Landing Of Allied Troops On Different Beaches example essay topic

Operation Overlord By 1944 World War II had lasted nearly four and a half years. The entire war now depended on the success or failure of an invasion of France. The first three years of the war had almost entirely been a chain of Nazi victories. They had succeeded in crushing Poland and forcing France to surrender. Hitler's attempts at capturing England were halted by the RAF, Royal Air Force. After the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the United States and forced Italy to follow.

By November of 1942 Hitler began to pay for his string of mistakes. In Egypt his favorite General, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, had been defeated at The Alamein by the British Eighth Army, after being trapped between two armies. Hitler, fearing he would be captured, ordered him back. The fighting in Russia had been so severe and deadly that Marshal Stalin was demanding an allied landing in France, so as to force Hitler to move his troops from Stalin's divisions in the East. The line of trust between Stalin and the allies was thin, but fearing Russia would leave the was, the United States and Britain send Canadian soldiers and British commandos to raid France's Port of Dieppe.

Nearly five-thousand troops were either dead, wounded or captured by the alert German forces, it had been a disaster. Britain and the United States were butting heads on whether to invade Europe at the earliest possible opportunity. Britain argued that a failure of not capturing a strong hold on a beachhead could set them back two years. In August of 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Quebec, Canada and the invasion was approved.

The plan included the landing of allied troops on different beaches, and also the battles that would follow, on the quest for Berlin. The shortest route would be Dover to Calais, but that would be a place where Germany would expect an invasion and would be heavily guarded. Now all eyes were pointing towards Normandy. The distance was almost twice that of Dover to Calais.

The final review of Operation Overlord was held on May 15, 1944 at the St. Paul's school in West London. The plan had taken nearly two years to plan. Attending the review was everyone who had a role in the plan. Some in attendance were King George VI, Winston Churchill, General Dwight Eisenhower and General Bernard Montgomery. Many of the British commanders in attendance had served in the first World War and were weary of sending mass amounts of troops into a battle where the enemy may be laying and waiting for them.

The plan was complicated, precise and heavily relied on the element of surprise. Timing and coordination were of great importance, a failure at one of the hundred points could send the whole balanced plan in to chaos. The first assault wave would have eight division, close to 80,000 men. Three of the eight divisions, 1 of Britain and two of the United States, would be airborne paratroopers and glider troops that would be dropped at night. The other five divisions would be Infantry divisions and would land on five beaches at the crack of dawn. After the " Atlantic Wall' had been broken by the first assault and a stable beachhead was obtained, more than thirty-nine divisions would rapidly pour in.

Capturing a strong hold of a beachhead was crucial to the success of the invasion. The beachhead would need to be able to hold back the inevitable counterattack of strong German forces. A port would have to be seized to be able to supply necessary supplies for land invasion. A strategic drop was to be made at the Content in Peninsula of Normandy because its North was Cherbourg a major harbor. Unless this mission was successful, supplies would have to be shipped through open invasion beaches subject to attacks by guns, planes and "buzz bombs".

British Admiral Sir Bertram would be responsible for five-thousand ships that would carry the assault troops across the channel, bombard the enemy defenses threatening the beaches, then send troops to landing crafts. Never in history had such a large fleet been assembled. Chief Marshal Trevor Leigh-Mallory had many concerns about the plans. The 24,000 allied paratroopers and glider forces would be in unarmed and unarmored transport planes, a mere thousand feet above the ground.

Over a thousand twin-engine, slow planes would each carry about twenty paratroopers and be towing a glider. The gliders would carry not only a glider infantry but also extra ammunition, land mines, antitank guns, cannons and jeeps. If the Germans caught on too quickly and counter attacked happened too soon, it could cost them three-quarters of their airborne troops. When it came down to it Eisenhower had to makethe decision to let the airborne divisions take their chances, because if they did not make their positions, the whole invasion could quite possibly fail. The weather, was one of the biggest factors on deciding the date of the invasion. The weather could not be accurately predicted until three or four days before hand.

The date of June 5, was set as the beginning of Operation Overlord. If the weather was not suitable they could postpone for a maximum of forty-eight hours. Now that the date had been set, Keeping locations and plans a secret was the main objective. Only a few senior officers knew the exact date of the invasion, but by the fifth of June over a hundred thousand troops would be informed.

