June 6, 1944 D-Day

Well today is D-Day and for some it has already passed. Sorry this came late.

The Normandy Landings were the first operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, also known as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 British Double Summer Time (H-Hour). In planning, D-Day was the term used for the day of actual landing, which was dependent on final approval.

The assault was conducted in two phases: an air assault landing of American, British and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France commencing at 6:30. There were also subsidiary 'attacks' mounted under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the Kriegsmarine and the German army from the real landing areas.

The operation was the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time, with 160,000 troops landing on June 6, 1944. 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000 ships were involved. The invasion required the transport of soldiers and materiel from the United Kingdom by troop-laden aircraft and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the English Channel and naval fire-support. The landings took place along a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

When the Airborne landed behind enemy lines during the night, they were scattered all over the place with some completely over dropping their initiative drop points. However because of this, they were able to confuse the Germans and hit multiple targets at once. The troops at Utah, despite being substantially off course, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division (part of the VII corps) landed there with relatively little resistance, in contrast to Omaha Beach where the fighting was fierce.

Also, because German officers were afraid to wake Hitler up, he was on sleeping pills, to get new orders contributed to the success at Normandy beach.

There were many other factors that contributed to the Allies victory on Normandy but needless to say, if the Germans held the Allies on the beaches, the Allied offensive would have been lost. I want to know what you think of this.

D-Day was the biggest and most well known even during the entire Second World War, and even though I'm not an american ( nor from any of the other contries which I can't remember which they are ) I'm still honoring those men who gave thier lives so that we could live the lives that we do to today.



and with that i'm off for today.

What do I think of D-day? Well planned poorly executed. As you said no one landed where they were supposed to land; but drive and determination helped them push their way to get a hold on the beach.

I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to say D-day worked? WW2 all together shows us how devastating a war in modern times would be. It stopped the Third Rich and saved many lives, while sacrificing many others. An odd tactical success, but a great one at that.

D-Day indeed was the Decision Day whether Europe has to face a time of Tyranny or Freedom. Sacrifices were paid in order to achieve that Change.

To add soeme information the originally planned assault was dated on the previous day (5th June) but due to bad weather the troops decided to start the liberation 24 hours later.

It was indeed a day that changed the future...

....well I know this is serious section, and all, but you mention this event to me and all I can say is the allied forces got lucky, so many things went right for them,(don't try to tell me "it wasn't easy etc," cuz I am well aware of that) but things could have been much more terrible had previously mention things were in fact done

I watched a bit of the presentation when it was in France, Live on CSPAN. As to what I think of D-Day I don't honestly have much of an opinion. I love history, but I hate studying the World Wars, so anything I would have to say would either be biased, or just simply wrong because I don't remember a lot of my studies; and I'm not going to use that as a reason to insult those who sacrificed themselves.

It was certainly quite the achievement, but in the context of years of Nazi atrocities and the efforts of Russia etc you would have to say too little, too late. How many lives would have been saved if the US had joined the war earlier? A couple of years ago I went to a concentration camp called Sachsenhausen, as well as Wannsee and the Olympic Stadium (thousands of children made a final stand in the grounds), and it really drives it home. I know it's a lot of ifs and buts, but nonetheless something to consider, perhaps along with the other less successful operations like Market Garden.

Well if you look at American public opinion at that time you’ll understand why. They were still recovering from WW1 and with the great depression. No one wanted to have their kids sent over to another war. They saw it as Europe’s problem why should we get involved. Not such a crazy opinion (most people want America to stay out of other countries issues; but always complain because America didn’t step into WW2 soon enough). Look at FDR though he wanted to help Britain the only reason he couldn’t was upcoming election and his opponent didn’t want to and he needed to win. He did give assistance in the form of arms to Britain. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have gone earlier just that there are reasons why America didn’t.

I concur. The opening-up of a second front took pressure off the soviets, but to label it the defining moment of ww2? I dunno. There's too many events vying for that title, such as Stalingrad or Kursk, in the European theatre alone to make that label credible. D-Day is the most popular event, due to its huge hollywood presence.

I realise that America had it's reasons not to get involved, though I wouldn't say there was much to recover from after WW1; certainly though, the Wall Street Crash had a huge impact worldwide. Fair enough they were miles away, most people thought it wouldn't affect them and there were always elections to be won; the same could be said of a lot of issues - the French didn't stop Germany occupying the Rhineland because of upcoming elections, and of course America never joining the League of Nations because of isolationism doomed it from the start (no sanctions, no army backing etc).

They did supply arms, and they even negotiated the Dawes and Young plans with the Germans. I'm just saying that joining early would almost certainly have helped, considering that staying out of European affairs essentially caused WW2 in the first place.

From what I've heard, they were actually quite unlucky. The tide was out when they landed, so they had to run much farther than they had planned to reach safety.

Anyway, this is a great day, and one that should be honoured and remembered for many years to come.

I must agree with the statement about achievement. Because that's what D-Day really was.
But I must also agree to the part about more defining moments. The most important would probably be the battle for Stalingrad. It's always the same, if you attack Russia in winter, you lost. (Napoleon learned about that, too.)
The D-Day came because of that and to help Soviets ease their way to free Europe.

Educate yourself a little:

D-day, Operation Overlord, or the invasion of Normandy wasn't as misjudged or misplanned as you guys think. they had actually planned and prepared the invasion for months. Operation fortitude was a plan of deception to misguide the Germans that the real invasion was going to be at Pas de Calais instead of Normandy. this made hitler move his veteran units and panzers away from the normandy beaches and left with second rate troops such as POWs and conscripts.

It was inevitable though for losses to be high as for all beachhead assaults but it was more so was because of Erwin Rommel which was the commander at normandy at the time. He had the insight that the invasion was at Normandy instead of somehwere else and so had planned extensive entrenchments such as mines, anti-tank obstacles and such. It was his brilliance and the arrival of SS reinforcements that allowed the allies to be held at the beaches for that long.

B.t.w Lamz0r are you Polish by any chance?

He's czech.