During the 1930’s, isolationism and the depression swept through the

United States. But before the fall of France in 1940, the United States was

starting to pull away from being neutral, which they claimed at the beginning of

the European war.

Americans and the British would hold conversations between themselves

known as the ABC talks. It was there that they both targeted Germany as their

prime enemy. Even though there was tension in the Pacific in 1941, American

leaders had agreed that any war that was going to occur between Japan and the

United States had to be secondary. Our prime target was Germany, and that’s

what we would focus on defeating.

Roosevelt soon concluded that America should be in support of the British

in order to help defeat the Germans. It was the Germans who posed to the

greatest threat. Americans preferred a brief, but violent war, with all of their

resources brought to them in which would enable them to have continuous

combat until the enemy was defeated. Geography was yet another factor. The

vast oceans gave the Americans security of their homeland so which they

wouldn’t be attacked, but had also isolated them from the battlefields.

During the spring and summer of 1941, the United States had come to a

closure of their peace talks. The War Department had already began selling

surplus war material to the British and other allied nations against Hitler. The

United States was also trying to figure out how to meet up with the incredible

demands formed by the Lend-Lease Bill. The Lend-Lease Bill stated that the

United States had to ship out massive amounts of war materials to all nations

combating against the Axis Powers. The United States had attempted to

develop a manageable production plan, but had first needed to inquire an

estimate of what would be needed in order to defeat the Axis, if America were to

be involved. The U.S had handed that estimate over to Albert C. Wedemeyer

who was an infantry major assigned to the War Plans Division of the general

staff.

Wedemeyer rationalized that he wouldn’t be able to properly estimate the

nation’s military production total unless he had some idea of the size of the

missions of the Army, in the event of war. The Army had to define its mission.

The U.S. "demanded that the Army strictly limited energies away in attractive,

but in decisive, side issues. If the defeat of Germany was the objective, then the

mission was to attack at the heart of German power as early and as forcefully as

possible."

With this, "careful consideration of Army mobilization and training, military

construction, naval and merchant shipbuilding revealed that the Army could

expect to go over to the offensive no earlier than July 1, 1943. Achieving the

necessary military conditions for attack, though simple to state, was more an

uncertain proposition. Wedemeyer suggested in his plan that no invasion of

Europe could succeed until the navies defeated the Axis fleets and secured the

Atlantic lines of communication."

The Allies however, had managed to take control of the air. They would

bomb Germany on a regular basis, this way Germany could keep down on their

production of war materials, and disrupt their economy.

Before the U.S had officially entered the war, plans existed for the defeat

of Germany. The plan heavily relied on an invasion of the continent of Europe,

in order to strike the heart of Germany. The U.S. sought to weaken their military

buildup, and heighten ours in Britain.

For a period of time, there was much contemplation of attacking Germany

from the Mediterranean, where the British had already been succeeding in

defeating the Germans. Americans had to reject the idea of the Mediterranean

approach due to the fact it was impossible to concentrate full Allied strength, and

because the supply lines were simply too long.

Britain had to lay on the shortest of all the transatlantic routes possible

from the United States. "Convoys had to be dedicated to feeding and supplying

the British Isles, while others tried to sustain the Soviet ally, whose continued

resistance was an essential element in all American war planning."

Furthermore, the British Isles were large enough to support the buildup

and were seemingly good enough to sustain landings of the short-ranged Royal

Air Force fighters.

Operation Bolero was the massive movement of troops, supplies and

weapons to Britain. The first wave was stationed in Ireland in January of 1942.

It lasted for two years, and had gradually changed into Operation Overlord. Both

the British and American troops were being trained for invasion, and the building

of arms. "By the beginning of June, 1.1 million American soldiers, 427,000

airmen, and 124,000 sailors were massed in Britain or offshore in the fleet. In

all, 2,87 million Allied troops, in 39 divisions plus air and support units, were

poised for the invasion."

With D-Day drawing near, Churchill had grown more weary of the cross-

Channel invasion. He was more comfortable with invading from Italy and the

Balkans. Churchill even said to Eisenhower how he had doubts about the

invasion. If indeed casualties were to be kept minimal, and the invasion a

success, espionage and deception would have to be involved.

The people who had helped plan the invasion of the beaches had gone to

inconceivable lengths to learn of the Normandy beaches, the lands behind the

beaches, and where the German troops focused on mainly. The major means of

access to deciphering the Germans messages, was the use of the Ultra. The

Ultra would intercept messages and decode them.

In order for the invasion to go undetected, the Allies had to keep the

Germans contemplating where the Allies would actually attack from. "The Allied

goal: to convince the Nazis that the main thrust would come in Norway or, more

likely, at Calais, thereby keeping German divisions uselessly on guard far from

Normandy."

The Allies came up with a fictitious British Fourth Army, simulated in

Scotland, and was supposedly planning an invasion in Norway. This simulation

of a fictitious army was called Fortitude North. There was also a Fortitude

South, which had the first U.S. Army group. The Americans had 250,000 men

under the command of General Patton Jr..

"FUSAG was actually a handful of radio trucks driving back and forth

along the roads of Kent and East Anglia- across the Channel from Calais-

sending out wireless communications mimicking what might be produced by a

huge force. Mowers were killing off grass in open fields to simulate tank tracks

for the photos to be taken by German reconnaissance flights. And some 250

dummy landing craft dotted ports in Dover and nearby piers……As an added

flourish, agents were dispatched to Geneva to openly buy up every available

map and guide for Calais. German spies would soon be tipped off and would

draw the appropriate-but wrong- conclusions."

It was soon learned that German spies had infiltrated some of the "Top

Secret" plans, and were reporting them to their headquarters. A physics teacher

in London by the name of Leonard Dawe, had been under surveillance for his

crossword puzzles in the newspaper. It gave out such hints as to Omaha,



Overlord and Neptune. Due to this, he was interrogated along with his associate

Melville Jones.



The very first military plans for Overlord and Normandy had been drawn

up in March and July of 1943 by British Lt. General Morgan, also known as

COSSAC (Chief Of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander). Morgan had

devised a plan to land on the beaches in only two main, concentrated areas.

One would be the shortest route across the Straits of Dover to the Pas de

Calais, or landing in the Bay of the Seine in Normandy. When SHAEF had

control of COSSAC in 1944, Montgomery had modified Morgan’s plan.

"Montgomery extended the landing area from three beaches to five, including a

site on the Contentin Peninsula. Montgomery’s plan called for five divisions

(instead of COSSAC’s three) to land with the first wave on a 61-mile front,

supported by four more divisions and divisional airborne landings on both flanks.

The Americans would take the westernmost beaches code-named Utah and



Omaha, and the British and Canadians the eastern beaches, code-named Gold,

Juno, and Sword." Other military operations composed their own "D-Day," but

this would become the most memorable of all.

Once D-Day was over, Montgomery’s plans depended heavily on

Ramsay’s sea-borne supply-line, which was to reinforce their position in

Normandy. It was important, because they would have to capture a port very

early due to the fact that it was vital. "Coming straight off the beaches, British

Second Army would capture the regional capital of Caen, the only major city in

the landing area, on D-Day itself, and carry deep inland. At the same time, U.S.

First Army would move across the Cotentin and capture Cherobourg as a supply

port within a week. Montgomery would then threaten a direct advance eastward

towards the River Seine with his British forces."

As part of the D-Day plans, attempts were made to coordinate the various

French resistance groups, known as the "Secret Army." The main function of the

Resistance was to provide information for the landings, and other groups had

been given specific sabotage targets in order to help slow down the German

pace.

Up until 1944, there was never an assault from the sea. Normally, in

order to take sea fortresses, capturing it from the land in was the way to go. But,

D-Day was created to assault a heavily defended area, the German Atlantic

Wall, from the sea to the land. In order to perform, special equipment was

needed to overcome the beach defenses, to clear the minefields, and move

inland rapidly.

The airborne forces had gadgets galore. The British designed, and

American manufactured "Eureka" was a radar beacon, which was carried by the

paratrooper pathfinders, and to help the aircraft approaching to find the drop

zone with a little more ease. Another invention which was cheaply made was

the "cricket." This little piece of metal helped the paratroopers to recognize who

was a part of their division. Rupert, were dummy parachutists which were

dropped in thousands all over the Northern part of France, to coincide with the

real men. Other inventions consisted of the bridge-laying tank known as the

"Great Eastern." The "Great Panjandrum" was a failure, but was created to clear

all the mines on the beach. The "tankdozer" and the Crab helped to explode

mines successfully.

On June 6th at dawn, eighteen thousand British and American

parachutists were on the ground in Normandy seizing essential bridges and

ruining German lines of communication. At 6:30 a.m., the first American troops

landed ashore at Utah beach with the amphibious tanks. At 7:25 a.m., the first

British soldiers came ashore at Gold and Sword beaches, and then the

Canadians followed and landed at Juno. At 10:15 a.m., Rommel, who had flown

back to Germany a few days before, becomes aware of the attack and flies back

to France.

