | 2018 Special Issue: Animals on American Television
• 12-4 | 2017 Special Issue: Sound and Vision: Intermediality and American Music
• 12-3 | 2017 Special Issue of the European Journal of American Studies: Cormac McCarthy Between Worlds
• 12-2 | 2017 Summer 2017, including Special Issue: Popularizing Politics: The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
• 12-1 | 2017 Spring 2017: Special Issue - Eleanor Roosevelt and Diplomacy in the Public Interest
• 11-3 | 2017 Special Issue: Re-Queering The Nation: America’s Queer Crisis
• 11-2 | 2016 Summer 2016
• 11-1 | 2016 Special Issue: Intimate Frictions: History and Literature in the United States from the 19th to the 21st Century
• 10-3 | 2015 Special Double Issue: The City
• 10-2 | 2015 Summer 2015, including Special Issue: (Re)visioning America in the Graphic Novel
• 10-1 | 2015 Special Issue: Women in the USA
• 9-3 | 2014 Special Issue: Transnational Approaches to North American Regionalism
• 9-2 | 2014 Summer 2014
• 9-1 | 2014 Spring 2014
• 8-1 | 2013 Spring 2013
• 7-2 | 2012 Special Issue: Wars and New Beginnings in American History
• 7-1 | 2012 Spring 2012
• 6-3 | 2011 Special Issue: Postfrontier Writing
• 6-2 | 2011 Special Issue: Oslo Conference
• 6-1 | 2011 Spring 2011
• 5-4 | 2010 Special Issue: Film
• 5-3 | 2010 Summer 2010
• 5-2 | 2010 Special Issue: The North-West Pacific in the 18th and 19th Centuries
• 5-1 | 2010 Spring 2010
• 4-3 | 2009 Special Issue: Immigration
• 4-2 | 2009 Autumn 2009
• 4-1 | 2009 Spring 2009
• 3-3 | 2008 Autumn 2008
• 3-2 | 2008 Special Issue: May 68
• 3-1 | 2008 Spring 2008
• 2-2 | 2007 Autumn 2007
• 2-1 | 2007 Spring 2007
• 1-1 | 2006 Spring 2006

Electronic supplements

• Book reviews

The Journal

• What is EJAS ?
• Editorial Committee
• Instructions for Contributors
• Book Reviews Information
• Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Information

• Website credits
• Publishing policies

Newsletters

• OpenEdition Newsletter

In collaboration with

Electronic ISSN 1991-9336

Read detailed presentation  

Site map  – Contact us  – Website credits  – Syndication

Privacy Policy  – About Cookies  – Report a problem

OpenEdition Journals member  – Published with Lodel  – Administration only

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search

By Imperial War Museums

On 6 June 1944, the biggest combined naval, military and air operation ever seen took place. Code-named 'Overlord', the D-Day landings on the coast of Normandy marked the start of a campaign which led to eventual Allied victory in Europe in May 1945.

Preparations for the liberation of Western Europe had begun soon after the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk in 1940.  By the end of 1941, Britain had been joined by the Soviet Union and the United States in the ‘Grand Alliance’ against Hitler. In 1943 the Allies met in Tehran to plan their strategy. This exhibition looks at the planning that was needed to ensure the success of Operation 'Overlord' as well as the events that unfolded on D-Day itself.

The approach to Sword Beach, 6 June 1944

In November 1943 the Allies met in Tehran to plan their strategy. Britain and the US agreed to launch a cross-Channel attack in the following spring. The Soviet Union had been demanding a ‘second front’ in the west since July 1941. 

The 'Big Three' in Tehran, 1943

In December 1943 a command team was formed to plan and lead the Allied air, sea and ground forces for the forthcoming invasion. General Dwight D Eisenhower was named as Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces.  The ‘D’ in D-Day simply stands for Day. The terms D-Day and H-Hour were used by military planners to designate the day and hour of a forthcoming operation where the exact date and time were still to be confirmed or were secret.

The command team, 1944

General Dwight D Eisenhower

Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder became Deputy Supreme Commander.

Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay was appointed Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief. 

Frederick Morgan was Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander. 

Sir Arthur Tedder

Sir Bertram Ramsay

Frederick Morgan

General Sir Bernard Montgomery, as Commander-in-Chief 21st Army Group, was to command all the Allied ground forces during the assault phase in Normandy. 

Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory became the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force. 

Sir Bernard Montgomery

Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory

The success of the D-Day operation depended on careful preparation. While factories in Britain worked round the clock to produce the huge quantities of weapons, ammunition and equipment needed by the invasion forces, a wide variety of specialists contributed their unique skills and knowledge.

Detailed information was compiled about the German defences, the terrain and the weather conditions. Inventors and engineers devised special equipment to help forces land safely in Normandy. False information was fed to the Germans to draw their attention away from the real invasion site. 

Dummy landing craft 

Group Captain J M Stagg, RAF Chief Meteorological Officer 

Protective suit worn by a member of the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties

WRNS Censoring Mail, by Thomas Hennell 

Many special ships were developed for D-Day. As well as Tank Landing Craft, there were tiny Assault Landing Craft and huge Landing Ships. 

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was founded in June 1939 to free up RAF personnel for front line duties. By 1943, the WAAF had 182,000 members.

Tank Landing Craft Churchill AVRE Members of the WAAF packing parachutes for use during the Normandy invasion

The Allies could not rely on capturing an undamaged port, so two artificial harbours were planned, one in the British sector and one in the American. Each was assembled from 400 prefabricated sections. 

Each Mulberry component was given a code-name. The pier heads (Whales) and their roads ashore rose and fell with the tide on adjustable legs (Spuds). Submerged concrete caissons (Phoenixes), floating steel tanks (Bombardons), and sunken blockships (Corncobs), which formed an outer defence (Gooseberry), protected the piers. 

The artificial 'Mulberry Harbour' at Arromanches

Model of 'Mulberry Harbour' section

February 1944 onwards, Allied bombers had been attacking the French road and rail network to isolate the invasion area and prevent the rapid movement of German reinforcements and equipment.  To disguise the fact that Normandy was the invasion zone, many other targets in northern France were also attacked. At dusk on 5 June, RAF bombers began to drop bundles of metal foil strips, code-named 'Window', over the Channel to create confusion on German radar operators' screens.  On D-Day, the Allied air forces flew over 14,000 sorties in support of the landings, almost unchallenged by the Luftwaffe. In the early hours of 6 June, three Allied airborne divisions landed troops by parachute and glider to seize and protect the flanks of the invasion beaches. 

Aircraft reinforcements being prepared

Metal foil strips, code-named ‘Window’

Invasion briefings

Private Papers of S R Verrier

To defend coastal areas against a possible Allied invasion, the Germans built huge fortifications known as the Atlantic Wall. They included concrete pill boxes, bunkers and gun positions. When, early in 1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took command of the German forces from the Netherlands to the River Loire, the defences were strengthened, particularly in the sectors facing the English Channel.

A Pill-box, by C A Russell

Inspecting the Atlantic Wall

By mid-May 1944, some 6,500,000 mines had been laid and over 500,000 beach obstacles installed. In the Normandy area, the defences were manned mainly by the German 716th Infantry Division, which included a number of Polish and Russian-born conscripts.  However, around Omaha Beach, the battle-hardened German 352nd Infantry Division was engaged on anti-invasion training on 6 June 1944.

Beach defenses

Mines in Seine Bay

The naval element of Operation 'Overlord' under Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay was code-named Operation 'Neptune'. By June 1944 nearly 7,000 warships, landing craft and other vessels were assembled in the ports of southern England. Minesweepers cleared lanes across the Channel. On D-Day, as well as bombarding coastal defences, two naval task forces landed two British, one Canadian and two American divisions on the Normandy beaches. Naval forces provided fire support for the armies and ensured that supplies to the beachhead were maintained. Many landing craft were sunk or damaged, but by nightfall the Allies had put over 132,000 troops ashore.

Footage from an American-commentated account of the Normandy landings

This message from Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, the Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, was read to all troops shortly before they left for the invasion beaches.  

Juno Beach was assaulted by the Canadian 3rd Division. It was heavily defended with emplacements and formidable beach obstacles. Rough seas delayed the landings. The Germans opened fire as the Canadian infantry landed, and the first wave suffered heavy casualties.

