The Normandy Landings

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THE IMPACT OF THE NORMANDY LANDINGS ON WORLD WAR 2 The Normandy landings took place on the 6th of June 1944, D-day. It was the largest amphibious assault in modern history. It was one of the first times that Adolf Hitler had been caught by surprize.It was also one of the most important assaults in WW2 as it set the grounds for the defeat of Adolf Hitler and his facist regieme. Overlord states that In 1943 it was decided that General Dwight Eisenhower would be placed in command of the operation, while all three subordinate commands for operation Overlord where given to Englishmen: Sir Bernard Montgomery on land, Sir Bertram Ramsay at sea and Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory for air. Through the air force they came to the conclusion that beaches at Normandy would make the most ideal place to land. Although it meant that that the force would have to cross at the widest part of the English Channel, this disadvantage was far outweighed by the strategic value of the land. The German fortifications here were at their worst. As well as this the area around the beach could become an “isolated battlefield”. Voices of D-day explains how rivers surrounded the area around the beaches. Eisenhower believed that if all bridges in the nearby area were to be demolished then all German reinforcements would be temporarily stopped allowing the allies to establish a beachhead. Five beaches named Utah, Omaha, Juno, Swords and Gold were chosen as landing sites. According to BBC history since the summer of 1942 the Germans had been constructing the 'Atlantic Wall', a formidable complex of defenses running from the Franco-Spanish border to Denmark. All beaches on which a landing was considered possible had been filled with belts of obstacles and minefields and covered by machine-gun and mortar emplacements. Further back, bunkers of enormous strength at Merville, Longues and Pointe du Hoc on

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