The invasion of Normandy, also known as D-Day, was a very bloody, yet crucial turning point during the Second World War for the Allies. It was a victory for the Allied forces that led to a series of events that ultimately led to the Axis Powers’ demise. This essay will explore how the successful invasion of Normandy was crucial to the victory of the Allies in World War II. The success of D-Day is the most important victory for the Western Allies in the entire war.
The first source that will be evaluated in depth is ‘The Normandy Landing’, written by Barry W. Fowle in the spring of 1994. The origin of this source is valuable because the author’s life spanned from 1930 to 2012, and he was a retired US Army, Lieutenant Colonel. He enlisted in the US Army Signal Corps in November 1948 and completed Officer Basic School in 1952, so he had his fair share of experience with the army during the time of the Second World War. In addition, he held a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Philippines, a Master of Arts degree, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland; all of which were in United States history. One limitation behind this source is that he never actually participated in the invasion of Normandy itself, so the information he gets from personal encounters is secondhand. Additionally, because he is so well versed in US history, that is the only perspective from which he writes, thus making it limited in scope. The purpose and content of this source are to give detailed information on the battle at Normandy beach in a textbook-like format. He provides pictures and illustrations to help give a better representation of what was being said, and all of the information presented is very technical. This adds to the value of the content because it makes it harder to misinterpret and has very little room to have a negative emotional influence. On the contrary, having zero emotional input on the facts may prove to also be a limitation because of the synthetic or robotic effect on how the information is presented.
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The second source that will be evaluated will be ‘D-Day at Normandy Revisited’, a journal article, written by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas D. Morgan. The origin of this source comes from Morgan, who was never deployed in the battle, but talked to and met a lot of veterans who were a part of it. He has written other journal articles about D-Day and used the encounters with the veterans who were there during the fight as information. “He (Morgan) holds an MPA degree from the University of Missouri and an MA degree in history from Pacific Lutheran University” (Morgan, 34). The value of this source is that it comes from a man who graduated from the US Military Academy and served in his fair share of military experience in Europe, Panama, and Vietnam. He talks to veterans who served in the actual invasion itself, so the information he is getting is from a first-hand account. However, one limitation is that the veterans are not the ones writing the information they are telling him, so it will most likely be missing some emotion or certain small details that only they would remember. The purpose and content of this journal article are to provide a first-hand account of what happened at Normandy and the details behind how it took place, the success of it, and give recognition to the heroes of the invasion. The value in this lies behind the idea that he wrote the sections that regarded the actual battle itself from words that came from people who experienced it themselves. On the other hand, this can prove to be a weakness because they may accidentally exaggerate things. This may be because their adrenaline levels were high and they were in a primal mindset with one goal – survival.
Normandy is a beach in France that resides along the northern coast. It sits right by the English Channel and is close to Great Britain. This battle that takes place on this infamous beach happens to be the largest amphibious invasion in history, taking place on June 6, 1944. There were more than 4,000 ships, 10,000 aircraft, and 135,000 soldiers; within a month these numbers grew upwards of one million soldiers. The US landed on five beaches along Normandy’s coast, nicknamed Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, and Utah. D-Day consisted of generally light casualties, except for Omaha Beach. The US was pinned at the edge of the water before their troops could get to cover. On every other beach, however, we essentially humiliated the German defenses and then took them over relatively quickly. The United States army was not the only army participating in this amphibious invasion, troops from the British Army and the Canadian Army also joined in on the fight. A big reason why this fighting took place is that Stalin, from the Russian side of the fight, had been pressing the United States and Great Britain to try and take over France so they could have another front after Hitler invaded Russia. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander in charge of all forces involved in Operation Overlord and the Invasion of Normandy.
