Episode 4: Preparations for D-Day

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             D-Day, also known as either Operation Overlord or Operation Neptune, June 6, 1944, was the starting point for the liberation of Western Europe.  For four long years, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands had suffered under German occupation.  It was the people of France who were initially liberated by Allied Forces during the invasion of Normandy.  On June 6 alone, 156,000 American, British, Canadian, and Free French soldiers landed either on, or behind, the beaches.  These soldiers were supported by over 11,000 aircraft and 7,000 vessels, including 200 warships. 

            The planning of, training for, and execution of the Normandy landings lasted for a period of two years.  The United States Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to launch an invasion of France in late 1942 or early 1943, but the British General Staff made a strong argument that the men and materials needed for this type of operation were not available.  The Americans conceded, and instead targeting North Africa and Italy, in 1942 and 1943, as a way for their military to gain combat experience against Axis, particularly German, forces.  This blooding of American combat forces allowed for valuable growing lessons to be incorporated not only on the battlefield but also in logistics and planning for future combat operations.

            The amount of war materials to conduct a successful, and long-term amphibious invasion are tremendous.  New warships needed to be constructed to protect the transport ships that would bring men and material from North America to Great Britain.  Some of those same warships were also used to cover the invasion convoys and serve as offshore artillery support for Allied soldiers on the beaches.  Thousands of amphibious warships specifically designed for this action also needed to be built and their crews trained.

            As if the naval component were not enough to make Allied planners want to pull their hair out, war material for the ground soldiers also needed to be stockpiled.  Tens of thousands of ground vehicles, tanks, jeeps, and trucks, needed to be produced and shipped from North America to Great Britain.  Thousands of artillery pieces, anti-aircraft guns, and anti-tanks guns and millions of rounds of rifle, pistol, and artillery ammunition needed to be amassed.  Millions of tons of food, medicine and clothing also had to be on hand for the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who would take part in Overlord.

            To use all this equipment in the invasion of France, soldiers were needed.  While the United States, Britain, and Canada were constantly creating new units, the lack of combat experience for many of these soldiers would be detrimental when they encountered combat-hardened Germans.  There were veteran Allied units fighting in Italy, but their commanders did not want all the most combat effective troops to be stripped from the theater. 

Several elite units were created between 1942 and 1944, including the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, the US Army Rangers, and the British 6th Airborne Division, as well as two British Commando brigades.  These had varying degrees of combat experience, ranging from several campaigns to virtually none.  Multiple practice operations were conducted which included both daytime and nighttime jumps.  Parachute infantry were also supplemented by glider-borne infantry and these men needed to be trained as well for the invasion of Normandy.  These crews also had to be trained on how to operate their planes in formation and maintain a steady airspeed and course to protect the paratroopers who were jumping out of the planes.

            Multiple wargames were enacted to help coordinate activity between regular infantry, armor, and air units.  A series of amphibious training exercises took place along the southwest coast of Great Britain.  These mock landings included both transports and warships operating in column, requesting fire support, and enacting landing operations.  One training exercise in April 1944, Exercise Tiger in April 1944 was stumbled upon by German fast attack boats which killed 749 American service men.  These losses, while painful, were viewed as a necessary expenditure of lives to hammer in the dangers of the upcoming invasion.

            Leading up to D-Day, the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Corps shifted the focus of their campaigns to aid in the invasion of Normandy.  Allied fighters and fighter-bombers swept throughout northern France and Belgium attempting to destroy as many German aircraft as possible on the ground.  In addition, they attacked trains, railway yards, bridges, and other targets.  The heavy bomber formations of the Allied air forces also shifted from the strategic bombing of Germany to hitting targets throughout Occupied France.  Many of these strikes were carried out miles away from the invasion site to confuse German military intelligence as to the actual landing zones. 

            One other element was also necessary for the success of Operation Overlord to be cemented: the Germans must be as confused as possible about the location and size of the Allied landings.  Allied military intelligence units worked miracles to camouflage the real targets: fake radio signals, inflatable tanks, trucks, planes, and a “ghost army” under American General George Patton.  Double agents fed the German intelligence community an unlimited feed of false information.  These efforts caused Adolf Hitler to believe that the Allies would land near the city of Calais.  On top of those feats, the British Special Operations Executive, or SOE, and the American Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, dropped agents into Occupied Europe to help raise and support local resistance groups to sabotage and delay German counterattacks at the beachheads.

            While the invasion of Normandy was a staggering success and allowed for the liberation of Western Europe, it required the Allied planners, soldiers, sailors, and airmen to work with hundreds of thousands of others behind the scenes to ensure the operation was as fully stocked and trained as humanly possible.  Without efforts of so many people beyond those landing on the beaches, fighting in the air, or dominating the seas, the Allied invasion of Normandy could not have been a sure victory.