Operation Overlord: The Allied Invasion Of Normandy

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Without a doubt one of the most important events in modern history, The allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The great shift of power in WW2, or as General Eisenhower put it “The Great Crusade”. Operation Overlord took months of planning, deception and eventual brutal fighting to break through the German Atlantic wall and gain the offensive in a war that was up for grabs at that point, one crucial blow by either side would lead their side to victory. Before Operation Overlord was conceived, the soviets were begging for the allies to open a new front. In 1942 the Americans and soviets made a joint announcement that they understood the urgency of opening a second front in western Europe. The British and Americans first had practice …show more content…
By 1943 the north Africa campaign had been won by the allies and the invasion of Sicily was being planned, many thought this invasion as a test invasion for the big cross channel invasion into France. The invasion of Sicily did everything the allied commanders needed it to, the invasion went perfect, axis air power was obliterated beach defenses were destroyed and the paratroopers held their strategic points. The allies pushed through Sicily and into mainland Italy, the stage was set for the cross channel invasion into France. At the Tehran conference in November 1943 the allies now promised Stalin an opening in France within the coming year. General D. Eisenhower was made supreme allied commander of the operation and his first decision was to be where to invade. The four points of interest for the allies were …show more content…
The allied commanders Eisenhower and Montgomery thought that paratroopers should be introduced in the plan to speed up the capture of the port of Cherbourg which in turn would allow mass amounts of allied troops to flood into Europe. The initial force size was expanded so much that by the end of planning, 39 allied divisions or one million men were committed to the invasion (Victory in the West volume 1: The battle of Normandy). The entire operation Overlord consisted of operation Bodyguard (deception plans), operation Pointblank (a massive bombing campaign) and eventually operation Cobra (which took place after the landings and was the break out of the initial invasion). Operation fortitude was the largest deception plan of the entire invasion and many historians agree that without it the invasions would have failed. Fortitude south was the massive deception plan to make the Germans think that a fake army group under the “command” of General George S. Patton in southern England were going to invade at the closest portion of the channel. The deception was so in depth that the allies were sending “messages” to the army group and Hollywood created blow up tank divisions, aircraft and people to even further the deception to the German spy planes flying overhead. Even after D-day Hitler believed the invasion of Normandy was the fake invasion and kept his tank divisions near Calais,
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