FREE ESSAY ON D-DAY

D-DAY

In this book report I read the book D-Day and tells u about the 
time before and the grueling battles that led up to the most
memorable and most important day of this century, June 6, 1944, that 
was D-Day. Also I will mention key points and describe to you what 
intricate planning and grueling strategy that out smarted the German 
forces.
What really decided the outcome of the war was determined by 
three things the number of allies, the number of soldiers that where 
positioned right so that they could defend each area equally, but the 
problem with the German forces was that they conquered so much 
land that they couldn't defend it all and that was one main reason the 
they lost the war. The last main reason was who had more and better 
weaponry. Which the Germans had a big advantage for the first part of 
the war. The weapons that they had was the V-2, it was the worlds 
first medium-range ballistic missile, it wasn't military weapon at all, 
but a terrorist device. They also had invented the ME-262 twin jet 
fighter ready for serial production. Its cruising speed was 520 miles 
per hour, more than 120 miles an hour faster than any plane the allies 
could send against it, and it mounted four 33mm canon it was known 
as the Blitz Bomber . When Hitler saw the 262's capabilities he was 
very impressed, but he wanted something that could bomb London. 
Another big thing that the Germans used was the B-17 bombers. Hitler 
was very pleased with them and they were perfect for the 262's to 
escort them. For example Hitler used the B-17 at the raid of the Berlin 
March. He used 1,250 B-17 and had 14 groups of jet fighters (262's) 
and he didn't lose not one plane.
The Americans on the other hand had some weapon advantages 
that had been invented by the British, an American ally, that proved 
good in the long run such as the LST and the LCT. LST stands for 
Landing Ship Tank which was a big ship, as big as a light cruiser, 327 
feet, displacing 4,000 tons, but it was flat bottomed thus it was hard to 
control... it was capable of grounding and discharging Tanks and 
Trucks on shallow beaches. It could carry over a dozen tanks. The 
LCT was a 110 ft long. Capable of carrying 4 to 8 tanks across wide 
bodies of water, such as the channel, even in rough seas, and 
discharging its cargo over a ramp. When America came into the war, it 
took on that ask of al LST and most LCT production. In the process 
considerably improving the designs. The LSTs and the LCTs became 
the work horses of the allies, but the bad thing about them was that 
they were extremely slow, cumbersome, and very very easy targets. 
The Americans really didn't enjoy having this duty because it took 
away from a lot of guns and ammo supply. Winston Churchill 
complained with some hostility that " the destinies of two great 
empires..... seemed to be tied up in some g**d****d things called 
LST's" 
Another big factor of the war was the generals because without 
generals then you wouldn't of had have the brilliance behind the two 
sides plans of attack. The two soldiers were Dwight Eisenhower and 
Erwin Rommel. They were only born a year apart with Dwight being 
the oldest. They were both born in small towns. Eisenhower born in
Abilene, Kansas and Rommel on Gmund, Swabia. they were very 
athletic and were very active in there child hood so they were and real 
good shape. They also had there down falls like Rommel had a 
tendency for breaking the rules. Dwight's biggest down fall was that 
he was a constant smoker and he was smoking up to four packs a day.
Which he never quit, but despite that he was still a good leader, 
mentor, and father to these young soldiers. Lt. Ed There, one of 
Eisenhower subortinants, said quote " Our new captain, Eisenhower 
by name, is, I believe, one of the most efficient and best Army officers 
in the country..... He has given us wonderful bayonet drills. He gets 
the fellows imaginations worked up and hollers and yells and makes us 
shout and stomp until we go tearing into the air as if we meant 
business." (end quote) Rommel had a reputation of being a tough guy, 
but he still had people that admired him Rommel's regimental 
commander wrote of him in 1934 " Head and shoulders above the 
average battalion commander in every respect." In short it is that
general's are a big part of the soldiers life and how they treat the 
soldiers determines the way they perform on the field. 