At midnight, more than 155,000 Allied troops had come ashore. Omaha

had been the only beach where the Germans assaulted 35,000 American

soldiers within a mile perimeter. German naval units were informed to be on

guard in case of any other surprise attacks. The message that was sent out was

intercepted by the British, which helped them to know that June 7th wouldn’t have

the full force of the German defense.

On June 7th, the Allies had begun to consolidate their positions in

Normandy, and had sought to just enlarge them even more. "The British

Intelligence decrypted the German Air Force Enigma message, sent to the First

Parachute Army at Nancy, about the growing shortage of fuel. That same day,

the head of the American bomber forces, General Spaatz, directed that the

German oil plants should be first priority targets for the United States Strategic

Air Forces."

June 8th, British troops from Gold met up with the American troops on



Omaha beach at Colleville-sur-Mer. As for the Germans, they had less than a

hundred operational aircraft. Aside from that, significant secret orders were

being intercepted and decrypted. Due to the British receiving the German

orders, they were able to pinpoint the German headquarters of Panzar Group

West and bomb them in La Caine.

On June 9th at10:30 p.m., German Intelligence chiefs had informed Hitler

that a message from their trusted secret agent "Arabel," that the Normandy

landings were diversions and that the Allies were going to really attack in

another area. "That same day, the German Admiral commanding in the Atlantic

suggested to Admiral Donitz that the ‘hesitant and slow’ progress of the Allied

landings in Normandy might indicate ‘an intended second landing at another

point’. This message was decrypted in Britain on June 10th. Not only was

deception continuing to keep a protective shield over the Allied armies, but the

fact that the deception was working was known to the Allied commanders."

During June 10th, there was fighting going on six different battlefronts:

Normandy, Italy, Leningrad front in Finland, New Guinea, Burma, and in China

where the Japanese had launched overland offensive along the Liuyang River,

going towards Changsha.

Rommel, on June 10th, had sought to focus on attacking against the

American bridgehead in the Carentan-Montebourg area. It could have

prevented the cut off of German supplies. Hitler however, vetoed the idea and

had intentions of attacking the British bridgehead from Caen. The British

however, were able to reinforce faster than the Germans, and therefore

advanced faster than Rommel. By the night of June 10th, over 325,000 Allied

soldiers had come ashore on the Normandy beaches. German motor torpedo

boats had broken into the Utah beach anchorage, and began to sink the

American destroyer, Nelson during the night.

In Normandy on June 11th, the British had been pushed up against the

wall after being captured and then were shot. On the Indian border during June

12th, a Gurkha soldier who was sent on a tank-hunting mission against the

Japanese forces, knocked out two tanks with his anti-tank gun.

"In the early hours of June 13, the Germans at last launched their long-

awaited and - by those who knew that it was in preparation - much-feared ‘secret

weapon’, a small, pioletless, jet-propelled plane, carrying a ton of explosives that

detonated on contact. Know to the Germans as the V-1, "Vergeltung" or

"Reprisal" I, and by the British as the "flying bomb," its first efforts were dismal.

Only one cause casualties." In Italy, Italian partisans had blown up bridges

and roads by using German military traffic between La Spezia and Reggio

Emilia.

"June 14th, that the Germans still feared ’subsidiary operations’ not only in

the South of France, but in the Pas de Calais, south-west France and Norway,

with the Dutch-Belgian coast, to the east of the Pas-de-Calais, still seen as the

intended landing place of the main invasion force. Determined to forestall the

planned German motor torpedo boat attacks on Allied supply ships crossing the

English Channel to the Normandy beaches, the British air raid was carried out

on June 14th against the torpedo boats pens at Le Havre. The raid was led by

Leonard Cheshire, who had already received the Victoria Cross for his

outstanding leadership in many earlier raids."

On June 15th, German Colonel Wachtel had launched a second flying

bomb raid on Britain. Overall, 244 missiles were fired from Watten. Forty-five

had crash landed, which had wound up destroying nine launch sites and killed

ten French civilians. The missiles that had reached Britain had killed more than

fifty civilians in London. Only twelve had been shot down by the British anit-

aircraft fire and eight by fighters. Unfortunately, seventy-three bombs had hit

London. In the Pacific, the Americans had begun Operation Forager on the

Marianas Islands. On Saipan Island alone, over twenty thousand American

soldiers had come ashore, and meeting the Japanese.

June 16th, behind the German lines, the Jews who were working in

German war production in the Lodz ghetto had to volunteer to help clear the

debris in the cities that had been bombed severely. Supposedly, the first 3,000

were to head to Munich, but instead, were sent to concentration camps in

Chelmno. During this day, the German Naval Group West had beliefs that there

was to be a strong Allied invasion against Holland and Belgium. They had come

to this conclusion due to all of the jamming of radar, and aircraft activity. That

had been part of the Fortitude deception.

