Disaster At D-day - Essay Example

Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 the and Soviets fought the Germans on the European mainland. The United States and the United Kingdom had committed to open up a second front in Europe to aid the Soviet advance in Germany, first in the year 1942 and later the in sprof ing 1943. Winston Churchill the then prime minister of the ited Kingdom planned to invade Germany by allowing the insurgency work of the Special Operation’s Executive from the Mediterranean to Vienna and into Germany from the south, which was finally rejected under US pressure. The US thought a short route would be a more optimum approach for the long term.

Operation Sledgehammer and Operation Roundup were the two preliminary proposals drawn up.  Operation Sledgehammer was planned to invade Germany in 1942 and Operation Roundup was planned for a larger attack in 1943, which later on became Operation Overload and was delayed until 1944.

 In 1943 the then Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) British Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Morgan planned the initial process and later his plan was adopted and refined in the year 1944 by General Dwight David Eisenhower who was head of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF).

The short operating range of the allied fighters made the ground situation more difficult since the limited possibility of amphibious landing sites. The geography reduced the optional striking sites to two: the Pas de Calais and the Normandy coast. Pas de Calais was heavily fortified and defended by the Germans because they know that it offers the shortest path to the European mainland from the UK and more importantly, it offers a direct route to Germany. Therefore Normandy became an obvious choice for the Allied forces to attack.

In January 1944 General Sir Bernard Montgomery was appointed as commander of 21sthe t Army Group to which all the invading ground forces command was given. He was also responsible for developing the invasion plan. COSSAC proposed a plan to attack with three divisions by sea and two brigades landed by air. Later Montgomery increased the scale of the intial attack to five divisions by sea and three by air. In total 47 divisions under the supervision of British command were formulated for the Battle of Normandy. The 47 divisions include 21 American, 19 British, 5 Canadian, 1 Polish and 1 Free French division. The total number of troops of allied forces was 140,000.

Montgomery planned it to be a ninety dninety-dayay battle where British and Canadian forces formed a shoulder and the US army moved to the right. Around 6,900 vessels, 4,100 landing craft and 12,000 aircraft would be involved in the invasion. About 10,000 tons of bombs were supposed to be dropped and 14,000 attack sorties had to be flown.

Allied forces rehearsed every day for the D-Day invasion in advance. They don’t wwarrantedto take any chances so they rehearsed theirs to perfection.

Germans fortified the foreshore which was guarded by four divisions. The fortification was part of their Atlantic Aall defences and was guarded by the four divisions of which only one division (352nd) was of high quality and that to the cadre of the 321st division-the core of 352nd. The 352nd division has many troops that participated in the war against the allied forces before and were carrying out anti-invasion exercises. The other troops include were, usually for medical reasons, and were declared unfit for active duty. After witnessing the harsh reality that prevailed in German POW camps Soviet prisoners agreed to fight for Germans.

Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was given command of the Atlantic Wall. After inspecting the Atlantic Wall Rommel requested Hitler to increase the defences. After the inspection he found that Atlantic Wall only covered the ports themselves, beaches were barely defended and there was every possibility of the Allies capturing the key points from inland. He improved the defences across the coastline and made them stronger. Steel obstacles were laid, booby traps were prepared, and bunkers and pillboxes were constructed. Though the defences in these areas were up, Normandy was not given that much importance which proved costly. 

The weather became a deciding factor in determining the date of landing of the troops. The Allied forces drove the German U-Boats from the strategic positions in the Atlantic and weather stations. Allied forces has an advantage over the Germans, they possess knowledge of the conditions in the Atlantic that has proven to be decisive.

To attack the German forces a full moon was required for the aircraft pilots and for the spring tide also. May has witnessed fine weather but the situation worsened in early June. Eisenhower planned June 5th as the assault date, but in contrast on June 4th conditions became unsuitable for landing; high tides posed a greater threat and low clouds would make things more difficult for the pilots in finding their targets.

Everyone feared that all planning would go in vain and the weather was deteriorating and it seemed as if the plan would be cancelled and the troops will return to their camps. The next full moon could be witnessed only after a month. The meteorologists assured Eisenhower that there would be an improvement on June 6th.  On the basis of weather forecasting Eisenhower ordered for the invasion to proceed.

Since the weather was not suitable for attack Germans were in comfort zones. They weren’t expecting any attack due to the existing poor conditions and were confident that no possible attack would take place for the next several days. Since many of them expected zero possibility of the attack, most of the senior officers were absent, and some of them went on leave with their families.