D-Day

The American victory at the Battle of Saratoga convinced France to become an ally of the United States.

Two main reasons: the British, having just been ejected from the Continent in 1940, were skittish about a head-on assault into the German strength, which if it failed, might preclude making the effort again for several years, by which time the Germans might be so strong as to make the effort all but impossible. The British preferred a peripheral strategy, for as long as possible, poking around at the edges of Germany's conquests to draw off strength. Churchill was forever nattering on about the "soft underbelly" of the Axis in the Mediterranean. He never wanted anybody thinking about the question of, all right, supposing you HAVE successfully invaded and conquered Italy, or Greece? What then? Where can you go from there? Any possible Mediterranean area of attack was separated from central Germany by very, very high mountains, extremely rugged mountains, well-nigh impassable for an army with tanks, especially if the passes were heavily defended. In the case of Italy, NEUTRAL Switzerland - and the Alps, were in the way of a path to Germany. Stalin, with Russia fighting desperately for its very life, was needless to say more than a little bit vocally impatient with these peripheral nibblings favored by the British. Also impatient was General George C. Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff, who was the architect of victory in WWII. He was in charge of the US Army AND the Army Air Force (the Air Force did not become an independent branch of the service until the war was over, in 1947). Marshall wanted to get on with it, and land on the coast of western France and head for Berlin.

But the US had gotten a little bit sidetracked. Along with the British we had invaded North Africa in November, 1942, not because of any strategic necessity as far as ultimate victory required, but because Roosevelt and Churchill had promised Stalin a "second front" by the end of the year. Stalin, quite reasonably, allowed himself to believe that this meant an invasion of France, as he was intended to infer. Africa was a poor substitute and drew off only a tiny percentage of German strength, but it did allow the US Army to gain some experience and overcome some teething troubles.

While the fighting was still going on in Africa Churchill and Roosevelt had the Casablanca Conference, in January 1943. General Marshall went there, with only a few aides, determined to obtain agreement to a cross-Channel invasion in 1943. The British sent an entire ship, a ship, full of staff officers, all bearing charts and graphs and plans, all to demonstrate that once Africa was finished, the next move must be Sicily. Sicily, mind you. The British later on at least had the grace to admit this was completely wrong. The correct move would have been to go for Sardinia, or Corsica, if we just HAD to keep piddling around the Med. From either of those, southern France could be reached, or Italy NORTH of Rome. The Allies in possession of Sardinia or Corsica would force the Germans to stretch their defenses to cover all those possibly threatened areas. From Sicily, given the limited range of land-based aircraft of the day, which was a necessary ingredient to the next step of invasions, the ONLY place to go was onto the mainland of Italy, and worst of all, Italy south of Rome. This suited Churchill just FINE! So Marshall was argued down, there was no commitment to a cross-Channel attack in 1943 at Casablanca, and only a half-hearted and insincere agreement of the British to one in 1944, which they later tried to weasel out of, but by that time Marshall had had a belly full and was brooking no more stalling. So in 1943 the US and British invaded Sicily and then Italy. It wasn't all a waste of time, Italy did surrender. But the Germans kept on fighting in Italy, in a country which greatly favored the defenders, and at the peak of the Italian campaign the western allies were occupying no more than 10% of German strength. Late in 1943 Churchill went on a Mediterranean inspection tour, and got the flu. He went to bed to recover, and when he felt a little better, commenced meddling. He couldn't help himself. He revived a plan, which had been considered and discarded, to land near Rome, behind the German lines. He insisted this would cause the Germans south of Rome to collapse and flee northward. Instead what we got was the Anzio campaign, nearly five months of bloody stalemate that helped postpone the Normandy landings from May to June because so many LSTs were needed to supply the whale we had beached at Anzio.

