D-Day

The true number of resistance fighters who answered the call on D-Day will probably never be known because each cell was self contained for security reasons(if you don't know you can't tell the neighborhood Gestapo). Free French soldiers and agents also parachuted into France to assist the Resistance. I do not believe that DeGauls Free French forces fought in any large numbers on D-Day but contributed immensely during the breakout and drive to Paris.

For France besides the Resistance, there was an offical Free French Marine Commandos Batailion on D-Day, lead by Cdt. Kieffer, an Alsatian, which took among others the Casino of Carentan, and was allowed by the Britisch troop to have the honour disembarke first on the French beaches. They lost most of their men. Several hundred other Frenchmen where fighting on that same day under US and UK uniforms. Lt. Clostermann, another Alsatian, was the RAF pilot that shot the most German planes during WW2.

Although the term "D-Day" was applid to the day when any allied amphibious operation was launched, the term generally refers to the invasion of German occupied Europe at Normandy on June 6, 1944. Pearl Harbor is an American Naval base in Hawaii. The Japanese attacked it on December 7, 1941.

Two generals who helped plan D-Day would include Eisenhower and Montgomery. Pearl Harbor was not planned by generals but by Japanese admirals. Two of them would be Nagumo and Yamamoto.

ANS 2 - The Genereal who was in charge of D-Day planning was British General Frederick Morgan. His planning committee started in early 1943.

My grandfather fought in Company E of the 175th, and I have found the followng sources to be of great itnerest.

Joseph Balkoski, "Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Division in Normandy" (available from Amazon for about $12), is easily the best and most thoroughly researched history. Googlebooks has a large excerpt published at

http://books.google.com/books?id=RDYiS6TzZMQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=beyond+the+beachhead&sig=hY_fpyev9PD8QKbshrjFTmpvJIw

The official US Army history of the Normandy Campaign has a lot on the 175th, due to the large role they played at Isigny, Grandcamp, and St. Lo .

Reference: US Army History of WW2 volumn entitled "Cross-Channel Attack" by G. A. Harrison.

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/100-11/100-11.htm#cont

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/100-13/st-lo_0.htm#cont

Ewing, Joseph, "29 Let's Go!" ---> Excellent book. Extremely helpful.

D-Day determined the entire outcome of the war. If the d-day invasion had been repelled the entire allied assault may have broken up. Without a foothold on continental Europe, no major assaults would have been possible. It was the deciding factor in the allies winning the way.

___________________________________________________________________

I beg to differ. The outcome of World War II had long since been decided by the time that the western Allies landed at Normandy. There was no way that Germany could have won the war from any time after their crushing defeat at Stalingrad (autumn 1942 to early February '43). Their failed offensive in summer 1943 to try to pinch off the Kursk salient put the exclamation point on this matter. And for comparison, while the U.S., Britain and Canada were struggling to expand their beachhead in Normandy the Soviets were launching an enormous offensive that led to the deep envelopment and crushing of the largest German force of the war to ever be destroyed in one campaign, Army Group Center, in Byelorussia and eastern Poland. Read up on it. The outcome of the war had been decided at Stalingrad. After that it was impossible for Germany to win the war. The best they could do was to hope to grind the Allies down enough that some kind of negotiated peace could be made but that was an unrealistic hope (and the leaking of the Morgenthau plan, even though it wasn't ultimately carried out, made this seemingly clear to the Germans.)

The Soviets endured many thousands of times worse than anything that was thrown at U.S. or British or Canadian forces, and broke the back of the German military. Without the Soviets bleeding the Germans white on the Eastern Front there would have been no D-Day at Normandy in any case, it would have never been attempted unless Germany was already fatally weakened.

The most important outcomes to result from the invasion of northwest Europe by the western Allies?

1. It probably speeded up the defeat of Germany by a few months.

2. It made sure that France was liberated by the western Allies and not "liberated" by the Soviets after they got through tearing the Germans a new one.

3. It gave the American people a beloved myth that they have cherished ever since, the myth that America (and the U.K., and Canada, though they never seem to remember them) saved the world from Nazi tyranny by the gallant sacrifices made in storming the beaches of Normandy and singlehandedly turned the tide of the war in one fell swoop, stopping the Nazi war machine in its tracks and rolling it back to its destruction. Unfortunately that's all the most ridiculous hogwash to anyone who has bothered to read about the war on the Eastern Front and finds out that over 80% of Germany's war dead were killed fighting against the Soviets, that the Soviets destroyed vastly more German units than the rest of the Allies put together several times over, that the bulk of Germany's military was concentrated on the Eastern Front even after D-Day, roughly two-thirds of its units and most of its best units, et cetera, et cetera. But it plays really well in Peoria, right? To people who don't know anything about World War II beyond the dropping of the atom bombs and that movie Saving Private Ryan. But people who've looked into the matter know the Soviets won the war against Nazi Germany while the U.S. and U.K. and Canada merely helped out.

D-Day (literally means Day-Day) had an enormous effect on the second world war. In essence it was the beginning of the end. D-Day is the day when the allies launched a counter attack against the Germans and secured a foot hold on the beaches of Normandy. From there the counter attacked the German offensive and liberated Europe.

The biggest effect was that it stopped more of Europe from falling into Communist hands. When Stalin was congratulated on reaching Berlin he replied "Czar Alexander got to Paris."

1. Germany and Russia were carrying on secret peace negotiations through Switzerland from 1943-44. With the failure of D-Day Normandy,1944 both Germany and Russia knew the Western allies would not be able to think about another invasion of western Europe for at least another two years. Hitler would be able to transfer the bulk of his forces in the west to the east and with the added troops he was sure that Russia would agree to peace negotiations. 2. Germanys jet fighter technology was ahead of the allies and jet fighter production had started already began. With D-Day failure, that German would have time to produce jet fighters in large quantities and that would have put an end to the Allied Bombing campaign by the end of 1945. 3. German Scientist were pretty advanced with their Nuclear and rocket Programs and would have been the first nation capable of launching a nuke by rocket or dropping a nuke. Scary.

D-Day robbed the Germans of valuable time and any chance of a victory through negotiations.

The D Day you are referring to I believe is the day of the Normandy Invasion in France during World War 2. It was conducted to invade enemy territory (held by the Nazi Germans) so they could drive the Germans out of the nations they had invaded and oppressed. The Allied Forces had to drive the Nazis out of France and all the other European countries occupied by the Nazis to liberate the oppressed peoples of Europe. This gained the freedom of the world essentially.

There are actually many D days in World War 2. For example there were the D Days of Africa, Italy, Greece, Norway, all the Pacific Island battles, and China. But most people think of D Day being the day the Allied Forces landed on the Normandy France beaches.

The correct phrase is you are at the beach.

Both are correct depending on you are . If you are not inside the beach properly you are at the beach, and if you are inside it you are on the beach.

You are walking on an avenue and the beach is near to the avenue, you are at the beach. As soon as you leave the avenue and enter the beach, you are on the beach.

This depends on how far away their sheep station is from a major town with decent medical facilities, and how severe the injury is.

Many particularly remote or outlying sheepstations have to rely on the Royal Flying Doctor Service for major emergencies. Years ago, telegraph operators had to relay the medical information from a doctor who might have been thousands of kilometres away, but the RFDS has eased that burden. However, most bush towns have medical facilities to deal wih injuries, or at least stabilise a patient until the RFDS gets there.