How much do you know about the details of the Normandy landing in history?

On June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious landing campaign in human history? The Battle of Normandy began. In this massive battle, many stories happened. The situation regarding the Normandy landings has long been known to the public, and most people can tell a thing or two. So, today we will take a closer look at some of the little-known stories of the landing battle.

First of all, the Battle of Normandy was the first battle in human history that relied heavily on weather forecasts to determine the outcome of the war. Originally, due to poor weather conditions in the English Channel in June, Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower originally planned to conduct a landing campaign on June 5. However, due to the persistence of Colonel James Martin Stagg, who was in charge of weather forecasting, he successfully persuaded Eisenhower postponed the landing by one day. It was this ingenious day that allowed the Allies to avoid extremely bad rainstorm weather.

What’s even more clever is that due to the extremely bad weather conditions on June 5th, German intelligence personnel confidently assured the top brass that there would be clouds on the 6th and there would be no possibility of any military action. This led the famous German general Rommel, who was stationed on the Atlantic Defense Line, to choose to go home to visit relatives on this day and give his wife a pair of shoes to celebrate her 50th birthday. This resulted in him being unable to conduct command for the entire day of landing. To some extent, it was the weather that helped the Allies.

Except for the weather, Hitler's own laziness also helped the Allies. Before the war, Hitler had already made a decision to place part of the German armored reserves on the coastal front and the other part on the coast. rear. To use the armored reserves in the rear to counterattack the Allies, his permission must be obtained. However, Hitler himself had the habit of staying up late. After the Allied landings, German intelligence personnel were supposed to report to Hitler immediately, but because Hitler was already asleep, no one around him dared to disturb him, resulting in several hours passing by in vain. As a result, by the time Hitler woke up, the German army had greatly delayed command. The armored reserves in the rear should have been mobilized long ago but were unable to move.

In addition, unlike many people’s impressions, the Normandy landings were not so intense across the board. The Allied forces selected five landing areas on the first day of the beach landing, codenamed after the beaches, from east to west: Sword Beach, Juno Beach, Gold Beach, Omaha Beach, and Utah Beach. The British army mainly attacked Sword Beach, Gold Beach and Juno Beach, and the American army mainly attacked Omaha and Utah Beach. Omaha was later known as the bloody battle of Omaha. The U.S. troops who landed in this area suffered extremely serious casualties, with about 4,000 casualties. Even 90% of the soldiers in the first landing force were killed, which shows how bloody it was.

However, the fighting was not so fierce on other beaches, especially in a landing area called Golden Beach. The Allied forces, mainly composed of British Commonwealth troops, only encountered slight resistance. Allied casualties were 80% lower than at Omaha Beach. Therefore, the luck of the Allied soldiers is also a very important factor. If they choose Omaha, they will have bad luck. If they choose Golden Beach, they will have good luck. The intelligence protection work of the Normandy landing campaign is talked about by future generations. The Allies used a lot of deception methods to successfully make the Germans mistakenly believe that Normandy was not the main landing battlefield. Even for a period of time after the war started, the German army thought it was an attack in the east and in the west. However, in order to prevent soldiers from leaking secrets, the Allies are also conducting some so-called loyalty tests for their soldiers. In order to test the loyalty of the troops, a British lieutenant colonel sent 30 of the most beautiful female soldiers of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force to a village where his subordinates were stationed. The only purpose was to seduce them to reveal some information about the landing. But as a result, no British person disclosed the information! I have to say that although the British usually act casually, they are still worthy of admiration when they are serious.