World War II: The Invasion Of Normandy

The invasion of Normandy was one of, if not the most important victory the allies ever had during World War II. With this victory, the United States, British and Canadian forces began pushing inland towards Germany to suffocate Hitler and his forces from the West while Stalin and his troops attacked from the East. Without this victory in Northern France, Europe and the rest of the world could look much differently than it does today. The plan for an offensive to attack Germany by crossing the English channel was talked about ever since the United States entered World War II. The priority was to focus on eliminating Hitler and his Nazi regime. Although we wanted this offensive invasion almost immediately, the British refused and wanted to fight …show more content…
With the decimation of Hitler’s air force before the invasion of Normandy, Germany’s presence in the skies during D-Day were limited to less than 400 aircraft. In the months before the invasion, the American and British respective air power dropped around 195,000 tons of bombs onto railroads, roads, airfields, radar infrastructure, military bases and artillery that had been set up on the coast. During this bombing campaign, the Allied powers lost over 2,000 planes but ended up succeeding in isolating the attack area to the beaches in Normandy. In order for this invasion to work, extreme coordination, deception and secrecy had to be maintained. The threat of an invasion absolutely had a major impact on Germany’s strategies. A large portion of Hitler’s military were moved from Russia and other parts of France in order to defend the Atlantic coast. Deception and secrecy played a major role in this part of the stages. “Operation Bodyguard” was a codename for a mission that included two ‘ghost’ armies that were stationed in Scotland and East Anglia. Both of these positions made Germany believe an invasion could come from Norway or Pas De Calais. In order for this fake invasion to seem real, the Allied powers needed to appoint a general that was feared by many and was well known by the German army, that man was George S. Patton. In order for this plan to work, the Allies had to use German spies against Hitler. This proved to be a key to the success of this operation because the Allies fed the German spies false reports to give Hitler and his command staff about the British Fourth Army building up in Scotland with the intention to double up with the Soviet Union in a massive invasion of Norway. To deceive Germany even more, the Allies made up fake radio communications about weather problems and how tank engines cannot sustain freezing temperatures. They also