Roosevelt met together in Teheran, Iran, to discuss military strategy and post-war
Europe. Ever since the Soviet Union had entered the war, Stalin had been demanding that the Allies open-up a second front in Europe. Churchill and
Roosevelt argued that any attempt to land troops in Western Europe would result in heavy casualties. Stalin had feared that without a second front, Germany would defeat them. After the German conquest of France in 1940, the opening of a second front in western Europe was a major aim of Allied strategy during World War II.
On June 6, 1944, under the code name Operation "Overlord," US, British, and
Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, …show more content…
On the night before the amphibious landings, 23,000 US and British paratroopers landed in France behind the German defensive lines by parachute and glider. The invasion force of more than 155,000 troops included 50,000 vehicles (including 1,000 tanks). Nearly 7,000 naval craft and more than 11,500 aircraft supported the invasion.
Under the overall command of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Germans had deployed five infantry divisions, one airborne division and one tank division along the Normandy coast and held the advantage in battle positioning. However, the Allies had an overwhelming advantage in naval and air power. On D-Day alone, the Allies flew 14,000 sorties; the German air force managed only 500 sorties. Moreover, a successful Allied deception plan had led the Germans to believe the point of the attack to be further north and east on the coast near Calais and the Belgian border. Fooled, the Germans moved only slowly to reinforce the
Normandy defenses after the initial landing.
Despite Allied superiority, the Germans contained Allied troops in their slowly expanding beachhead for six weeks. The US 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions