A brief introduction to the Normandy landing story?

The Normandy Landing Campaign, the representative of large-scale strategic landing operations, was a large-scale landing campaign carried out by the United States and Britain on the Normandy Peninsula in northwest France in the late World War II. Landing began on June 6, 1944, and a landing site was established on July 24. On July 25

, it began to attack on land, and on August 25, it occupied Paris and along the Seine River. The Normandy Landing Campaign was successful. It is of decisive significance for the allied forces of the United States and Britain to open up the second front in Western Europe.

In January 1943, the highest-level military conference of the United States and Britain in Casablanca decided to launch the landing campaign in northern France, and opened up the Normandy landing campaign, the representative of large-scale strategic landing operations, which was in the late period of World War II. A large-scale landing campaign was carried out by the allied forces of the United States and Britain on the Normandy Peninsula in northwest France. On June 6, 1944, a landing site was established. On July 25, it began to attack on land, and on August 25, it occupied Paris and the Seine River. The victory of the Normandy landing campaign was of decisive significance for the allied forces of the United States and Britain to open up a second front in western Europe. In January 1943, the highest military conference of the United States and Britain in Casablanca decided to carry out the landing campaign in northern France. The Japanese army was defeated in the Pacific theater; The German Rommel Corps also suffered a severe blow in North Africa. Therefore, the whole world war situation is extremely beneficial for the United States and Britain to open up a second battlefield on the western front. However, apart from the plan of forming a joint staff to carry out the campaign, the United States and Britain never took positive action in organizing the campaign. At the beginning of 1944, the German army began to retreat on the eastern front, and the Soviet counterattack was directed at Berlin. At this time, American talents appointed Eisenhower as the supreme commander of the campaign. Specifically organize the landing campaign. Therefore, the actual preparation time for the landing campaign is about 6 months. The troops of the US-British Coalition forces participating in the war are: the 21st Army Group of the Army, which governs three army groups, namely, the first American, the second British and the first Canadian. There is also the third American army group. After landing, it was co-edited with the First Army of the United States into the Twelfth Army Group. * * * There are 39 divisions, 1 armored brigades and 1 commandos (marines). The navy is composed of two direct escort fleets in the east and west, with more than 5, large and small ships and more than 2, merchant ships. The Air Force includes the Eighth and Ninth Army of the United States and the Second Army of the United Kingdom. * * * There are 12,837 aircraft of various types. The German troops participating in the war are: 43 divisions of Army Group B, and 17 divisions of Army Group G, which are distributed in the south and southwest of France. There are more than 3 ships of various types and more than 6 auxiliary ships on the western line of the navy. The Third Army of the Air Force has about 5 aircraft. The task of the landing operation of the United States and Britain is to land on the front of the 96 km from the mouth of Ona River to KuiNaville in Constantine Peninsula. First, a unified landing site was established in Shabao, Kern, Bayou, KuiNaville and other regions. Later, it developed in depth, taking the seaports of Cherbourg and Brittany Peninsula, and establishing an airport network on the east side of Kern, creating favorable conditions for the development of a large-scale land attack campaign. The German army suffered an unprecedented defeat on the eastern front and placed a glimmer of hope on the western front. The German high command believed that the landing of American and British troops on the western front might force the German army to collapse. But it may also be an excellent opportunity for the German army to turn defeat into victory. If the landing troops can be wiped out in one fell swoop, not only will it be difficult for the American and British troops to launch another landing campaign for a long time to come, but it will also make it possible for the German army to deploy 5 divisions from the western front to the eastern front to fight against the Soviet attack. Accordingly, the German army attempts to quickly concentrate all possible military weapons on the main direction where the enemy may land under the condition that the enemy has absolute air and sea control rights. So as to launch a decisive counterattack as soon as the enemy landed, and wipe out the enemy at the water beach in one fell swoop. The whole landing campaign went through three stages: surprise landing, consolidation and expansion of the landing site, and in-depth combat. The first stage: surprise landing. On June 1, 1944, the first echelon of the allied landing forces completed the preparation for boarding. At