Message from Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay

Permits issued on Juno Beach

Canadian troops at Juno Beach

US troops at Utah Beach

Letter written by Lieutenant (Torpedo) Officer R MacNab 

British Army formation badge  Troops inland near St Gabriel The approach to Gold Beach

The approach to Sword Beach

HMS Belfast officer's dress jacket 

Letter from Able Seaman A Jones on board HMS Belfast  

HMS Belfast firing on German positions, Ver-sur-Mer

Casualties among the first men to land on D-Day were looked after by the army medical personnel who landed with the assault waves. Wounded men were stabilised and taken back across the Channel in landing ships. Military hospitals around Britain were on standby to receive the wounded.  Once the beachhead had been secured, field hospitals were set up in Normandy, and the women’s nursing services crossed the Channel to care for the casualties.

Private Papers of Miss M E Littleboy, an ambulance driver based on the Isle of Wight during the D-Day landings 

Treating a wounded soldier

75,000 men were landed on Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches before midnight on D-Day, at a cost of around 3,000 killed, wounded or missing. 23,250 men were landed on Utah Beach at a cost of under 250 casualties. Of the 34,000 US troops who landed on Omaha Beach, where the German resistance was strongest, some 2,000 casualties were suffered - a high proportion of the total Allied losses on D-Day.

In all, the Allies suffered approximately 10,200 casualties on 6 June. This figure was lower than the planners and commanders had been expecting, but each death represented a sad loss for families and comrades.

American cemetery near Omaha Beach

Project Lead—Carolyn Royston

Kindertransport

Imperial war museums, from amiens to armistice, the liberation of bergen-belsen, how we made the peace, culture under attack, baedeker raids, ve day celebrations, amiens 1918, the scuttling of the german fleet 1919, continuing conflicts.

Home — Essay Samples — War — D-Day — D Day Speech Analysis

D Day Speech Analysis

• Categories: D-Day

About this sample

Words: 718 |

Published: Mar 19, 2024

Words: 718 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

I. introduction, ii. historical context of d-day, iii. analysis of the d-day speech, iv. impact of the speech on the audience, v. conclusion, a. the speech delivered on d-day undoubtedly played a crucial role in motivating and inspiring the allied forces. through powerful rhetoric and stirring words, the speaker was able to instill a sense of determination and unity among the troops. by appealing to their sense of duty and highlighting the importance of the mission at hand, the speech effectively boosted morale and encouraged soldiers to persevere in the face of daunting challenges., b. in addition to its impact on the troops, the speech also had a significant influence on public perception of the war effort. through radio broadcasts and newspaper coverage, the words spoken on d-day reached a wide audience, shaping their understanding of the conflict and the sacrifices being made by allied forces. the speech served to galvanize support for the war and rally the nation behind the cause of defeating fascism and securing peace in europe., c. the long-term effects of the speech on historical memory and commemoration of d-day cannot be understated. the words spoken on that fateful day have become ingrained in the collective consciousness, serving as a reminder of the courage and sacrifice of those who fought on the beaches of normandy. the speech continues to be remembered and honored to this day, as we reflect on the significance of d-day and the pivotal role it played in shaping the course of history..

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Heisenberg

Verified writer

• Expert in: War

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 1112 words

1 pages / 403 words

3 pages / 1350 words

3 pages / 1381 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on D-Day

Was the bombing of North and South Vietnam effective? Why or why not? How does one define “effective’ from the American and Vietnamese perspective. Around 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed, allowing for President [...]

World War II, otherwise called the Second World War, was the struggle that included basically each portion of the world during the long period of 1939–45. The foremost belligerents were the Axis powers — Germany, Italy, and [...]

During the Second World War, Canadian society changed drastically—especially when it came to the roles of women and how their trailblazing impacted the future of women’s rights today. Instead of working as homemakers, women [...]

American propaganda in World War One was primarily focused on the recruitment of soldiers, financing the war, unifying the nation, conserving resources and increasing support from Americans. In this poster, the intention is to [...]

In April 1939, the Nazis came into Lidice, Czechoslovakia. None of the residents paid much attention, but what happens three years later almost put Lidice off of the map. What did Lidice do to deserve what happened to them? The [...]

