D-Day Turning Point

D-Day codenamed Operation Overlord, which began on June 6, 1944, was one of the largest amphibious attacks in history. By the spring of 1944, “More than 150,000 men, nearly 12,000 aircraft, almost 7,000 sea vessels,” were in place (Archives.gov). This invasion was led by the Allies with the goal of “liberating Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control” (History.com). For this, D-Day is now considered one of the most pivotal events in all of WWII as it was the invasion that required decisive strategy and execution, it would be a turning point in the war for the Allied powers, and this day would ultimately change the course of the war on all scales. In short, theoretically the course of the war rested on the outcome of this invasion.

The Battle

Although the Americans were not directly affected at the time, nightly bombing raids in London were causing much suffering in the area (aspistrategist.org.au). This alone likely diminished the confidence that the Allies would eventually be victorious. Given this, the victory of D-Day would play a major role in the Allies path to complete victory in the war. If the Allies lost this battle, there would have been extreme setbacks which may have drastically changed the outcome of the war. Luckily, they did win, heavily because of their strong logistical capability and air superiority over the Axis powers (historynet.com). The air superiority would not only allow them to have intelligence behind the enemy lines, but it would also allow them to take out the German forces that were being deployed on the ground. Therefore, these advantages would continue to play essential roles in the war from this day onward considering the Allies showed complete dominance in these areas. It was also a turning point in the war for them in the sense they now had a firm establishment in “Hitler’s Europe,” despite the fact the Allied powers failed to accomplish many of their goals (historynet.com). The inevitable strike into Germany's territory would cause a much longed for surprise among the

This day would heavily determine the future course of the war as it had originally been the Allie’s strategy “...To win the war in Europe before turning their attention to Japan” (aspistrategist.org.au). Therefore, the victory of D-Day played a massive role of allowing the Allies to turn their attention to Japan which was an emerging threat. If the Allies lost D-Day, this would have given Japan another opportunity to strike at the U.S since they would have already exhausted a majority of their troops and resources during the invasion of Normandy. It was also an essential day because the Germans were now forced to fight a two front war, similar to what they did in World War I (mtholyoke.edu). This was the mark of “the beginning of the end for not only the Germans but Hitler most of all” (mtholyoke.edu). The actuality that one event alone caused this much disruption among the Germans is absurd. This would foreshadow that the Allies had much more to contribute to war efforts acknowledging the fact they had done so much in just one day’s worth of effort. This horrid disruption of the Germans caused by the Allied invasion only took eleven days before German commanders, “Von Rundstedt and Rommel tried to suggest to Hitler that Germany should sue for peace with Britain and America—though not with Russia” (Howarth 250). This proposal created by the two main German