What was D-Day?

D-Day was used as an accronym for the start of a military
operation. The phrase has been connected with the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy, France,
Operation Overlord. D-Day showed combined operations and cooperation of disparate military forces
committed to the liberation of Europe from Nazi Occupation.

The
number of things that could go wrong was finite and the top commanders wrestled with all aspects
from the initial airborne attack--expected to kill one-in-seven of the men who jumped that
night--to failure to gain a beachhead sufficiently deep to allow the follow-up forces to land
unimpeded.

The weather proved the most serious threat to success.
The gale in the Channel was unexpected and forced the recall of several convoys of landing craft
to return to England. The decision to go with marginal conditions caught the majority of the
German High Command off-guard.

The airborne drop were chaotic, but
spread confusion as the misdropped paratroopers attacked enemy formations where they found them
and spread enough confusion as to the scope of the attack to delay a counterattack by the German
troops on the drop zones and beaches. The naval bombardment proved insufficient, and the planned
airstrike failed due to bad weather and a late bomb drop resulting from fears that landing
parties would receive the bombs instead of the enemy. The planned launch of the dual drive tanks,
intended to support the infantry attack, failed as the majority of tanks destined for Fox Green
and Easy Red Beaches sank under the pounding of the waves. The concentrated fire put down on
Omaha, stalled the attack for several hours, and the planned boat lanes through the beach
obstacles was poorly done so that the sailors and soldiers assigned the mission were killed or
wounded in the effort. Landing craft commanders battered their way over the obstacles to land
their troops and equipment to build the pressure that brought small groups of men to scale the
bluffs between the German strongpoints and allowed the invasion to
succeed.

D-Day has rightly been celebrated for the courage,
devotion, and determination to succeed when all seemed lost.