Operation Overlord

Operation Overlord

The Allied position in early 1942 seemed unpromising. Hitler still had

all the ground he had obtained in his blitzkrieg campaign of the

previous five years and was gaining ground in Russia. The Nazis now

also had a large foothold in North Africa and were ready to seize the

oil fields of Arabia. Without large scale successful intervention by

the Western Allies (Great Britain, America and Canada) it looked very

likely that Nazi Germany would win the war.

1. GREAT BRITAIN took part in Operation Overlord for a number of

reasons. One such reason was pressure from other countries. As far

back as early 1942 Josef Stalin, Soviet Union premier, had requested

that the Western Allies of Great Britain and America open up a second

front in Western Europe to distract the German forces fighting his

troops in the East. This would give his Red Army a greater chance of

defeating the Germans and thwarting their “Operation Barbarossa”, the

Nazi plan to overrun Russia, destroy communism and exterminate the

Slavic peoples of the East. Operation Barbarossa began with German

insertions into Russia in June 1941. The German battle groups had

reached Stalingrad in Western Russia by August but had been held back

by a strong Soviet defence. Even during the Stalingrad episode it

looked unlikely that Russia would be able to keep the military might

of Nazi Germany from defeating the Red Army of the U.S.S.R. and the

Russian government was concerned that Moscow and St. Petersburg may be

overrun by the Nazis, resulting in the fall of the Soviet state. A

victory for the Russians and the failure of Operation Barbaros...

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...hey so desperately needed for a victory in the war.

Without liberating the nations of Western Europe winning the war and

ridding the world of Nazism was not a possibility. The entry into

France was the only way that such countries could be liberated and the

only way that Germany could be reached. Despite the loss of lives in

the battles for ground in Europe I think it should be regarded as a

success. The only possible way that Nazi Germany could be defeated was

through war and death is an inevitable part of every large war.

Operation Overlord provided a entry point for the Allies as part of

their campaign to return the world to relative normalcy. Had this not

happened it is very possible that the Nazis would have won the war and

many more than were killed in Normandy would have been killed in the

nations of the West.