World War II was the greatest war in the history of the world. For the allies to win the war in Europe it was necessary to have several beach landings in hostile territory. These landing were extremely dangerous and the war hung in the balance, while commanders held their breath as they threw men and machines at the formidable German fortifications. Of all the landings in World War II, Normandy is perhaps the most famous.

On June 6, 1944 a great force waited off the coast. This force included 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen—in all, nearly 5,000 ships of every type, the largest armada ever assembled. Can you imagine 5000 ships all in one area? The ships launched a naval bombardment to destroy the mines that had been laid along the beach to foil any attempted landings. There were over 100,000 fighting men waiting to sweep ashore.

The Americans and British had been working on plans to invade Europe as early as 1941, right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The British Chief of Staff ordered Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten to prepare to invade Europe and Churchill had told Mountbatten he was not only to prepare but he must devise and design everything that would be needed.

The British did not have good experiences when facing the Germans with large forces. Their army had been driven out of Europe in 1940 and they barely escaped at Dunkerque. The Canadians had suffered a terrible beating during a landing in 1942 at Dieppe in France. Then there was the history of World War I when the British suffered at Gallpoli when Churchill's invasion had failed and the memory of the vast amount of soldiers lost during the Great War. The invasion plans that Churchill was pushing again worried many people. The invasion was originally scheduled for 1942, then 1943, but was finally agreed upon for 1944.

The funny thing about the invasion was that if it had taken place at the earlier date the British would have had to supply the bulk of the material but luckily by 1944 the U.S. did. The U.S. was far better equipped for the supply task as it had an abundance of material by that time. Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower was the head of the allied armies and was ultimately responsible for the invasion.

Allied invasion planners. Left to right, General Bradley,Admiral Ramsay,
Air Chief Marshal Tedder, General Eisenhower, General Montgomery,
Air Chief Marshal Leigh Mallory, and General Smith. (National Archives)

Britain became the staging point for the invasion of Europe. The armed forces in Britain grew at a staggering rate. By the time of the invasion there were 1,537,000 fighting men in Britain, more than 16 million tons of supplies, 137,000 jeeps, trucks, and half-tracks; 4,217 tanks and fully tracked vehicles; 3,500 artillery pieces; 12,000 aircraft; and huge stores of sundries.

Meanwhile, in France, as members of the French resistance cut railroad tracks, sabotaged locomotives, and targeted supply trains, Allied aircraft bombed roads, bridges, and rail junctions to prevent the Germans from moving reinforcements toward the invasion beaches. To deceive the enemy's intelligence agencies, the attacks occurred along the entire length of the Channel coast. By June, despite intelligence reports questioning the value of the attacks, all rail routes across the Seine River north of Paris were closed; the transportation system in France was at the point of collapse.

Deception was, indeed, a major part of the Allied campaign plan. To mislead the Germans into believing that the Pas de Calais, rather than the Cotentin, would be the site of the invasion, Eisenhower's staff created a mythical 1st Army Group, with an order of battle larger than that of Montgomery's 21st Army Group. Basing the phantom force near Dover, just across the Channel from the supposed target, the planners then set construction crews to building dummy installations of plywood and canvas and dotted them with an array of inflatable tanks and vehicles. They also anchored a vast armada of rubber landing craft in the Thames River estuary, where German reconnaissance aircraft were certain to spot them. Eisenhower assigned Patton, the American general the Germans most respected, to command the phantom army and saw to it that known enemy agents received information on the status of Patton's force.

Artillery equipment is loaded aboard LSTs at Brixham,England. (National Archives)

To protect the date of the invasion from prying German eyes, the Allies called it D-Day, which carried no implications of any sort. NEPTUNE, the code name they used in place of OVERLORD on planning documents after September 1943, was similarly devoid of connotation.

The Americans thought that the deceptions they were creating wouldn't fool the Germans, but it was more effective than they could have ever dreamed.

