My Project On D-Day Essays - Operation Overlord, Operation Neptune

My Project on D-Day 1. In World War Two, until D-Day, the Axis forces in Europe, which were mainly Germany and Italy, had occupied most of the countries there. The main country that they did not occupy was the western part of Russia. 2. The Allied countries that attacked Normandy were: Great Britain, The United States of America, Canada and the remaining French forces that had evacuated when Germany conquered France. 3. The American General Eisenhower, who was given the overall command, first selected June 5th as D-Day, but there was bad weather so he postponed it for twenty-four hours. So D-Day was June 6th 1944. 4. The French coast was well defended by the Axis forces. Every possible landing place was defended with well-arranged obstacles; some were under water and many had mines attached. The beaches were all guarded by gun positions and concrete machine-gun posts. 5. The long-term goal for the Allies was the liberation of Western Europe from the Axis forces. The short-term goal for D-Day was to establish a beachhead. 6. When the Allies landed in Normandy, they divided the attack on five beaches. The Americans would attack Omaha and Utah, while the British would attack Gold, Sword and Juno. On Juno beach there were also Canadians soldiers. On June 6th at 2.00 a.m., 27,000 men were parachuted along the coast. At 6.30 a.m., the first troops and tanks landed on the Juno, Gold, Sword, Omaha and Utah beaches. The attack went almost as planned. The only little problem was at Omaha where a strong current carried away the small boats, and the German defence was stubborn. By the end of the day, all the beaches, except for Omaha had established a beachhead at least one mile deep. The Canadian 7th and 9th brigades had advanced the farthest of all the other groups