Keeping the plans and date a secret was a hard task for some, and Germany had a few opportunities to find out about the invasion. At a cocktail party, a United States Airforce general man an indiscreet indication to the date of D-day. On another occasion an army postal clerk accidentally mailed his sister a package of overlord reports instead of the intended gift. Miksche, a Czech officer, published a book in 1943 about the future of airborne operations in the war. By coincidence in one of his many examples of an attack on Normandy, he almost exactly suggested the accurate landing points.

On June 6, 1944 at fifteen minutes past midnight, the first United States pathfinders floated in the sky. Their main objective was to mark drop zones for the airborne division who would follow in less than an hour. Less than one-third of the 120 pathfinders were dropped on their correct positions. Some were merely a few feet away from their, arks, while others were miles away.

Time was winding down for them, 13,000 paratroopers were in route to Normandy. The formation mistakes were due to a thick cloud layer causing them to scatter about. Drops were made too soon due to the beginning to the German counterattack. The same mistakes struck the paratroopers, and gliders. They were disorganized and many were separated from their units.

In the dark of the night they formed small groups with only one thought in mind; grab the bridge, seize the town and reach the causeway and hold it. Close to 25,000 paratroopers and glider troops were scattered in the dark trying to find their locations and units or even just another allied troop. Generals were not exempt from getting lost. General Maxwell Taylor, came down alone and nearly six and a half-hours later he found enough men to start considering to carry out his objective. Except for the 101st, that were lucky enough to land together, many had difficulty finding landmarks they expected. Many of-day's objectives had been carried out by small, determined groups of troops.

One of the only positive sides to the chaos was the fact that the Germans were completely confused. They were trying to determine where the largest concentration of allied troops were landing, but instead they received confirmations of hundreds of different positions. Many German generals were skeptical on whether this was even a real attack. They believed not even Eisenhower would risk a failure by landing in the weather they had. But what Eisenhower knew spelled disaster for the Germans. The weather was clearing, but when Hitler realized it, it would be too late.

The Germans had flooded the area around the Dove and Merederet Rivers, and it became similar to marshland. Some of the first deaths of D-day took place in less than tof water. Vital equipment was dropped and sank in the marshland conditions, only forty percent was recovered. General Pratt was believed to be the first general lost in the operation. He was found in the marshland, his jeep had been smashed into a tree. Just before dawn over a hundred WACO gliders, bringing the much needed antitank guns reinforced the two airborne divisions.

The Catenin had been successfully sealed off and only a counterattack with tanks would ruin the allied win. The British 6th division's objective was to protect the beaches from attack by German Panzers. They also had to capture and destroy a heavily defended battery of big guns at Merville. The only hope to gain it was for paratroopers to get inside, through minefields and barbed wire, and blow it up. Two bridges were to betaken, the Orne Bridge and one near the Caen Canal. Within three minutes the Caen Canal Bridge had been taken by surprised German forces, only losing one Lieutenant.

The Orne Bridge was easily taken as well. Three gliders had been dropped, only two close enough to take it. The third was a quarter of a mile away, by the time he reached the bridge, it had already been taken. Lieutenant Colonel T.B.H. Otway was the commander of the Merville attack. When he was descending in his parachute he realized he was headed straight for a German battalion headquarters. He fell into the garden making a lot of noise.

The sleepy Germans woke and went to see what all the noise was about. He threw a brick through a window. The Germans thought it was a grenade and ducked. Otway and his men escaped.

When he arrived at his position, he found only 150 of his original 750 men. But worse then not enough men, he found they only had one heavy machine gun, and no other heavy equipment. A reconnaissance platoon was to advance before them and mark a path through the minefields with white tape; he had no clue where they were or if they had come. Three Horsa gliders were supposed to crash land right on the guns when they began their attack. All this had to be in place or else they were committing suicide. The advance on Merville looked to be a failure.

He waited a long time, and no one showed, so he ordered the remaining troops to march on. Just before the three British paratroopers glided in, they found the white tape trail through the minefield. They were in position and the two gliders and their tow planes arrived on time but landed far from where they were supposed to. The only way to capture Merville was to fight with what they had. In twenty minutes it was over, Otway's group had won.

