D. Eisenhower's D-Day: The Invasion Of Normandy

D-Day was the first day of the invasion of Normandy, or Operation Overlord. Operation Overlord, an invasion of northwestern France, had been planned by the Allies and was headed by Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe. These powerful leaders prepared an invasion which was won by a 24 hour weather delay, a strategic deception plan, and countless German mistakes that would change the outcome of World War II in the Allies’ favor. First, Eisenhower had to choose the perfect place. He chose Normandy because of the German forces stationed at Pas-de-Calais, which was north of where the invasion would eventually happen. The Germans stayed at Pas-de-Calais

Group captain J.M. Staggs, head of the weather office, looked at weather charts day in and day out to help Eisenhower decide when the time was right to invade (Drez 30). The next morning, Staggs was certain that the weather would improve but only for a day or so. The following day, Staggs had a completely different answer. He believed that on the scheduled day of invasion, the weather would not be tolerable, but the rain and wind would die for a short period of time. So, Eisenhower called a 24 hour weather delay on the invasion (Drez 29). The weather the next few days became lighter, so the Allies persevered and won Operation Overlord. But, there might have been a different outcome if they had postponed another day or even went in the terrible weather. The night of the invasion, a full moon had come out, so maximum brightness at night wouldn’t have come for another month if they had postponed (Demuth 92). The Allies’ troops also might have lost battle readiness or the Germans could have figured out their plan. If they had gone through the bad weather, the airborne troops would have missed their landing points, since they couldn’t jump in winds higher than 20 mph. The storms might have also made the pilots miss bombing targets. While on the sea, the rough waves would have made beach landings more dangerous (bbc.co.uk). Because of the

Although most Germans were mainly stationed at Pas-de-Calais, Hitler decided to pull some divisions from the Soviet Union forces to help change the new German strategy (Fein 7, 17). The Germans stayed at Pas-de-Calais because they believed the invasion would take place there due to the short distance across the English Channel (Fein 12). But, because the of the faults in their plan, the Allies struck Normandy, which had very few German divisions. As Hitler thought Normandy was a setup, he delayed moving troops which caused them to miss the chance of deploying their best forces (Demuth 92, bbc.co.uk). Because of this delay, German response to the invasion was slow and confused (iwm.org.uk). Whereas, if they had known, they could have had a focused counter-attack which would have increased their chances of winning. Actually, Hitler received false reports from the frontlines that they were probably going to win D-Day (Demuth 90). But what was happening was quite the opposite. Germany couldn’t get through Allied artillery and air strikes (Fein 25). The Germans were surrounded by Allied divisions. So, for the first time in Western Europe, Germany was in full retreat (Fein 27). Because of Germany’s mistakes, like army placement, miscommunications, and false reports, these all cost them the win of the most decisive battle of World War