In theory, the German chain of command in the west was an example of good order. Adolf Hitler served as supreme commander of the Wehrmacht, the nation's armed forces. The High Command (OKW), led by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, ran the war everywhere except in the Soviet Union. Navy Group West and the Third Air Fleet, in turn, managed Germany's naval and air forces in Western Europe while the ground force, some 58 divisions, came under the Oberbefehlshaber West (OB West), headed by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. OB West controlled two army groups, Army Group G. which had charge of the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of France, and Army Group B under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who had charge of anti-invasion forces along the Channel coast as far south as the Loire River. Rommel commanded two armies: the 15th, guarding the Pas de Calais and the Normandy coast to a line just south of the Seine River with 19 divisions (5 panzer), and the 7th, with 13 divisions (1 panzer), covering the coast from the boundary with the 15th Army to the Loire River. The real problem was that some of the groups reported directly to Hitler rather than their chain of command.

The Germans were in disagreement about how best to protect Europe from an allied invasion. Rundstedt, the German commander, was hindered by Hitler who wouldn't give him any authority over air forces and exercised direct control over him. Rundstedt wanted to set up quick response Panzer group to drive back any invasion but Rommel disagreed. Rommel felt that allied air superiority would prevent Rundstedt's plan from succeeding.

General Eisenhower talks with men of Company E,
502d Parachute Infantry Regiment, at the 101st Airborne Division's camp
at Greenham Common, England, 5 June 1944. (National Archives)

As planned, airborne units led the invasion. Shortly after midnight the British 6th Airborne Division dropped northeast of Caen, near the mouth of the Orne River, where it anchored the British eastern flank by securing bridges over the river and the Caen Canal. On the other side of the invasion area, the U.S. 101st and 82d Airborne Divisions dropped near Ste. Mere-Eglise and Carentan to secure road junctions and beach exits from which the VII Corps could push to capture Cherbourg.

Some of the American airborne troops came to ground near their objectives, but most were scattered over a wide area. A number drowned in the flooded lowlands. Others landed in the midst of German positions, where they were killed or captured. In the hours that followed, nevertheless, paratroopers from the 101st succeeded in clearing much of the way for VII Corps' move inland. The 3d Battalion, 505th Infantry, of the 82d Airborne Division meanwhile captured Ste. Mere-Eglise and cut the main enemy communications cable to Cherbourg.

Other units, entangled in the thickets and hedgerows of the region, failed to achieve their objectives, but by their very presence they sowed confusion in German ranks. Reports began to surface in enemy headquarters all along the line that paratroopers were landing, but little information was available to commanders on the size and meaning of the attack. Was it a probe to test Germany's defenses, a diversion for a larger assault in the Pas de Calais, or the long-awaited invasion itself? The Allies added to the confusion by parachuting dummies wired with firecrackers far to the rear of German positions. The trick drew major enemy units away from the landing zone, where their presence might have done considerable damage to the attackers.

When dawn struck the bombers began dropping their loads on the German defenders. By day's end they had flown over 11,000 sorties. Gliders full of troops began to land. The glider landings were not a success and over 4,000 men and 60 percent of the equipment of the 82nd Airborne were missing by day's end. But there was a saving grace, the Germans were convinced that this was not the real invasion and that the real one was going to take place at Pas de Calais. Because of this German belief, some units were held in reserve rather than being thrown into the battle.

The Invasion Plan
Picture Source: National Archives

American soldiers leave Coast Guard landing boats under heavy
Nazi machine gun fire. (National Archives)

4th Division troops shelter behind a concrete wall while others advance off the beach. (National Archives)

Lines of men and material stream ashore, 8 June 1944. (National Archives)

Enough went well for the campaign to succeed. Roosevelt, Marshall, Eisenhower, Churchill, and Montgomery were master communicators who bonded an unwieldy coalition into an extraordinary fighting machine. The plan they and their staffs devised failed to foresee every circumstance that would occur on the battlefield, but it was still a masterpiece of innovation that provided ample means for Allied commanders to prevail.