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Introduction
Introduction
Are you ready to learn about war? Not just any war, but D-Day. If you are, you are in the right place.
D-Day is the day that the United States and its allies Great Britain and Canada started to gain back the lands that had been taken by our enemy Adolf Hitler. D-Day happened on June 6, 1944 and it was a turning point in winning World War II.
The Beaches of Normandy
The Beaches of Normandy
The Germans were in control of 50 miles of beaches of Normandy in France. Then the Allied team of the United States, Canada, and Great Britain sent 156,000 troops to win back the beaches in Normandy.
The five beaches of Normandy were code-named Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, and Utah. The Americans landed about 100,000 troops at Omaha and Utah Beaches. The British landed at Gold and Sword with about 60,000 troops, and the Canadians had about 20,000 troops landing at Juno.
This diagram shows the beaches of Normandy where the Allies landed on June 6th, 1944. The United States landed at Utah Beach and Omaha Beach.
A Dangerous Job
A Dangerous Job
It was a very difficult and dangerous job to land on the beaches. The boats had a lot of weight on them. The Germans were protected on the land, but the Allied soldiers were caught out in the open in the water and on the beaches. Also, there were many mines in the water that sunk many of the landing boats beach they even reached the beaches.
Many Allied soldiers were shot on D-Day. More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or injured during the first 24 hours of the D-Day invasion.
Paratrooper landings
Paratrooper landings
The early morning on D-Day, the US dropped hundreds of paratroopers from planes. Paratroopers were dropped far from the battle sites. Paratroopers jumped into land such as fields that our enemy was trying to block us so we could not go forward.
How We Tricked the Enemy
How We Tricked the Enemy
The Allies tried to use trickery so that the Germans wouldn't know that we were invading Normandy. For example, planes flew toward the port city of Pas-de-Calais in France. They dropped metal objects to confuse the Germans and make it look like there was a large group of planes.
Also, dummies were dropped from planes to look like real soldiers, and bombs were attached to the dummies. Fake the radio reports and inflatable tanks made to look like real tanks were also used to make the Germans think we were invading Pas-de-Calais in order to confuse the Germans and make them move troops away from our real target of Normandy.
Why D-Day is Important
Why D-Day is Important
D-Day was a deadly day. More than 9,000 Allied soldiers from the United States, Britain, and Canada were killed or wounded. Many brave and heroic soldiers lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy. June 6, 1944 was the bloodiest single day in the history of the United States military.
Although many soldiers were killed or wounded during the battles at D-Day, the invasion of Normandy was a big success. Once they took control of the beaches, the Allies were able to land 155,000 troops onshore in order to start taking back all of the lands and countries in Europe that Hitler had invaded.
Less than a year after the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, the Germans would surrender and the Allies would win the war in Europe. The brave soldiers who fought on D-Day made victory possible.
It was incredibly dangerous for the brave soldiers landing on the beaches of Normandy because of the distance they had to walk through the waves and across the beaches while under attack from the Nazis.
Landing Craft Vehicles (LCVP), also known as the Higgins boat, were used to carry groups of soldiers from the big ships to the beaches.
The Higgins boat could hold up to 36 combat-equipped infantrymen, and was defended with machine guns.
The United States dropped hundred of paratroopers on the morning of D-Day.
Planes were used to support the troops on the ground, and also as decoys to make the Germans think we were invading the city of Pas-De-Calais instead of Normandy.
Here is the gravesite at Normandy one year after the invasion on D-Day. A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on June 6, 1944, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.
After the D-Day Invasion, in the Battle of Normandy 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 were wounded.
Visit these sources to find more information:
Visit these sources to find more information:
Websites about D-Day:
The History Channel (Landing at Normandy)
The History Channel (Fooling Hitler)
Books about D-Day:
What Was D-Day?0 by Patricai Brennan Demuth
Remember D-Day: The Plan, the Invasion, Survivor's Stories by Ronald J. Drez
D-Day: The Invasion of Nrmandy, 1944 by Richard Atkinson
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