June 17th, Hitler traveled to Soissons go see his commanders. Also, the

Free French Forces had begun to carry out their Operation Brassard which

would lead to the capture of the Italian island of Elba.

In Poland on June 18th, the Germans launch their second Operation

Hurricane which was against the Polish partisans. It had killed seven hundred

partisans in six days in the region of Osuchy, which is near Lublin. Meanwhile in

China, Japanese forces had captured Changsha, which was their first success of

Operation Ichigo.

"On June 19th, off the north-western coast of New Guinea, General

Eichelberger launched an American attack against the defenders of Biak Island,

who, since the American landings three weeks earlier, had resisted all attempts

to dislodge them. The Japanese, defeated in open battle, retreated to caves,

where they could only be destroyed by flame-throwers." During this same day,

British bombing on Watten destroyed a numerous amount of flying bomb as they

were being prepared to be launched. American bombers were just as equally

effective three days later against a suspecting flying bomb supply at Nucourt.

The flying bombs had started to reach Britain everyday. "By midnight on June

20th, half a million Allied soldiers were ashore in Normandy; in the first two

weeks of fighting, four thousand had been killed. From German-occupied

France, news reached London that the French Resistance forces had declared a

‘general uprising’; Churchill at once instructed the Special Operations Executive

to fly in whatever was needed in the way of arms and ammunition ‘to prevent the

collapse of the movement and extend it’."

During the next two nights, railway lines had been blown apart between

Vitebsk and Orsha, and Polotsk and Molodechno. They were Germany’s

essential lines for transportation of reinforcements. "All of this was but a prelude

to the morning of June 22nd , when the Red Army opened its summer offensive.

Code-named Operation Bagration, after the tsarist General, it began on the third

anniversary of Hitler’s invasion of Russia, with a force larger than that of Hitler’s

in 1941. In all, 1,700,000 Soviet troops took part, supported by 2,715 tanks,

1,355 self-propelled guns, 24,000 artillery pieces and 2,306 rocket launchers,

sustained in the air by six thousand aircraft, and on the ground by 70,000 lorries

and up to a hundred supply trains a day. In one week, the two-hundred -mile-

long German front was broken, and the Germans driven back towards Bobruisk,

Stolbtsy, Minsk, and Grodno, their hold on western Russia broken for ever. In

one week, 38,000 German troops had been killed and 116,000 taken prisoner.

The Germans also lost two thousand tanks, ten thousand heavy guns, and

57,000 vehicles. German Army Group North, on which so much depended, was

broken into two segments, one retreating towards the Baltic States, the other

toward East Prussia."

During June 24th behind the German lines in Italy near Arezzo, Italian

partisans had began to raid the German forces which were on their way further

south. Meanwhile in Britain, the flying bombs continued to fill the air and caused

51 soldiers to die. Some were shot down by the anti-aircraft guns at Newlands

in Kent while they were headed for London. The bombs had landed in barracks

and began to explode.

General Karl Wilhelm von Schlieben who was the German commander in

Chrbourg, France on June 25th, had appealed to Rommel asking to be allowed to

surrender. Unfortunately, Rommel didn’t agree and said to hold out until the last

round. Field Marshall von Rundstedt was still not convinced that Normandy was

more than a diversion. He believed that the American Fortitude was ready to

embark in Britain.

The German naval commander at Cherbourg, Admiral Hennecke, had

ordered the total destruction of all port facilities on June 26th. For doing this,

Hitler had honored the Admiral with a Knight’s Cross, in addition to his Iron

Cross. During this day, the Red Army entered Vitebsk. Aware of this, Hitler

ordered to fight to the end, but the fight had ended in defeat for the Germans. In

addition, revelations of the mass murders of the Jews at the concentration

camps was being studied in London and in Washington. Aside from that, in

Burma, the British, Indian, Gurkha and American troops captured Mogaung.

"Eight days later, Myitkyina was also captured. On every front- in Burma, in the

Pacific, in Italy, in Normandy, and most dramatically of all, in White Russia- the

Axis powers were now firmly in retreat." D-Day was the greatest amphibious

operation to ever take place in history.







Bibliography

1.Churchill, Winston (Foreword). D-Day: Operation Overlord, Smithmark Publishing, New York, NY, 1993

2.Gilbert, Martin. The Second World War, Henry Holt and Company, Inc., New York, NY copyright 1989

3.Goldstein, Richard. America at D-Day, Dell Publishing, New York, NY copyright 1994