When on D-Day-June 6, 1944-Allied armies landed in Normandy on .
the northwestern coast of France, possibly the one most critical event .
of World War II unfolded; for upon the outcome of the invasion hung .
the fate of Europe. If the invasion failed, the United States might .
turn its full attention to the enemy in the Pacific-Japan-leaving .
Britain alone, with most of its resources spent in mounting the .
invasion. That would enable Nazi Germany to muster all its strength .
against the Soviet Union. By the time American forces returned to .
Europe-if indeed, they ever returned-Germany might be master of the .
entire continent.
Although fewer Allied ground troops went ashore on D-Day than .
on the first day of the earlier invasion of Sicily, the invasion of.
Normandy was in total history's greatest amphibious operation, .
involving on the first day 5,000 ships, the largest armada ever.
assembled; 11,000 aircraft (following months of preliminary .
bombardment); and approximately 154,000 British, Canadian and.
American soldiers, including 23,000 arriving by parachute and glider. .
The invasion also involved a long-range deception plan on a scale the .
world had never before seen and the clandestine operations of tens of .
thousands of Allied resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied countries of .
western Europe.
American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named supreme .
commander for the allies in Europe. British General, Sir Frederick .
Morgan, established a combined American-British headquarters known as .
COSSAC, for Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander. COSSAC .
developed a number of plans for the Allies, most notable was that of .
Operation Overlord, a full scale invasion of France across the English .
Channel. .
Eisenhower felt that COSSAC's plan was a sound operation. .
After reviewing the disastrous hit-and-run raid in 1942 in Dieppe,.
planners decided that the strength of German defenses required not a .
Under Adolf Hitler the German empire extended from Russia to the west, to France on the east. Germany controlled much of Europe except for Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and Sweden (Keegan 1). Hitler's army's gained control of much of Europe during the years of 1939 through 1941. It was not until December 11th 1941 that Hitler declared war on the United States. Soon afterward, Dwight D. ...
