1. D Day-June 6, 1944
It was the pivot point of the 20th century. It was the day on which the decision was made as to who was going to rule in this world in the second half of the 20th century.

2. The Need to Land in Europe
Open a second front to relieve the Soviets
Put supply pressure on Nazi Germany who was still producing mass amounts of goods
Go on the offensive and turn the war on Hitler

3. Where to go? The Atlantic Wall ran from The North Sea to Spain
Calais
Shortest distance across the English Channel
Calmest seas, less weather restrictions
Germans had their best troops there
Normandy
Long stretch of beaches heavily defended by cliffs
Open water, so weather a factor
Less German forces

4. The Atlantic Wall
How does Ambrose describe the wall?

5. Preparation Patton sent to England to command rubber army
4,000 ships assembled
1 million Allied Soldiers
Over aircraft
3500 gliders
6500 landing craft
200,000 vehicles
600,000 tons of supplies

6. Deception
The Allies had to make the Germans think we were attacking at Calais
Put rubber 3rd Army into action complete with fake orders and communications
Used double agents and fake radar reports
Bombed in North to make it look like we were attacking there.
Monitored German communications

7. June 5th
Weather was still poor and their was a full moon and spring tides, but it was cloudy
It was now or much later
Ships set out
Paratroopers were dropped(US 82nd and 101st)
German radar was jammed.

8. June 6th 6:30 was H-hour Amphibious forces landed on beaches
Gold—British
Juno—Canadian
Sword—British
Utah—American
Omaha—American

9. German Forces Utah, Juno, and Gold were less fortified than expected
Omaha and Sword were heavily defended

10. What we found: Germans in pill boxes on cliffs
Anti-tank, ship obstacles
Thousands of mines
Some areas flooded
Roads to top of cliffs were heavily defended

11. The landings Most landing missed mark—East
A lot of the first wave had trouble getting off the ships
Eventually by the end of the day, all units had broken through the Atlantic wall.

12. The Aftermath Casualties American German 10,000/ 2500 dead
Utah Beach=197 and Omaha=2000
German
12,000

13. Issue with Stats
Stats are confusing because of the nature of war and also, Operation Overlord took months of bombing and fighting before June 6th and months of fighting after the initial invasion.

14. What Now
Over the next few months, the troops that landed drove inland to rallying points.
Paris was liberated on (Date)
Patton was given the 3rd Army and tore through Europe
Germany was on the defensive, America had learned to use the great arsenal of democracy