Canada’s treatment of its citizens of Japanese descent during the Second World War should be seen as a black spot on Canadian history. The tension between the Canadians and Japanese immigrants started as early as 1858 when [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

D-day - Free Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

An essay on D-Day can delve into the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, during World War II. It can discuss the planning, logistics, and significance of this pivotal military operation, the challenges faced by the Allied forces, and the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation, highlighting the courage and sacrifice of those involved. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about D-Day you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

An Introduction to the History of D-Day

One of the most overused essay topics is as follows: "If you could go back in history and meet one person, who would it be?" Typically, the answer is one of the famous presidents such as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Why? Historians have examined the lives of these men, wrote about their failures and triumphs; people read them and most have derived that Washington or Lincoln were superior men and should be revered forever. However, let us dwell on […]

The Importance of D-Day in Normandy during World War Two

Normandy D-Day In midsummer 1943, a year before the Anglo-American invasion of Normandy, Adolf Hitler still occupied all the territory he had gained. He had a strong foothold in North Africa and was ready to take over the world if possible. He controlled all of Europe except Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and Sweden. Without intervention by the US, Hitler could count on prolonging his military reign for many years; there was no one else who could match him. Since 1942, Soviet […]

D-Day’s Legacy: Shaping the Course of World War II

On the hallowed shores of Normandy, the echoes of June 6, 1944, resonate as a defining chapter in the annals of human conflict. D-Day, an audacious Allied invasion, left an indelible mark on the course of World War II, sculpting its legacy across the geopolitical landscape. This exploration delves into the enduring impact of D-Day, revealing how the strategic triumphs and human sacrifices on those fateful beaches reverberated far beyond the sands of Normandy. D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, unfolded as […]

We will write an essay sample crafted to your needs.

Courage and Chaos: Unpacking the Human Stories of D-Day

In the tumultuous tapestry of history, no chapter resonates with the raw intensity of human courage and chaos more than the events of D-Day. This exploration delves into the visceral human stories that unfolded on June 6, 1944, illuminating the individual tales of heroism and sacrifice that collectively shaped the destiny of nations during Operation Overlord. Against the ominous backdrop of the Normandy coastline, the human drama of D-Day unfolded. The bravery displayed by Allied soldiers transcended the strategic intricacies […]

Decisive Moments: Analyzing the Strategic Significance of D-Day

In the vast tapestry of military history, few chapters are as intricately woven and consequential as the events surrounding D-Day. This exploration delves into the depths of the past, unraveling the strategic implications of that fateful day, when Operation Overlord unfolded with unprecedented audacity, reshaping the very course of World War II. June 6, 1944, marked the initiation of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe, a day etched into the annals of history for its sheer scale and historic […]

Triumphing through Strategy: Mastering the D-Day of Marketing Campaigns

In the realm of marketing, launching a campaign bears striking similarities to orchestrating a military operation. From meticulous planning to swift execution, the journey from inception to victory parallels the strategy and coordination required on the historic D-Day. Just as Allied forces meticulously planned and executed the invasion of Normandy, marketers must navigate through challenges and uncertainties to ensure the success of their campaigns. At the heart of any victorious campaign lies strategic planning. Much like the generals meticulously charted […]

Breaking Digital Frontiers: Executing Victory with the D-Day Marketing Blueprint

In the ever-evolving realm of digital marketing, embracing a strategic paradigm akin to the historic D-Day invasion serves as a beacon for navigating uncharted territories, seizing unforeseen opportunities, and amplifying brand resonance. Much like the meticulous planning and execution by Allied forces during the Normandy invasion, marketers must wield creativity and precision to achieve their marketing objectives in the digital arena. Central to the D-Day-inspired approach in digital marketing is the art of strategic foresight. Just as military tacticians analyzed […]

Additional Example Essays

• Hitler's Rise to Power in History
• Causes and Effects of World War II
• Compare And Contrast In WW1 And WW2
• Logical Fallacies in Letter From Birmingham Jail
• Analysis of Letter from Birmingham Jail
• The Importance of Professional Bearing in the Military
• Research Paper #1 – The Trail of Tears
• “Allegory of the Cave”
• Cons Police Discretion
• What Caused the Fall of the Western Roman Empire
• The History of the United States of America
• How is the Crucible an Allegory for Mccarthyism

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

EssayEmpire

D-day essay.

