Operation Overlord

In the early morning of 6 June 1944 a massive Allied seaborne invasion landed on the beaches of Normandy, in northern France (see photograph below). The event was D-Day. The mission was called Operation Overlord — ‘the most complicated and difficult’ operation of World War II, according to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The operation took over a year to plan and implement. For months, intelligence information was gathered via maps, aerial photographs and holiday postcards. Secrecy was crucial, as the attack had to take the Germans by surprise. It was also essential to pick a day when the weather and tide conditions were right. When Allied Commander-In-Chief, General Dwight D. Eisenhower (see photograph on the right) gave the order, more than 155 000 American, British and Canadian troops were ferried across the English Channel on some 6000 ships and landing craft. Their  Digital Stock/Corbis Corporation task was to secure five Normandy beaches, code- named Sword, Juno, Gold, Utah and Omaha. The beach landing was supported by a massive aerial bombardment of inland enemy positions, and by drops of paratroopers. The intent was to destroy German gun batteries before they could fire on the arriving landing craft. Hitler had expected any Allied attack might occur further east, and had concentrated coastal defences near Calais. Operation Overlord was so unexpected that, at first, he thought it was an Allied trick, and delayed sending German back- up troops to the beaches. This element of surprise was a key advantage for the Allies. By nightfall on 6 June, Sword, Juno and Gold were in British and Canadian hands, and Omaha and Utah in American hands. Omaha was by far the toughest landing point as it was bordered by high cliffs and had few routes inland off the beach. US troops at Omaha also had the bad luck to run into a crack German division. The heavy loss of life at this beachhead is graphically recalled in Stephen Spielberg’s film The Saving of Private Ryan. Extract from an official American account of the Omaha Beach landing

‘Already the sea runs red. Even among some of the lightly wounded who jump into shallow water, the hits prove fatal. Knocked down by a bullet in the arm or weakened by fear and shock, they are unable to rise again and are drowned by the onrushing tide … A few move safely through the bullet swarm to the beach, then find that they cannot hold there. They return to the water to use it for body cover. Faces turned upward, so that their nostrils are out of the water, they creep toward the land at the same rate as the tide. That is how most of the survivors make it.’

 Digital Stock/Corbis Corporation As quoted in D-Day, by Martin Gilbert, pp. 146–7 © John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2004 2004-11-overlord.pdf (Page 1 of 3) Operation Overlord was a risky operation for the Allies. It was also very costly, with some 3000 Allied troops killed on D-Day alone. But it was a turning point in the war in Europe. By establishing a second war front (Germany was also fighting Russia to the east), Germany’s fighting ability was weakened. By the end of July, nearly one million Allied soldiers had poured into France via the captured Normandy beaches, pushing southwards. Within a year, the German army would suffer a crushing defeat on the outskirts of its capital, Berlin. Use information in this worksheet and in the sources listed as References to complete the following activities. 1. Explain why Operation Overlord would have been such a complicated and difficult military operation...... 2. Imagine you were an Allied soldier involved in both the Dunkirk evacuation and D-Day. What similarities and differences might you have observed in what was happening on these two days? Refer to the references listed below, particularly SOSE Alive History 2 and the D-Day (1) web link...... 3. Based on the official US account given above, and on what you may have seen if you have viewed the movie Saving Private Ryan, how do you think you would have felt to have survived the battle for Omaha beach? Knowing what the Allies were fighting for, and what was at stake, would you have still felt the sacrifice was worth it? Write a journal entry in your notebook describing your feelings and thoughts. 4. Suggest why Operation Overload was the turning point in the war in Europe. You might find the D-Day (2) web link helpful......

© John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2004 2004-11-overlord.pdf (Page 2 of 3) 5. The study of history is fascinating, because it often involves thinking about how different our world might have been if not for a particular event or person. Here’s a ‘what if’ scenario.

Imagine that Hitler had found out about the planned Operation Overlord, and that the Allied invasion had failed. Given the need for the weather and tides to be just right, it would have been sometime before a mission like this could have been tried again — and Germany would have been ready for it! Without the western front this operation set up, Germany would have focused its efforts on the eastern front, and the advancing Russians. But what if they had failed to stop them? After taking Berlin (which they did do), the Russians would have been free to sweep through countries such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands, wiping out remaining pockets of German resistance. Keep imagining! The war is now over, and Russia is the dominant Allied victor in Europe. (a) Russia was one of the Allies during World War II, but it was also a communist country. What do you think might have happened to Europe if the above scenario had occurred? Predict in what ways this might have changed the course of history...... 6. Now predict another scenario. Imagine again that Operation Overlord has failed, and that Germany (given its ability to focus on the eastern front) has defeated the advancing Russians. What might have happened if Germany under Hitler had been the victor in Europe? Who would have suffered most, and what might life have been like? You will find SOSE Alive History 2 helpful......

References: SOSE Alive History 2, pp. 150–4 ▪ SOSE Alive 4, pp. 56–7 ▪ www.jaconline.com.au/sosealive/sahistory2 (or www.jaconline.com.au/sosealive/sosealive4) and click on the D-Day web links for this chapter