On June 6th, 1944, Allied Expeditionary Forces attacked along on the French coast of Normandy, during Operation Overlord, and began a long hard road to relieve Europe from Nazi oppression. Landing on five beaches along the Atlantic Wall, the American, British, and Canadian divisions stormed Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europa’. The western most beach, code named Utah, saw the landing of the American 4th ‘Iron Horse’ Infantry Division. Moving east to the second beach, code named Omaha, the American 1st ‘Big Red One’ Infantry Division stormed ashore under heavy fire. Next would be Gold beach, taken by the British 50th Division. The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division battled onto Juno beach, and the last beach, code named Sword, would fall to the British 3rd Division.
The previous night saw Allied Paratroopers, the American 82nd and 101st Airborne and the British 6th Airborne, drop further inland in an attempt to stop German reinforcements from disrupting the infantry landings and protect the flanks of the beaches. Opposing the allied force was the 7th German Army, commanded by General Friedrich Dollmann and part of German Army Group B, commanded by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.
Initially shocked by the Allied landing, the German Command regrouped and meagerly attempted to reinforce the beleaguered force defending the beaches. Rommel’s tactical plan was to drive the invaders back into the sea. Hitler believed this landing was secondary to a major assault which would take place further east near Calais, and would not give Rommel permission to release the reserve forces for an attack on the beachheads, preferring to hold those forces in reserve for the assault he believed would begin soon further up the coast.
Reasons for Hitler’s belief in the Normandy landings as a secondary assault stem from Allied deception techniques. Allied Operation Fortitude created a fictitious army, formed in southeastern England, and headquartered near one of the shortest routes to the Calais region. It was placed under the command of the only general the Germans believed would lead the Allied invasion, American General George S. Patton. Using phony tanks and weapons made of cardboard, with scripted radio messages about build up, the Allied plan fooled the German intelligence. Hitler and his staff were certain Patton would lead the invasion and it would be directed at the Pas-de-Calais.
Allied deceptive techniques influenced German decision making along with the German belief that the Allies would need a sea port in order to establish themselves on the continent. Hitler did not realize that the Allied force would bring their own artificial docks with them, termed ‘mulberries'. This misinterpretation of the situation allowed the Allied force to become established on the continent.
After hard fighting, the Allied forces began to move further inland and link together with the airborne units, forming a stable front with which to advance further into France. By the time the German High Command released the panzer reserves for operations, particularly the Panzer-Lehr Division comprising SS Troops, Hitler Youth, and their Tiger tanks, the Allies were in Europe to stay.
It seems likely that a fast German response to the landings would have thrown the Allied forces from the beaches and postponed any further assault into Northern Europe for many years. The Allied main push would have to have been refocused in the Southern European Theater with the possible addition of divisions along the Eastern Front to assist the Soviet Russian forces.
Additional Reading on World War II
Resources:
Princeton - D-Day
I.C.B. Dear & Foot, The Oxford Companion to World War II (Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)