Although it is a general military term, D-day has become synonymous with the Allied invasion of Normandy, France—code-named “Operation Overlord”— on June 6, 1944, during World War II. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin called on the Allies to open a second front in western Europe. By May 1943 such a plan had become the Allies’ number one priority. At a meeting held in Quebec, Canada, Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan, chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Command, presented a preliminary plan to the Allied leadership. With input from Lord Louis Mountbatten, chief of the British War Department’s Combined Operations Division, Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, and numerous others the invasion plan began to take shape; by D-day close to 30,000 civilian and military personnel had worked on the plan in some capacity.

Officially, “Overlord” was the overall designation for the Allied offensive that would run from June to August 1944; the naval and beach assault operations on the day of June 6 were code-named “Operation Neptune,” with various related operations, such as airborne drops, given their own code names. To gain a foothold on mainland Europe and liberate it from Nazi occupation, “Neptune” involved a strategy of coordinated attack from the air, sea, and land that culminated in an amphibious assault by Allied forces—composed of U.S., British, and Canadian troops—upon the German-held beaches of Normandy in northern France. In December 1943 American general Dwight D. Eisenhower was chosen as supreme Allied commander, with three British commanders in charge, respectively, of air, sea, and land forces: Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford LeighMallory, Admiral Sir Bertram H. Ramsay, and Field Marshal Montgomery. Likewise, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, the deputy supreme Allied commander, and General Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower’s chief of staff, supervised the massive logistical task of coordinating the men and materials needed for the invasion.

Before settling on Normandy, Allied commanders had considered the Pas de Calais, the narrowest point in the English Channel between England and France. However, Mountbatten felt that although Normandy was farther away, it offered an ideal location for two main reasons: long, sheltered beaches that would be less defensible, theoretically, than Calais and two large ports vital to the invasion fleet, Cherbourg and Le Havre, which could be captured by land. As commander of all ground forces, Montgomery pushed for five beachheads, which Eisenhower endorsed—“Utah” and “Omaha,” assigned to the American-led Western Task Force, and “Gold,” “Juno,” and “Sword,” assigned to the Britishled Eastern Task Force. Both task forces comprised the 21st Army Group, consisting of the British Second Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey; the Canadian First Army, commanded by General Henry D. G. Crerar; and the U.S. First Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley.

For the Germans, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt commanded all forces in western Europe (Oberbefehlshaber West), consisting of Army Groups (Heeresgruppen) B and G; Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commanded Group B, which was given the task of defending the channel coast. Because of the fight with the Soviet Union that reduced troop strength in the west, Adolf Hitler charged Rommel with shoring up gaps in the coastal defenses that exposed Germany’s western flank to invasion. Coined the “Atlantic Wall”—consisting of concrete bunkers, gun emplacements, and varied obstacles on land and in the sea that extended along the English Channel, the Atlantic, and the French Mediterranean—by May 1944 the Germans had poured close to 18 million cubic meters of concrete and placed over half a million obstacles. Rundstedt and Rommel disagreed, however, on how to defend against an Allied threat. Rundstedt pushed for a central reserve farther inland that could counterattack once Allied intentions were known; Rommel, on the other hand, advocated confrontation at the point of invasion, with the strongest units readied to “push them back into the sea.” With neither willing to concede, a plan developed that encompassed both ideas—which would prove ineffective in the end.

The Calais Deception

Despite the Allies’ choice of Normandy, Calais still played an integral part in their plan. Many in the German High Command, most notably Hitler himself, believed Calais to be the genuine target of any Allied offensive against the mainland. Through a deception operation known as Operation Fortitude, the Allies broadcast fake radio traffic and invented nonexistent armies that pointed toward an invasion at Calais. Hitler and the High Command, headed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, believed that any actions by the Allies against the mainland would simply be a diversionary tactic to draw away from the real target of Calais. Consequently, the Germans concentrated a majority of their best reserves, including the powerful 15th Army (Armee Oberkommando), in the Pas de Calais region, with the weaker 7th Army stationed at Normandy—a maneuver that would prove costly when D-day arrived.

Originally planned for May 1, 1944, the invasion date was set for dawn on one of three days—June 4, 5, or 6. Imperative that a combination of moonlight and high tide coincide in order to aid, respectively, the airborne and beach landings, Allied commanders chose June 5. However, unfavorable weather conditions caused Eisenhower to delay for 24 hours. The next optimal window of opportunity not until late July, Eisenhower made the decision to proceed with the invasion.