dawn on the 3 rd, all the assault transport brigades set sail from various ports and met in the southern waters of the Isle of Wight to form an assault fleet. On the morning of the 4th, due to the worsening weather, the Supreme Campaign Commander announced that the date of surprise landing was postponed for 24 hours from the original 5th, and recalled the fleet that had already gone to sea. On the morning of the 5th, the weather still did not improve, but in order to avoid losing tactical suddenness and affecting the morale of the army due to repeated delays, it was finally decided that the landing troops would make a surprise landing under unfavorable weather conditions on June 6th. All the surprise fleets once again concentrated in the south of the Isle of Wight, at 12 noon. Began to move into the intended target area. The mine-sweeping fleet sailed before the assault fleet and opened up 1 channels. During the whole voyage, the surface fleet was continuously covered by fighter jets. On the morning of the 6th, Three regiments of the assault echelon of the 82nd Division and the 11st Division of the US Airborne Forces started to land on both sides of the Kalentan-Cherbourg Highway in Saint-Man Eagles area and in the areas of Saint-Martin Tedelavel, Saint-Marie Dumont and Saint-Gom Dumont respectively. The advance assault detachment of the 6th Division of the British Airborne Forces landed in the area near Pi Nuo Ville by six gliders. On the night of the 5th to 6th, each assault fleet was 2-2 minutes away from the landing beach in the Seine. On the morning of the 6th, the transfer began. When the assault transport fleet was deployed and transferred, there were 1,136 British air force bombers, and they began to bomb 1 German artillery positions in the landing area in turn. The bombing aviation of the Eighth and Ninth Army of the US Air Force concentrated on more than 1,5 bombers, and made final aviation fire preparations for the German coastal artillery positions and coastal defense facilities in batches. Before the landing soldiers landed, At 6: 3 on the 6th, the first echelon of the 4th Infantry Division of the 7th Army of the United States made a surprise landing on the 2-kilometer-wide front of the "Youdan" beach. The German defense in this area was weak, the landing was smooth, and the landing field of the regiment was initially established. On that day, all three regiments of the division landed, and they got in touch with the Airborne 11st Division, consolidating the front 4 kilometers and the depth. After landing at Omaha beach, we encountered strong resistance from the 352nd Division of the German Infantry, which caused heavy casualties and was blocked on the beach. No progress was made in a few hours. The reserve teams of each division landed ahead of schedule and launched a fierce battle with the Germans. Finally, on the same day, they seized a foothold with a depth of 1.6 kilometers and turned to defense on the line of Viyeville and Attendance. The first echelon of the British army also established a division landing field on the 6th. After six days of fierce fighting, the allied forces initially established a beachhead position with a depth of about 1-15 kilometers on the front of 8km, and at the same time transported 326, soldiers, 54, vehicles and 14, tons of materials to land. On June 6th, the allied forces landed on the Normandy coast, which was completely unexpected to the Germans. It caused great confusion to the command and action of the German army. The German army failed to give an order to the armored reserve team to enter the landing site in time, and the reserve team was blocked by the Coalition air force when it entered, which lost the favorable opportunity and could not organize a strong counterattack. By June 12, when the Normandy German army thought that it was unable to recapture the occupied beach position and restore its original situation, it turned to defense in an all-round way and restricted the Coalition forces from expanding the landing site. In order to wait for more reserve forces to counter-assault. From June 6 to 12, the German army transferred 7 divisions, plus 5 divisions originally at the landing site, and there were 12 divisions, 8 less than the Coalition forces estimated in advance. During this quite long period of time, the main reason why the German army failed to transfer its main force to Normandy to carry out anti-landing operations was that it failed to really identify the operational intention of the Coalition forces. The second stage: the intention of consolidating and expanding the landing site is to cut off the Constantine Peninsula in the middle and prevent the Germans from reinforcing Cherbourg, and then concentrate on capturing Cherbourg and sticking to Kalantang to repel the possible counterattack of the Germans; Seize Gangcheng and further expand the landing site. On June 12th, the Seventh Army of the United States launched an attack from the Saint-Manyilis area to the west, and before 17th, it went out to the coast of the Dreyfus Strait. Then, it developed its attack to the south with some troops and to the north with the rest, and went out to the defensive contour of the port area and urban area of Cherbourg before 22nd. On 23rd, it occupied the German