D-Day

Hundreds of boats were destroyed in the invasion. The Higgins boats, each carrying a platoon from ships to the beaches were small an built of wood, German machine guns destroyed many of them.

Exact numbers are hard to find, because of precise times men died, men missing in action,many wounded, and other such things, but approximately 5,000 Allied soldiers and sailors died on the 6th June, D-Day.

The first person to die was Lt.Denham Brotheridge of the 2nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry. After landing in a glider at 00.16 on the 6th near Caen, Lt Brotheridge led a charge across 'Pegasus Bridge' and was shot by a Spandau machine gun on the bridge. He killed the German gun crew as he died himself.

On the Allied side most of the soldiers were British, with many Americans and about 10,000 Canadians. There were smaller groups of soldiers from France, Belgium, Poland, Holland and Norway. The aircraft supporting were British, American, Canadian and Australian.

The German armies were pushed back into Germany as more and more Allied troops landed.

What happened at Juno was important as it was a major part of the entire Allied landing. Canadian troops of the 7th and 8th Canadian Brigades and British 48 Marine Commando hit the beach at 0749 and expanded inward to control more territory than any other beach by the day's end.

The German armies in France.

The German machine guns that covered the beaches, particularly at Omaha.

The advantages were huge, finally Allied troops were in France in large numbers to fight. The disadvantage was that so many men died to make this happen.

It was in France.

D-Day started with a storm at sea. This delayed many of the ships and interfered with the planned naval gunfire support. Also the American paratroops did not all land in their planned areas. -Utah beach suffered from the landing craft dropping off the tanks way too early and less than 10% of the tanks made it off the beach. None of these things helped at all.

The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division and the Canadian 2nd Armoured Brigade landed on Juno Beach and gained more territory than any other beach on the first day.

The landing craft used in D-Day were LCVP's and LCT's

Nothing. It was just a cool, alliterative sounding way of referencing the day of the initial attack, when during the planning of the massive operation the actual day it would happen was not yet fixed. The landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944 was only one of dozens of "D-Day"s during the war - every allied amphibious assault had a D-Day, and there were many. Further, the attack began at "H-Hour", which again, meant nothing beyond the time when the attack would begin whenever D-Day was decided upon. D-Day for the Normandy landings was originally scheduled for early May, 1944, but was postponed for various reasons one month. Planning in terms of a D-Day allowed planners to project goals for the operation, to be reached by D+30 days, D+60 days, and D+90 days, and so on.

The purpose of D Day was to create a beachhead in Normandy, which would be used to create a second front in Europe.

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Yes , the Allied invasion of a Nazi occupied Europe was a success .

No, Puerto Rico did not take part in D-Day.

The Universe implodes from the sudden injection of magic.

To elaborate: D-Day failing does not win Germany the war, it merely extends the day of German defeat and ensures the Soviet Union makes more territorial gains. For all the planning, effort, and resource the Western Allies put into D-Day, the only realistic failure (IE: the assault waves get wiped out and a beach head is never established) does not change the fact that Germany is already losing the war. The Western Allies would still have total dominance over the air and sea and still have large numbers of ground forces available to them and even already fighting Germany on the land (the Italian Front).

On the other end of Europe, the Russians are no longer the inept bumblers they were in 1941 and early-42. Three years of war, lend-lease, and total industrial mobilization of the USSR's resources had turned the Red Army into a massive, well-armed, well-led, well-motivated, and experienced Juggernaut that out-and-out annihilated the German forces in its path during the Summer of 1944. Ultimately, they were halted by their own supply difficulties after huge and rapid advances more then German resistance.

The Germans, in the meanwhile, are still suffering from constant raw material and fuel shortages, regular strategic bombing raids, a manpower situation that is only a few hundred thousand casualties away from rock bottom, and (of course) the utter madness that Hitler has driven himself into by '44. With such disparity in strength, Germany's downfall even after successfully repelling D-Day is just a matter of time.

It had a very demoralizing effect on the German public. It put many of Germany's western divisions to flight.

The British and Canadian paratroopers succeeded most, gaining all their targets. The Americans were scattered by wind and many landed in swamp. They succeeded eventually.

They were routed and totally disorganised. Only small pockets of them held and fought.

The Normandy landings were to establish a beachhead in northern France and open a second European front to fight against Germany.

Lt. Dennis Brotheridge was the first Allied soldier to die on D-Day. He also killed the first German on D-Day. Brotheridge, of the Oxfordshire and Bucks. Light Infantry Regt. of the British 6th Airborne, landed with his 28 troops in a glider at 0016. At about 0020 they were challenged by a German sentry, 17 year old Private Helmut Rohmer. Brotheridge shot him with his Sten gun, and just a minute or two later was shot himself by a German machine gun. He died at 0023 on D-Day.