D- Day
“For the Axis, this was the beginning of the end.” Joy Hakim, the author of the textbook A History of Us: War, Peace, and All that Jazz once said was a true for the Axis during the time period of the final years in World War II. We would have never won the war without the help of D-Day.
The day everything changed for the Axis. Operation “Overlord” N ow you are probably asking yourself what is operation “Overlord”? Operation “Overlord” also known as D-day, was the official name from the start of the Whole operation. The official date of D-day was supposed to be June 5, 1944 but was pushed to June 6, 1944. The purpose of the Operation was for the Allied power to get back on European soil through the beaches of Normandy, France and then from there, defeat Germany. However, despite the plan of the operation, it was delayed for a day due to the terrible weather conditions.
But that didn’t Stop Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of the U.S. army, from leading the Allied power to the shores of Normandy. In operation “Overlord”, the Allies went through a lot of trouble to fool the Germans such as making fake military vehicles like fake tanks and military equipment. They wanted to in fact fool German forces by making then think that the Allies were rehearsing for the Operation “Overlord” which had its own name as Operation “Neptune.
” “D”-day I magine its June 6, 1944. You are finally a shoring the beaches of Normandy, France. Along with the 150,000 Allied troops that shored the beaches Normandy such as Sword beach, Gold beach, Juno beach, Omaha beach, and Utah beach. The battle was pretty tough, more or less sad if you think about it. Here is why, in the book Witness to History: World War II by: Sean Connolly, Jim Wilkins of the Queen’s owns rifles explain the landing of D-day in the shores of Normandy. He reports, “I was flat on my face in the water-I’ve lost my rifle, my helmet is gone, and Kenny is still yelling at me to come on.
He is also shot in the upper leg but has no broken bones. I yell back, ‘I can’t, my leg is broken.’ I flop over onto my back and start to float to shore where I meet five other riflemen, all in very bad shape. The man beside me is dead within minutes.” Within the first few Minutes of landing on the beaches of Normandy, People were bleeding on the sand, terribly wounded or dead. The Allied power thought the beaches would be no sweat to pass.
But, soon figured out that there were hidden traps that were unthinkable such as mines and machine guns that were hidden within the sands and the oceans of Omaha beach. Trenches and holes fifteen feet deep that were impossible to cross on foot, high walls scattered out on the beach. A Great, bloody battle it was, in the book Ordinary Americans by Linda Monk, it states, “It was the largest amphibious invasion in history.” In a term that makes sense D-Day was the largest sea-to-land invasion in American history. “The Beginning of the End” A fter D-day, next stop was to defeat Germany by a plan that would surround Germany and make them surrender. But what happened before the surrender of Germany? Well a lot happened.
After D-day, in August of 1944, France was liberated completely from Germany. This was a major accomplishment because the Allied were actually getting somewhere in the war; they actually pushed back German forces completely out of France, when recently before D-day, the Allied were completely kicked out of Europe. Then after came the battle of the bulge. While the Allies were crossing over France, they stopped at the border of Germany. Due to all of the terrible, rainy weather, the Allies realized that the rain made it hard for tanks and other heavily armed equipment to travel.
This also gave the Allies some advantage; Germany was becoming desperate and there was a low supply of military equipment. This actually helped the Allies push back German forces back to their own land. This to the Allies was a major milestone in the war. In the book Witness to history: World War II by Sean Connolly he writes, “Allied success here ended any German hope of ultimate victory.” If the Allies never planed on going back to Europe after they were completely kicked out, then we would have never won the war. We probably wouldn’t have liberated France from Germany, and we probably wouldn’t have ever made Germany surrender.
The war would have never stopped. Maybe the war would have kept progressing in today’s society. D-Day Today D -day shifted the momentum of the war. At first, it was Germany who seemed destined for victory. But, soon after D-day happened the momentum was reversed. D-day made people realize that the Allies were meant for victory in World War II.
And at the end of it all, we won. If we never went back to Europe and made Germany surrender, then today we probably wouldn’t have democracy. Can you imagine today’s life if there was no democracy? In desperate times in war, there will always another be another D-Day. Recently in 2011, a special group from the U.S.
Navy, Seal Team Six, went to Pakistan to assassinate Osama Bin Laden for the terrorist attack known as 9/11. They invaded his house to finally seek revenge on him for the event that emotionally crippled our country. This would be a good example of another D-Day in modern times. If we never went to Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden for what he did, then probably today he would be bombing other American buildings and killing other lives. He would probably destroy other nations around the world. This is the same intention as D-Day: If we never went back to Europe to fight the Axis Powers, if we never went back to Europe to defeat Germany, then we probably wouldn’t have won the war.
We wouldn’t have liberated France; Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo would be controlling the world.