airport 8 kilometers east of Cherbourg and its nearby commanding heights. On 27th, the United States captured Cherbourg. At the end of June, the remnants of the German army in Constantine Peninsula were wiped out. On June 26th, the British and Canadian troops launched an attack on the German army in Laurie area to bypass Gangcheng, and quickly occupied two bridgehead positions on Laurie and Oden River. The German army was forced to put four armored divisions ready to carry out anti-assault into battle, which prevented the British and Canadian troops from attacking. After that, the First Army of the United States continued to expand its landing site and advanced 1-15 kilometers to the south. And occupied the transportation hub of San Luo. At this time, the British Second Army mainly concentrated on attacking Gangcheng. On July 8, with the support of aviation, the British army attacked Gangcheng with three infantry divisions and three armored brigades, and occupied the northwest of the city on July 9. On July 18, the British and Canadian troops launched a new attack in the east of Gangcheng with four infantry divisions and three armored divisions. After three days of fierce fighting, they pushed south. Completely occupied Gangcheng. From June 6 to July 24, the allied forces completed the establishment of the Normandy landing site, occupying the landing site with a front width of 1 kilometers and a depth of 3 to 4 kilometers, which basically ensured the need to gather troops and materials for the subsequent land attack, and was ready to attack the northwest of Germany on a large scale. Stage III: fighting in depth. By the end of July, the allied forces had concentrated 39 divisions of four group armies in the Normandy landing site. The British and Canadian troops contained the Germans in the southwest of Gangcheng, while the American troops carried out a major assault to the south in the area west of San Luocheng, and developed an attack on Hanhe and Lerne in Avran, occupying the brittany Peninsula. Later, they marched eastward, drove the Germans to the Seine River through Le Mans and Alancon, and occupied the northwest of Germany. The Seventh Army of the First Army of the United States broke through the German defense in an area of 8 kilometers and advanced 6 kilometers to the south. The Third Army of the United States went into battle in this area. At this time, the allied forces formed two army groups, namely, the first and third army groups of the United States formed the twelfth army group, the first army group of Britain and the first army group of Canada formed the 21st army group. When the third army group of the United States developed southward, the German army was strengthened by the infantry division transferred from Calais, and four armored divisions were drawn out. On August 6, the German army launched a counter-assault on Ai Frantsi from Vail and Moridan. The attempt to cut off the supply line of the Third Army of the United States was resisted by the US military, forcing the German army to give up its counter-assault. The 15th Army of the Third Army of the United States developed its offensive according to the changed plan, and captured Laval on August 6 and Le Mans on August 9, thus threatening the left wing and rear of the Seventh Army of the German army. At the same time, The Eighth Army also captured the entire brittany Peninsula except the ports of St. Marlowe and Brost. The British Second Army and the Canadian First Army occupied Pingsongshan Mountain on August 6, threatening the German right wing. At this point, the Coalition forces still decided to camp the Germans in the west of the city of Farez. The US 15th Army launched an attack from Le Mans and occupied Argent Tang on the 13th. The Canadian Second Army attacked in the direction of Farez, and the progress was slow. It failed to encircle with the 15th Army of the US Army at the same time. Most of the German troops in the encirclement circle jumped out of the encirclement circle of the allied forces and retreated in the direction of the Seine River. By August 19th, the allied forces had completed the encirclement of Farez and annihilated more than 6, Germans in the encirclement circle. All the army groups of the allied forces pursued the Seine River. On August 25th, they occupied Paris. After a month's fighting (July 25th-August 25th), the allied forces basically occupied the whole northwest of Germany. The whole landing campaign was carried out under the condition of mastering absolute air and sea control rights. The allied forces of the United States and Britain invested about 1.5 million troops on the ground. Four to five hours before the landing soldiers raided the land, the allied forces of the United States and Britain used three airborne troops. It set a precedent for large-scale airborne operations. In this campaign, 122, Americans and British soldiers were killed or injured, and 114, Germans were killed or captured. The Normandy landing campaign played an important role in launching a large-scale attack on the United States and Britain in Western Europe, accelerating the collapse of Nazi Germany and determining the post-war situation in Europe. It provides useful experience for organizing and implementing large-scale landing operations.