This was a hard-fought invasion, and there are a few key points that really contributed to its success of it. The first key point in our victory is how much of a secret we kept from the enemies. The mission was nicknamed ‘Operation Overlord’ to help keep it a secret from the German forces. Another nickname we had was ‘Neptune’, which was what we used as the code name for the first phase of the attack. We knew that the Germans would be trying to intercept our calls, so we would talk about invading France at Pas-de-Calais to trick them and get their heavy weaponry off of Normandy beach. The final trick that we had confused the enemies with was the actual time and day that we planned on attacking them. We started the attack early in the morning while there was still enough fog and mist over the ocean, so they had a more difficult time seeing our ships and troops before we got close enough to the beach. Just for some extra security and cushion, we also had troops landing further inland on parachutes and hang gliders who were able to give us some help against the Germans firing a counterattack. The strategic placement of both our air and land troops was a good part of our success in this invasion due to the fact that it instantly gave us an advantage over the static position of the enemy.
This successful invasion holds great significance to the overall outcome of the war. The US gained a drastic advantage with a double-fronted war after France was successfully liberated, and France was actually one of the first Allied countries to be taken over by German forces. This was a big boost to the people of France’s confidence, which also helped with the overall morale of the war. A double-fronted war means that the attackers, in this case, the Allied forces, have an east army and a west army (or north and south, depending on the situation). This is exactly what Hitler did not want and was trying to avoid because he knew that once he was cornered, there would be nowhere for him to run. With two fronts to the war, the Germans could not completely focus their firepower on the Russian army on the eastern side of them. They had to spare some of their men to help try and defend their western side with France, which aided Russia in gaining the advantage that they needed to be able to get out of the stalemate they were having with the Germans.
Many historians believe that the battle of Stalingrad was the most significant victory of the Second World War. This battle took place from August 1942 to February 1943. At this time, the Germans are severely losing their men. Hitler tries to convince his man in charge, Friedrich Paulus, not to surrender; however, he surrendered the very next day. There were roughly two million casualties. At the beginning of this battle, Russia was actually losing badly and lost about 200,000 men total at Stalingrad. A lot of civilians did not get the chance to be evacuated, so they ended up dying or starving in the city. Soviet commanders knew that they were losing their position, so they planned a counterattack that would surround Germany’s army if done correctly. The Germans had no idea about this, so they continued to push through Russia’s defenses and fully insert themselves into the city. However, this is exactly what the Soviets wanted, and this is when they launched their counterattack and surrounded the German army. They eventually began to starve and die because of the harsh conditions of the Russian weather and were forced to surrender. By February 1943, Stalin had recaptured Stalingrad and also captured about 100,000 German soldiers, most of whom had died rather quickly. Zhukov is the man who planned the counterattack of the Soviet Union and named it ‘Operation Uranus’. It is known as the turning point in World War Two because it was the first major loss for Germany, they were in full retreat mode after they lost, Hitler and the Axis powers were forced to go on defense, Russian confidence was boosted, and the German Army was weakened. While all of this is true, the invasion of Normandy, France is still a more significant battle to the outcome of the entire war. This is because, while Russia did regain control over its capital and receive a confidence boost, this only granted help to them. When the US collaborated with our allies to take back control over France and gain that second front to the war, it helped everyone. It gave France their territory back, it helped take a lot of pressure off of our Russian allies, and it gave the Allied forces a place to stay for recovery and a place to station their troops. The victory at Stalingrad put some good damage on Hitler’s army, but it was only to the part of their army that was trying to take over the actual city itself. When Normandy was invaded and France was liberated, it took away an entire country’s worth of food, resources, and camps from the Germans. Although the Battle of Stalingrad is a very important victory for the Soviets, D-Day has an unmatched level of precedence for the entire war and all of the Allied powers together.
World War II was a hard-fought and bloody war for both the Allies and the enemies. There were countless battles that had great outcomes from them, but none come close to the battle of D-Day. This invasion at Normandy beach in France gave the Allies a huge advantage over Hitler and his army for several reasons. It turned the war into a double-fronted war for the Allies, boosted overall morale, and got the Soviets out of their stalemate with Germany. It is because of these reasons that D-Day is the most significant battle of the entire Second World War.
Finding sources that were scholarly and of good use helped teach me how to properly look for good sources. I was able to do my research the way a real historian would by examining sources and documents and determining whether or not they are adequate for implementation into my IA. Something that proved to be difficult was finding information that came from veterans themselves, and this would have been a great addition to my essay.
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