History is a wonderful thing. Records which have been kept over the years and events which have happened have all come together to make us who we are today, and this is something amazing. One event which is particularly relevant right now as the anniversary was mere days ago is D Day. It saw the allied forces of the UK and USA amongst others storm the beaches at Normandy to save countless lives. To honour that today we are taking a look at some of the facts you should know about D Day.
1. D-Day launched operation overlord.
On the 6th June 1944 allows forces launched a large naval, air and land assault against the Nazis in France. This was codenamed operation overlord and it was the beginning of the end of the war for the German side. By the end of the day on the 6th June the allied forces had managed to establish a camp on the beach and this allowed them to start really helping French soldiers.
2. It opened a second front against Germany
As the war started and became more and more aggressive in 1941, allied forces can together and decided that the needed to be stopped. The idea of opening a second front would allow France to be freed from the Nazis and this would put more pressure on Germany and the Nazis. The idea would be that this assault would drain German resources and also cut them off from access to key sites.
3. It took a lot of planning
If you think it is hard to get a team of people in your office to come together and complete a task; imagine how hard it is for different countries to band together in a time of need. D day took a lot of planning and was first drawn up in July of 1943. This means it took almost a year to happen.
4. It was international
As you will know, the allied forces of World War II featured a few countries working together to help the Germans be defeated. It took the efforts of all of these people to come up with and plan d day so that it would be a success.
5. It remains the largest in history
As far as a collaborative effort of naval, air and land forces goes: this remains the largest in history and the most significant one of all. The operation took the skills of many forces to use again the Germans for different goals. After midnight on 6th June, 18,000 paratroopers were the first to hit the beaches. After this forces flew over heard, and boats also began to travel in bringing soldiers with them.
6. Germans tried to defend
Germans had already invaded much of france at this point in the war and this meant that they were ready to defend themselves against an attack. Germany tried to defend the coast with something known as the ‘Atlantic Wall’. However their defences were not very good.
7. It wasn’t just allies who were present that helped
The reason why this event was possible and so effective is because of all of the efforts of allied forces in and around the time of the operation. There were many allied forces who made efforts to weaken the Germans before D-Day and it was this that made a difference.
8. Normandy is a great place
Because of the significance of this event in history, many people will only really travel to Normandy for the memorials. However there are a lot of reasons to visit Normandy and it can be a great place to visit for a holiday.
9. It was the most significant
Out of all of the events during the war, it is safe to say that this one was the true turning point for the allies and it provided them with the strength to be able to go on and eventually liberate the continent of Europe. Now that 75 years have passed, we can look back and see that this day made a huge impact on the world today.
10. It’s not the only one
D day isn’t the name of a specific event, it is simply a general term for an operation of this sort and scale. When we wonder How Many WW2 Veterans are Still Alive? We need to think also that there were many of these kind of events happening throughout the war and all of them had an impact on the final result.
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