The decision was made to delay the Normandy D-Day from the favorable period of the right combinations of phase of the moon and tides in early May to early June, the next favorable time. This was to get the benefit of an additional month of LST production. LSTs were "Landing Ship, Tanks", sizable vessels which could run their noses right up onto a beach and disgorge an entire company of infantry, or a dozen tanks, which need never get wet in the landing. This points up the other factor which made D-Day so long in coming. The US, eager as Marshall was to close with the enemy, was not ready. Only by the time the landings actually took place did the US have what turned out to be just barely enough trained men in completed units of division strength, and sufficient shipping, and only by June of 1944 had air supremacy been achieved.

Operation Overlord. The largest amphibious operation in history.

The main leader of D-Day in Europe was General Eisenhower. There where a few others who helped from the British forces. Obviously the above answer is from an American. Actually General Bernard Montgomery was the Ground Forces Commander in Chief (21st Army Group). The senior U.S. Commander was Lieutenant-General Omar Bradley Commander U.S. 1st Army (composed of the 1st U.S. Infantry Division, the 4th U.S. Infantry Division, the 29th U.S. Infantry Division, the 82nd U.S. Airborne Division and the 101st U.S. Airborne Division). while Lieutenant-General Mike Dempsey Commanded the 2nd British Army (composed of the 3rd British Infantry Division, the 6th British Airborne Division, the 50th British Infantry Division and the 3rd Canadian infantry Division under Major-General R.F.L. Keller)

British units were organized into Brigades. If you can identify the Brigades that was there, then you can find out the regiments that were in that brigade. Each British Reigment had several battalions and they usually served in different areas. (This derived from WW1 when regiments were raised from one local area of Britain and when the regiment suffered in combat the local community was devastated.) Therefore, one specific Regiment might be found in many Brigades.

For US regiments, you identify the Infantry Division and that will tell you what regiments were there.

The Battle of Normandy was fought between the German forces and the invading allied forces. The primary Allied formations that saw combat in Normandy came from Canada, the UKand the USA. Substantial Free French and Polish Forces, also participated in the battle after the assault phase, and there were also contingents from Belgium, Czech, Greece, the netherlands, and Norway.

Dunkirk was not a miracle. Around May 25th-June 4th of 1940, (during World War II) when between 300,000-400,000 members (estimates vary) of the British Expeditionary Force, along with French and Belgian soldiers, were rescued from the beaches by various military and civilian fishing crafts from the oncoming German military.

i don't know its just a day and was coined by the military services

1. The Dieppe Raid was a Second World War Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe. The raid took place on the northern coast of France on 19 August 1942.

No, while Operation Overlord (the Allied landings at Normandy) is the largest amphibious invasion in history with over 156,000 invading troops taking part in the landing, Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941) is the largest overall invasion in history, involving 4,500,000 troops and nearly resulting in the captures of Moscow and Leningrad.

Whilst is was a general Allied coalition of leaders, the head position of COSSAC (Chief of Staff of the Supreme Allied Command) was initially held by the British Liutenant-General Frederick E. Morgan, before American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was given the role in late 1943 after his efforts in the Italian campaign (1943-1945). It was his task, along with board of leaders from the Western Allied nations, to review the plan for invasion into France (OVERLORD), first scheduled to take place in Brittany, then Normandy.

Delegates below the position of COSSAC were also a mixed coalition of generals from the different Western Allied nations, each commanding a respective section.

Naval delegation was organised as follows; the Western Naval task force commanding shipping in the American section of the Baie de la Seine fell to the command of Rear-Admiral Kirk of the US Navy, whilst the Eastern British Naval task force was run by Rear-Admiral Sir Phillip Vian of the Royal Navy. Several more commanders commandeered the naval blockade around the mouth of the Normandy coastline, to protect U-boat and Surface Raider interdiction on both Allied supply shipping and troop ferrying. Commander in Chief of the overall naval operation was headed by Sir Bertram Ramsay of the Royal Navy.

Air control would rely on bombers, fighters and transport aircraft from both the US 9th Air Force and the British 2nd Tactical Air Force. Both of these air fleets were under the control of Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, previous leader of the Eastern England Fighter Group 11 during the Battle of Britain in 1940, and later leader of overall Fighter Command of the RAF before promotion to the Allied Expeditionary Air Force (A.E.A.F.) and beyond during Overlord.