By dawn the British 6th airborne, despite all mistakes, completed every single one of their missions. Shortly after 4 a.m. rope ladders dropped over the sides of the ships and the loading of the landing crafts began. The men were crammed in, many became seasick and it was almost impossible not to get wet. Since it took ninety minutes to reach the beach, the crafts left shortly before 5 a.m. At 5.40 a.m. the troops heard guns and saw nothing but a cloud of smoke. The United States troops advanced fast once the doors of the landing crafts were opened.

The beach was not taken without loss. The US destroyer Corry hit a mine and sank, and a LCT (landing craft tank) struck a mine and went down with its crew and four amphibious tanks. The German regiment defending Utah beach surrendered. The Utah beach attack by the United States had been successful. But at Omaha beach, another United States objective, only twelve miles away, the luck was anything but good.

Two German divisions defended Omaha. There was hard sand, gullies, a low cobblestone wall, hundreds of barbed wire fences and the Germans were on a bluff where they could see the stretch of the beach. When they first arrived on the beaches the first 127 LCT's sank and they lost a heavy cannon. Ten tanks were knocked out and the men that escaped had to survive the heavy gunfire from the Germans. The LCT's still in the sea began to sink and many troops drowned being carried down by their packs. Many men hid behind whatever would protect them from the fire.

As wave after wave of the assault arrived, the Germans dominated and after four hours of murderous fire they sent a triumph message to the supervisor. Reserves were sent to the British beaches. Omaha was in grave danger. Tanks and heavy guns began to land on Omaha, and allied planes flew over head to keep German planes away as the courageous and stubborn men at Omaha fought to survive. By the end of the day Omaha was only a mile deep and it had cost 2,500 men. Landing crafts crashed through reefs and obstacles to get ashore.

Tanks and heavy guns went into action as soon as they hit the land. The British invasion of Gold beach looked to be quite successful. But the Germans decided to hold the beach lightly at the waterfront and increase inland. The troops stopped and were slowed at many points, and the city of Bayeux was not taken immediately or easily. At Juno beach, the Canadian 3rd infantry divisions came ashore and were met by German fire. The outlook at Juno, seemed to be another Omaha, a failure.

But more and more tanks came ashore and began to advance. German trenches near the water were overrun, but farther inland things got heavier. The Canadians made the greatest advance of any of the beaches. They ripped through nearly ten miles, but still the day's objectives were not met. The heaviest guarded of all the beaches was the British objective of Sword beach. The beach was narrow, so fewer troops could land at once.

For the first time of the day, German bombers dropped bombs, but they were quickly driven off, having little effect. It was also on Sword beach that the French troops came ashore. The French captured the town of Ouistreham. Eight miles inland from Sword was Caen, the key town.

It wasn't taken the first day and the British troops prepared for counterattack. At the same time the British 6th airborne was fighting to hold onto the Orne Bridges. At 9: 30 a.m. allied headquarters announced what was already happening in Normandy. 1"Under the command of General Eisenhower, allied naval forces, supported by strong airforce's, began landing allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France". Many people in the United States were asleep and didn't get word of the invasion until morning. Church bells rang, sirens were heard and many people wept and prayed for loved ones fighting in Normandy.

The public was not informed of the success, failure or given any information on what was going on. They had to wait and hope for the best. Meanwhile, Von Rundstedt decided to call Berlin and demand Hitler release two Panzer divisions begin held back. Hitler was sleeping and his officials refused to wake him. When he woke it was to late to repel the invasion.

IT was late afternoon before the tanks began to fill Cane. The Germans began to try to make it to the gap between the British hold on Juno and Sword beaches. It was too late, the Germans had waited too long. The Germans fought to reach the gap and the British fought to reach Caen. Allied planes came to relieve some troops in theCotentin, and planes and naval gunfire cut off the Germans. It was a stalemate.

When Hitler awoke and released the two divisions, he thought it would be enough to rid the allies in Normandy. The Panzer divisions got word at 5 p.m. and were ordered to move out at first light. It was too late. By June 8th, the holds on the beachheads were strong. 155,000 soldiers were poured into Normandy on the first day alone. No accurate number of how many allied troops died in Normandy can be determined.

After fifty-five days the allied troops had reached where they should have five days after the initial invasion. Still they prevailed. D-day had been the beginning of the end for the German rule. Today signs of the massive, and deadly battles that took place on the Normandy beaches can still be seen. Rusting hulks of ships still sunk in the sea can be seen. But the most visible, is the military cemeteries and the rows of carefully placed white crosses that remind people the cost of the invasion that day.