Posted on 06/05/2004 9:07:11 AM PDT by doug from upland
This is a pretty good source of information. On the site, they also have The Gipper's speech on the 40th anniversary.
In this centrepiece essay of NORMANDY: 1944, John Keegan traces the history of the last great invasion of the western theatre in World War II. The story begins with the Nazi empire having reached its greatest extent and the Allies pondering how to turn the tide.
Hitler's Reich, east and west
Adolf Hitler reviewing troops on the eastern front, 1939 Heinrich Hoffmann, Munich. In midsummer 1943, a year before the Anglo-American invasion of Normandy that would lead to the liberation of western Europe, Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht, or Armed Forces, still occupied all the territory it had gained in the blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939-41 and most of its Russian conquests of 1941-42. It also retained its foothold on the coast of North Africa, acquired when it had gone to the aid of its Italian ally in 1941. The Russian counteroffensives at Stalingrad and Kursk had pushed back the perimeter of Hitler's Europe in the east. Yet he or his allies still controlled the whole of mainland Europe, except for neutral Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and Sweden. The Nazi war economy, though overshadowed by the growing power of America's, outmatched both that of Britain and that of the Soviet Union except in the key areas of tank and aircraft production. Without direct intervention by the western Allies on the continent--an intervention that would centre on the commitment of a large American army--Hitler could count on prolonging his military dominance for years to come.
Hitler had long been aware that the Anglo-American allies would eventually mount a cross-Channel invasion, but, as long as they dissipated their forces in the Mediterranean and as long as the campaign in the East demanded the commitment of all available German forces, he downplayed the threat. By November 1943, however, he accepted that it could be ignored no longer, and in Führer Directive 51 he announced that France would be reinforced. To oversee defensive preparations, Hitler appointed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, former commander of the Afrika Korps, as inspector of coastal defenses and then as commander of Army Group B, occupying the threatened Channel coast. As army group commander, Rommel officially reported to the longer-serving commander in chief West, Gerd von Rundstedt.
Gee, that map mentions only US, British and Canadian troops. Looks like English speaking people going it alone with no real international support?
Kudos to "The Greatest Generation" and their sacrifices.
BTW, Poles, Norwegians, Belgians, Czechs, Free French all participated in the battle for France. While Greeks, Brazilians, New Zealanders, Allied Italian and East Indians fought in Italy.
What impressed me most about Saving Private Ryan was the SOUND...the brass flying and clinking all over the place; unlike anything I've come across in any other movie.
Thanks Doug. Bookmarked.
Thanks, DFU.....this is a great site.
The Normandy campaign had been a stunning success. By early September 1944 all but a fraction of France had been liberated. The American and British/Canadian forces had occupied Belgium and part of The Netherlands and had reached the German frontier. They had, however, outrun their logistic support and lacked the strength to launch a culminating offensive. The coming winter would see much hard fighting, and a German counteroffensive in the Belgian Ardennes, before the German army in the west was finally to be beaten.
Words are not needed with this picture!
For later.
Was that when FDR apologised to the American people for getting their boys stuck in a quagmire?
Excellent site, Doug. Thanks!
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I don't think I remember that part.
Pointe du Hoc is a promontory situated between two landing beaches that were taken by American forces in the Normandy Invasion. Formally part of the Omaha Beach invasion area (assault sector Charlie), it was itself the object of a daring seaborne assault on D-Day by U.S. Army rangers, who scaled its cliffs with the aim of silencing artillery pieces placed on its heights.
Pointe du Hoc was an ominous piece of land jutting into the English Channel 4 miles (7 kilometres) west of Omaha Beach and 7 miles east of Utah Beach. It provided an elevated vantage point from which huge German guns with a range of 15 miles could deliver fire upon both of the American beaches. Allied intelligence and photoreconnaissance had identified five 155-millimetre guns emplaced in reinforced-concrete casemates on the Pointe, and Allied commanders had determined that the neutralization of these guns was the key to the fate of the Omaha and Utah landings. The area of the Pointe was defended by elements of the German 352nd Infantry Division.
Thanks doug and nutmeg!
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