Just after midnight on June 6, the American 82nd and 101st and British 6th Airborne Divisions landed by parachute and glider on the Cotentin Peninsula behind German lines in support of the amphibious landings only a few hours away. Throughout the previous month the Allies had conducted a bombing campaign against key areas of northern France to destroy German communications. In addition, French resistance, having received word of the impending invasion, sabotaged communication lines and railroads to delay German mobilization even more. The three airborne units, tasked with the further disruption of German capabilities, were to secure the flanks of the beaches, capture strategic bridges and causeways for Allied use, and destroy other key bridges that the German counterattack could utilize.

For the British 6th, assigned to capture the bridges spanning the Orne River and Caen Canal and protect the left flank of Sword Beach, mission execution was near flawless. Commanded by General Richard Gale, the division quickly completed its objectives within hours of landing in France and with very little mishap. They had only to hold their position to await relief from the main attack force and keep German reinforcements—specifically the armored tank units— from advancing on the beaches. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for American paratroopers. Due to poor visibility, German antiaircraft fire, and inexperienced pilots who had not flown in such conditions, both the 82nd and the 101st found themselves scattered across the peninsula. Nevertheless, per their training, units that failed to reach their designated zone were to carry out the missions assigned to the area in which they found themselves. As a result, mixed units were able to assemble, organize, and achieve objectives on a limited scale. Ironically, German commanders became confused as to the Allies’ intended target due to this situation, thus failing further to mobilize against the impending invasion.

As the airborne units carried out their missions, an Allied armada—the largest ever in history, which included close to 1,000 warships and 4,000 transport ships—made its way from assembly areas in southern England toward the Normandy coast. Having cancelled coastal patrols, the Germans were unaware of the Allied advance across the English Channel.

Around 5:00 a.m. a sustained Allied naval bombardment and assaults by bomber aircraft commenced against the German defenses on Normandy. The seaborne troops then began their approach to the five beaches by transport ships. The first ashore were elements of the U.S. 4th Division, landing at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Utah under intense German fire. South of their target zone they faced lighter resistance than anticipated, thus minimizing expected casualties, and advanced rapidly up the beach to gain their objective. Only a few minutes later elements of the U.S. 1st and 29th Divisions landed at Omaha, where intact obstacles and fierce opposition bogged down subsequent waves of soldiers and equipment. The congestion made the Americans easy targets for German gunners, resulting in the worst casualty rates of the entire invasion force—estimated at close to 95 percent for the first wave alone. Pinned by enemy positions atop the high bluffs that dominated the beach, many units suffered losses close to 60 percent and higher, which threatened the assault’s success.

On the three other beaches the results were just as mixed. Landing around 7:30 a.m. on, respectively, Sword and Juno, the British 3rd Division, which also included French commandos, and the Canadian 3rd Division met typical conditions—obstacles that hindered their progress and strong opposition as well as the capacity to advance rapidly onward. Thanks to continued naval bombardments that suppressed German defensive fire, both divisions were able to move inland by early afternoon. However, the British 50th Division, landing on Gold only a few minutes before, encountered an almost identical situation to what the Americans found on Omaha. Despite continual deployment of troops, the division could not secure the beach until after nightfall.

By the end of the day, close to 150,000 Allied troops had landed in France. In spite of heavy losses, although lower than expected, and the day’s slow advance, which did not push inland as far as planned, the invasion was a dramatic success for the Allies.

Bibliography:

• Ambrose, Stephen. D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995;
• Gilbert, Sir Martin. D-Day. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley and Sons, 2004;
• Harrison, Gordon A. “Cross Channel Attack.” www.army.mil/cmh/books/wwii/7-4/7-4_cont. htm (cited April 2006);
• Cross Channel Attack. New York: BDD Promotional Book Co., 1951;
• Hastings, Max. Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984;
• Jennys, David R. “D-Day’s Mighty Host.” World War II Magazine, May 1998;
• Taylor, John M. “Screaming Eagles in Normandy.” MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, summer 2004;
• Wilson, Theodore A., ed. D-Day, 1944. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.

This example D-Day Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

• How to Write a History Essay
• History Essay Topics
• History Essay Examples

ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER

Special offer!

GET 10% OFF WITH  24START  DISCOUNT CODE

Related posts.