D-Day

The success of D-Day can be attributed to the masterful planning of the Allies or to their incredible luck. Personally I belive that it is the result of there ingenious planning. The Allies knew that they had to invade France and had been planning the invasion for many years. They were aware that this would be no easy task as the Germans had been heavily fortifying the coast line of France. The Allies also knew of its great importance to the outcome of W.W. II. In the beginning stages of the planning for the France invasion the Allies went as far as to launch an intelligence gathering test mission known as the Dieppe Raid. It was a horrible failure and they learned that their intelligence was terribly inaccurate. However they also learned many valuable lessons that would help them with their “Operation Overlord”. The Allies’ plan of attack was extremely elaborate; it included the use of diversions, decoys, involvement of the French resistance and of course extreme secrecy. The attack on France was going to be so enormous that it was impossible for the allies to hide all of their equipment and therefore the Germans knew a large scale attack was coming. In order to trick the Germans and try and catch them off guard the Allies hid many of their ships and tanks to make it appear like their army was much smaller than it actually was. Another tactic that the Allied Forces used was distracting the Germans by placing fake tanks and guns across the ports of southern England, causing the Germans to believe that the attack would be from that location. The Allies also carried out many bombing runs across the beaches of France, in order to keep the Germans guessing. The hardest place for the allied forces to attack would be the beaches of Normandy because the water is often rough and land is uphill from the beach. The Germans would not expect an attack here and as a result that’s exactly where the allied forces attacked. The Allies also got the France resistance on their side and gave them targets to take out and capture as soon as they received their code which was often hidden in radio broadcasts. In order to make sure that the allied attack was kept secret, the invasion force was not informed of the plan until the day before the attack. There is almost no question in my mind that with all these and many other ingenious plans the attack on Normandy was a success. There may have been some strokes of luck that made it easier for the Allied Forces, however it was the planning that won the battle.