Why was Normandy invaded on D-Day?

Answer 1

The allied forces were working to move the German forces from the coast through France back to Germany. Answer #2Italy was also chosen as the second front: When Hitler attacked Russia in 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union automatically became allies since they shared common enemies. Within months, Stalin was pleading for Britain, and then America when it entered the war, to open up another front to relieve the pressure off his troops, who were fighting 2/3 of the German army. Stalin was eager and impatient for his allies to set up a second front because he wasn't confident that they would continue to fight with/for communists rather than surrender and save the lives of their men. Stalin knew that if his allies did give up, that his Red Army wouldn't be able to handle Hitler alone. In January of 1943, Britain and America met in Casablanca to discuss their alliance. There they agreed to start strategical bombing tactics, where they would bomb major German cities to weaken German industry; and, on an unconditional surrender, where the Allies would fight until they had complete military victory. Then, in November of that year, they met again in Teheran, only this time including Russia. Here they decided that USA and Britain would open up a second front, Russia would get land from Poland and declare war on Japan 90 days after the defeat of Germany. Britain and America began to make plans on opening up a second Front, though Roosevelt and Churchill ran into a disagreement. Churchill thought that they should attack through Italy, the 'soft underbelly' of Europe. He believed that Italy was weak, and that Germany would quickly move many of their troops to defend their allies. However, military reasons weren't his only motives for attacking Italy: he felt that Britain and America could charge up through Italy, and reach the Balkans before Stalin could, saving more countries from the Soviets. Roosevelt on the other hand, wanted to take a more direct approach, and go for the neck rather than the belly, and attack France. He felt that more ally lives would be saved since there was less land to cover and that Hitler would be more likely to withdraw mass amounts of troops from Russia to the west, since France was much closer to the Nazi heartland than Italy was. But the ill President had little power for arguing, Britain and USA attacked Italy. Churchill's theory soon proved false, as it took a month alone to conquer Sicily. Hitler did move some troops to aid his ally, but not enough to make a large difference for the Russians. Eventually Churchill agreed to attack through France, and the allies spent several months training and preparing for and invasion of Normandy, which turned out to be the right move.