D-Day: Three unique perspectives.
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The best known D-Day is 6 June 1944. This was the beginning of the Allied
invasion of Europe. It began with the landing at Normandy, France. Codenamed
Operation Overlord, the invasion saw the largest amphibious assault in
history in an effort to gain a toehold in Nazi-occupied France. It included
British, Canadian, French and American forces. After six weeks of hard
fighting, the Allied forces were finally able to break out of the Normandy
area.
Why was Operation Overlord and D-Day Important?Before Operation Overlord, Allied attacks against Germany and Italy had been in the south of Europe, far away from Germany. Overlord represented the first real threat to Germany’s control of Western Europe. It opened up a second major front against Germany and convinced Russia to remain in the war. Prior to D-Day the Russians felt that they were the ones doing all the fighting against Germany in Eastern Europe.The invasion of Normandy was also a means of countering Russia’s growing Communist influence in Europe. It was clear that Germany was going to be defeated at some future point. America and Britain were very concerned about what the Russians would do. The Russians might make a separate peace with Germany. This would leave Britain and America to fight on alone. Or Russia might successfully conquer Germany and control most of Europe. D-Day stopped this from happening. Operation Overlord put Russia’s fears to rest by opening a second front and eventually aided the Allies in stopping the spreading communist threat in Europe.
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