Battle of Normandy
A Coast Guard-manned LCVP disembarks troops at Omaha Beach.
A United States Coast Guard LCVP disembarks troops at Omaha Beach
Conflict: World War II, Western Front
Date: June 6, 1944 – August 25, 1944
Place: Normandy, France
Outcome: Allied victory
Combatants
Allied Powers Nazi Germany
Commanders
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander)
Bernard Montgomery (land)
Bertram Ramsay (sea)
Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST)
Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B)
Strength
326,000 (by June 11) ?
Casualties
53,700 dead,
18,000 missing,
155,000 wounded about 200,000 dead, wounded and missing,
200,000 captured
Normandy - Sword – Juno – Gold – Omaha – Utah – Pointe du Hoc – Villers-Bocage – Epsom – Goodwood – Spring – Cobra – Bluecoat – Lüttich – Totalise – Tractable – Falaise – Brest – Paris
The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France.
Twelve Allied nations provided units that participated in the invasion: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Normandy invasion began with overnight airborne paratrooper and glider landings, massive air and naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious assault on June 6, "D-day". The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads. It concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Chambois pocket.
Although ultimately successful, the Normandy landings were extremely costly in terms of men, military supplies and equipment. The 3rd Division's failure to take Caen, an overly ambitious target, on the first day was to have serious repercussions on the conduct of the war for well over a month, seriously delaying any forward progress. The fortuitous capture of Villers-Bocage followed by the failure to reinforce it, and its subsequent recapture by the Germans, was again to hamper any attempt to extend the Caen bridgehead and push on. By D+11, June 17, the assault had stagnated.
A lot of the problem came down to the nature of the terrain in which much of the post-landing fighting took place, the bocages. These were essentially small fields separated by high earth banks covered in dense shrubbery, which were eminently defensible.
In the end, the Normandy invasion succeeded in its objective by sheer force of numbers. Many more troops and equipment continued to come ashore after D-Day. By the end of July 1944, some 1 million Allied troops, mostly American, British and Canadian, were entrenched in Normandy.
The success of the battle opened up the long-awaited Western Front. Germany had to divert much-needed manpower and resources from the Russian and Italian fronts to fight on the new battlefields in western Europe.
The toehold established at Normandy was vital for the Western Allies (largely the British Commonwealth and the U.S.) to bring the war to the western border of Germany. By this time the Soviet forces had the capacity to crush Germany in Europe on their own, and therefore a western invasion was not strictly required to defeat the German Reich. On D-Day, the Red Army was steadily advancing towards Germany and four-fifths of the German forces were in the East. In France, the Allies faced only about 20% of the German army. The second front, however, certainly diverted German resources and attention from the eastern front, and shortened the war.
May God Bless the courageous men and women of the United States and all the Allied Countries that fought to maintain the freedom of the world during these years. May their names and memories never be forgotten.
No comments:
Post a Comment