Land Control would be divided under general control of leaders from the two main national armies (the UK and the US) into two initial armies for the main landings. Both initial armies were under overall command of the 21st Army Group with Field Marshall Montgomery as head.

The British 2nd Army was composed of two corps led by British General Miles Dempsey, containing the half-half Canadian and British 1st Corps of one division each with attachments under General John Crocker (bound for Juno and Sword Beaches, respectively), and the British 30 (XXX) Corps with Liutenant-General Gerard Bucknell to Gold Beach.

The American 1st Army was also composed of two corps with one-two divisions each; 5th (V) Corps with Major-General Leonard T. Gerow heading to Omaha Beach, and 8th (VIII) Corps with a General Collins heading to Utah.

I hope this answers your question. If it doesn't, I've just wasted a whole hour of my precious life writing crap. Lame. Time to go outside!

Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach

i think that some one should know the real names of the d-day beaches like no one knows some one has to and id like to know but no one can answer it if you know please find a way to get in touch with me and tell me from: der giest

No. The Soviet Army was less than a mile from Hitler's bunker when he committed suicide. He didn't want to be taken prisoner by the Russians ... Moreover, he'd gambled everything and lost.

The U.S. Army. The Air Force was part of the Army until after World War II. The Navy was at sea and had a bigger role in the Pacific campaign against Japan. The Marine Corps was also concentrated in the Pacific. In addition, the Army was more suitable for fighting on European terrain, as they were able to use armored vehicles more efficiently as well has fighting at farther range.

The war against Japan appears to have been far more brutal, as American victory depended significantly on the Marine infantry themselves.

If you're talking about the European war prior to U.S. involvement, the Soviet Union (Russia) was already pushing westward towards and eventually into Germany. The U.S. wasn't directly involved until mid-1944. The war in Europe officially started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.

The Soviet Union took the highest casualties in the world and the war was already being won. From what I've noticed in my research, fighting on the eastern European front was far more brutal than the western front, where Americans were doing most of the fighting against the Germans.

So if you're asking who did most of the fighting in Europe before D-Day regardless to which front, your answer is the Soviet Union.

The reason was to break through occupied Europe. The allies tried breaking through Italy but noticed they had to go to France. So they invanded and landed the U.S. Army on the beaches of Normandy.

May 7th and 8th of 1945 the Nazi Germans surrendered to the Allied Forces. Field Marshall Montgomery signed the Instrument of Surrender with Admiral Doenitz. There are film clips of this signing you can see on history channel and military channel. In the related link below you can see photos and read the story of the surrender. It did not end the war in the Pacific at that time however.

The most effective small landing craft were designed by Andrew Higgins and built by his company Higgins Industries around New Orleans and Lake Ponchartrain. Over 2,000 of these versatile 36 foot boats were built.

The American Soldiers were involved in D-day because they were part of the Allied forces. The United Kingdom had fought the Germans prior to 1941 and the Allies needed more men and equipment to attack the Germans directly. The US provided men and ships and planes that was needed to fight the war. General Eisenhower was placed in overall command of all the Allied Forces that would be involved in the D-Day invasion. So the US had a primary role in the invasion and not just a support role. Custermen

In the summer of 1940, 338000 British and French troops were evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk in Northern France after having been thoroughly beaten by superior German Forces. It was one of the worst defeats the British Army has ever suffered but propaganda at the time made it sound like a victory. There is no doubt that the logistics of the evacuation were nothing short of a miracle.

1. U.S. soldiers used M1 Garand, Thompson M1, M1 Carbine.

   U.S. planes most prominently used were Vought F4U Corsair.

   Landing ships were LCTs, LSTs, and LVTs. (Landing Craft Tank, Landing Ship Tank, and Landing Vehicle Tracked)

78 British and Dominion officers of the rank of Brigadier General and above died on active service in the First World War while a further 146 were wounded. These figures alone show that, contrary to popular belief, British Generals frequently went close enough to the battle zone to place themselves in considerable danger.