Battle of Normandy

The battle of Normandy was undoubtedly one of the most important battles of World War 2.
This battle "Broke the back" of Nazi Germany and helped lead to their destruction and was the largest seaborne invasion in history with over 156,000 Allied troops crossing over the English channel.

The invasion was codenamed "Operation Overlord" and was split into different phases. there was "Operation Neptune", the initial assault from over the English channel, and ended with "Operation Cobra", the breakout from Normandy. "Operation Neptune" began on June 6th of 1944(AKA D-Day), originally June 5th but cancelled due to bad weather, With the goal to obtain a firm foothold in country of France, with the main targets of D-Day being Caen, Carenten, Saint-Lo, and Bayeux.
The invasion would include about 6900 vessels commanded by Admiral Bertram Ramsay,83,115 men from the British contingent(about 61,715 of them were British), and 73,000 men from the U.S. army.

The invasion was to begin on June 5 of 1944 as they needed a full moon for a spring tide and light for aircraft pilots, but due to weather conditions on June 4 and the forecast for the following day, it seemed the invasion would be canceled. But chief meteorologist Capt. Stagg spoke of reasonable weather on June 6th and the invasion went on. The Nazis stationed at Normandy, however, were under the impression there could be no attack for another several days and were taken off guard.

The invasion was staged at six different locations with similar objectives
 Sword Beach:

The assault on Sword Beach began at 3:00 with an aerial bombardment of the coast followed by the infantry and artillery at about 7:30 suffering only light casualties(fortunately). Later, British and French commandos were deployed to take control of two batteries that watched over the beach, a blockhouse and a casino. the blockhouse was too heavily fortified for the French commandos and the batteries were empty with guns removed when the British commandos arrived. in the end, though the casino was captured.

Juno Beach:

The Canadian forces that landed n Juno Beach had the task of dealing with 11 heavy batteries, 9 medium batteries, lost of machine gun nests, pillboxes and other defensive structures and in the end, suffered the second highest percentage of casualties out of all 6 of the beaches at 50 percent during the first wave. All in all, the Canadians at Juno beach were the only ones to complete their D-Day objectives despite the fact they had heavier resistance than any other group in the invasion.

Gold Beach:

Due to delays in landing the Sherman tanks at gold beach and a heavily fortified German outpost, the troops there suffered heavy casualties but eventually overcame the resistance and was the second closest to completing their objectives in the entire invasion force.

Omaha Beach:

The forces at Omaha Beach probably took the most casualties as they were facing the German Veteran 352nd division and were greeted by Mortars, machine gunners, and heavy artillery. In about ten minutes most officers and sergeants of the invading allied forces at the beach were killed or wounded leaving the troops leaderless and incapable of action. the allied forces at Omaha lost about 3000 out of 34000 troops within the first few hours but were eventually bale to get through to two separate footholds on the beach.

Utah Beach:

Out of all the landing points,the forces at Utah Beach suffered the least casualties with about 198 out of 23000 troops. Due to the current of the English channel, the forces at Utah Beach were pushed slightly southeast of their planned landing zone, designated Tare Green and Uncle Red sector, and instead landed at Victor sector which was less guarded and therefor the invading troops encountered less German resistance. This combined with the Beach exits secured by the parachute regiments sent earlier(also off course by the way) made the assault on Utah beach relatively easy and the allied forces were able to push forward much faster than expected and resulted in a near success.

After the beaches were taken by the Allied forces, two mulberry harbors, temporary harbors for offloading supplies, were established at Omaha Beach by the Americans and at Arromanches by the British. Within ten days of their construction, the British had transported over 314,000 troops, 54,000 vehicles and 102,000 tons of supplies and the Americans had transported about 314,000 men, 41,000 vehicles and 116,000 tons of supplies. But on the tent day after construction, a heavy storm destroyed the American harbor. about 9,000 tons of supplies were brought to Arromanches daily until about a month and a half after the harbors were established when the allied troops took the port of Cherbourg and were finally able to advance.

Meanwhile the Invading forces were linking the beaches and reenforcing the battlefront faster than the German army was, and had "Air superiority" while the transportation of German troops and supplies was slower and more dangerous due to the destruction of the French rail system.

 "Operation Cobra" began 7 weeks after the invasion with the intention to break through the German lines and Advance farther inland and was Very important to the success of the Normandy invasion.

The Invasion of Normandy was the First successful "opposing crossing" of the English channel in 900 years and was a major allied victory in WW2 and also supported the Soviets who were getting the most of the German forces in the war. A crucial component to the success of Normandy was the success in attempts to diver German attention away from the Beaches before the landings and the interception and decoding of German communications that helped the allied forces prepare for any Nazi counter attack. Another important piece of the battle of Normandy was the allied air support which offered tactical support and cut the German lines of communication, effectively removing quick movement of German supplies and troops.

German leadership was also very (for lack of a better term) ineffective and failed to react to the assault of Normandy in a timely manner and the allied-air-force-induced lack of communications made it even more difficult. another factor was German commanders orders were constantly interfered with by Hitler who was leading the battle from miles away with very limited knowledge of the actual situation. Another problem on the German front was the fact that more than half of the 850,000 troops defending Normandy were pulled out of Prisoner-of-war camps and surrendered of just ran away during the battle.

The battle had such an impact that the beaches that the invading forces landed on are still called by their code names during the battle.Streets near the battlefield are named after the units that battled there. There are many war memorials and museums and plaques that describe the events that happened there. It was definitely among the most important and most historical battles of WW2.