History isn’t always a pleasant thing or a nostalgic look at times past. Sometimes it’s a reminder of man’s inhumanity to man. On August 4, 1944, Anne Frank and her companions were discovered in the hiding place that had kept them free from the Nazis for 24 months. It was an anonymous tip that led to Frank’s eventual death of Typhoid in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp mere weeks before the camp was liberated by British troops.
It was a normal day for the hidden, the day the secret police banged on the front door of the building. An anonymous tip had told them of how workers brought supplies into the building and that there may be people, who should have left on train cars long ago, hiding inside. Early morning, while the workers were busy at their desks, the police arrived and forced Victor Kugler to show them the Secret Annex. Four days of interrogation followed.
By 1944, the bombing of German troops, towns and strategic locations had been going on for almost a year but the Allies had yet to launch a full ground invasion of Northern Europe. After much discussion and a number of different proposals, the Allied Powers decided on a coordinated attack beginning on the beaches of Normandy, France. What was to become known as the D-Day invasion was one of the most violent, dramatic and victorious moments for the soldiers and commanders of World War II.
D-Day didn’t happen overnight. Months before the scheduled sea and air invasion, British and American fighters had concentrated their efforts on weakening the enemy approximately a hundred miles around the beaches. Railway lines were disabled and German troops kept under heavy bombardment. The hope was that when the Allies did land the Germans would have difficulty defending the beaches, be forced to retreat and give up their occupation of France.
False information was sent to the Germans suggesting that the invasion would take place further along the coast at Calais, about 150 miles from the actual site. To increase the believability of the deception, American commanders had rubber tanks and planes manufactured and placed them on the English coast at Dover right across the channel from Calais. The dummy squadrons’ also convinced German leaders that the invasion force was much bigger and better equipped that it was.
The invasion was called Neptune, a part of the grander plan Operation Overlord and was commanded by American commander Dwight Eisenhower. Even though the hope had been to begin a few days before, bad weather delayed the attack until June 6. Warships, amphibious vehicles, planes, boats, ships and approximately 150,000 land troops and 11,000 aircraft took part in the initial invasion.
The Allies landed at five beaches: Omaha, Utah (American troops), Gold, Juno and Sword (British and Canadian troops). Planes dropped bombs, amphibious tanks rolled out of the water and parachuted soldiers charged the beaches. Despite the element of surprise and the coordinated attack, there were problems. The American beaches suffered the worst. Of the 10,000 plus that died that day, 6,000 were American. Bogged down by German defenses and troubled by miscommunications, many lives were quickly lost. Against all hope, the men fought forward capturing the beaches and wrestling command of France back from the Germans.
D-Day started on June 6, but the Allies continued to land troops and supplies along the Normandy coast until June 11. By that time, over 300,000 men, 50,000 vehicles and 100,000 tons of support and supplies had landed on the beaches. During the entire invasion 425,000 men were lost on all sides, making D-Day one of the wars most bittersweet successes.
D-Day was the name the British military gave to the day that the battles and invasions took place. After June 6, 1944 the term came to represent the invasion of France alone. Despite the overwhelming presence of British and American troops, soldiers from Canada, Poland, Belgium, Australia, Greece, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands also landed on the beaches that fateful day, giving both life and limb for the liberation of France and the defeat of one of history’s most notorious men. Adolf Hitler and the Germans never recovered from D-Day and a few months later, the concentration camps were liberated and the bloodiest war in history was at an end.
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