The last thing that was a big thing was tact and I think that the 
Americans and there allies completely and without a doubt had better
tact 
and better execution on the battle field. For example By the end of 
1943 the allies had launched three successful attacks from water to 
land, North Africa (November 8, 1942), Sicily (July 10,1943), and 
Salerno (September 9, 1943) all involving British and American land, 
sea, and airforce under the command of Dwight D. Eisenhower. This 
might have sounded impossible because the enemy had a lot of 
volunteers from all over France, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, 
Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithunia, Asian Russia, North 
AfricaRussia, Ukraine, Ruthenia, the Muslim Republics of the Soviet 
Union as well as Volga- Tatars, Volga Finns, Crimean Tatars, and 
even Indians. 
JUNE 16, 1944 was the beginning of the end. That night before 
D-Day was where they transported over 2,700 ships and 176,000 men 
where carried that night with them. On D-Day the beaches that were 
stormed code name Omaha Beach, Juno Beach, Sword Beach, Gold 
Beach, and Utah Beach. 
When they were going to Utah Beach Col. Russel "Red" Reeder 
was commanding officer of the 12th Infantry, scheduled to land at 
1030. For the first four hours of the invasion he just sat there and 
watched and his hands didn't move from the telescope from the 
landing craft. He said that was the longest four hours in his life. The 
12th moved in and ran the beach while the 8th and 4th dropped in 
from planes and they took over the roads and bridges to the beach and 
they saved the men on the beach because they stopped gun trucks and 
bombs and it really saved the whole operation at Utah beach. The 
casualties of the fight was amazingly light only 81 were killed and 
only 106 wounded. That was one beach out of five beaches 1 captured 
4 to go.
Omaha Beach was the most important of the five missions 
because it was the most guarded and most wide open place so it took 
the longest. The biggest thing that kept the Americans from just all 
going on was that the Beach was made of special sand and it kept 
them from pulling up and driving out because the vehicles would get 
stuck and sink so there was a small area that was OK for driving but it 
was so small that it took the ships longer to move and unload so that 
really was bad. Everything the Germans learned in World War 1 about 
how to stop a frontal attack by infantry, Rommel used. He had every 
thing from angled firing positions, they had plunged fire, grazing fire, 
form all types of weapons. He had prepared artillery positions at the 
cliffs of the beach at each end. They had a trench system that really 
protected the Germans and still made it could kill the Americans.
The Germans were also surprised at this whole thing and couldn't 
believe how many ships and soldiers there were. The way they 
destroyed this presighted area was they would go in waves with 
infantry going first using guns, machine guns, bazookas, hand guns, 
and even flame-throwers. Then the tanks came in behind them was the 
tanks and jeeps and any other vehicle. That pushed the Germans back 
to the villages, but then out of no where more German guns start to fire 
and it pushes us back and so the keep fighting back in fourth and they 
used the navy and they said it was utter chaos and it wa but after 3 to 
5 hours of shooting and bombing and killing the U.S. finally captured 
Omaha beach.
The Underwater Demolition Team men and the Royal Engineers 
began to touch down on Gold Beach at 0735. The British was going to 
take this one and so they did. On this beach was a lot of houses that 
could be burned by blowing them up and so they did, But the Germans 
had a surprise and it was snipers that mainly concentrated on the UDT 
and they did. After they got the snipers they had a lot of fighting and 
The British had taking Gold Beach. The last two beaches were Juno 
and Sword were both taken and D-Day was a success for the 
Americans and the Allies.
Like I said in the beginning in the introduction was that the 
reason for Germanys down fall was that they had conquered all this 
land and couldn't even defend it all so they spread them selves thin
and 
was easy pickings and I think that was Hitler's only mistake he made 
through out the whole war. He had good planning but that one little 
detail costed him. I loved reading this book and it was very interesting 
and I recommend it to anyone who likes war. I will leave you with
this.
Hitler's spiritual mentor, Frederick the Great, had warned him when
he 
first started and he said quote " He who defends everything, defends 
tb
nothing."