What's Operation Overlord like?

As early as July 194 1 year 18, Stalin raised the issue of opening up the second battlefield in Europe with Churchill. For various reasons, it was not until 1943 that the Allies were able to open up a second front. But at that time, attention was still focused on North Africa, and then Sicily was hit hard. The weather in the Atlantic Ocean was only allowed to land in the months around summer. In this way, the leaders of the United States and Britain had to postpone this decision on the course of the war until the summer of 1944. 1943 In May, Britain and the United States named the action of crossing the English Channel "Overlord" at the meeting code-named Trident held in Washington.

1June 4, 944, the long-simmering "overlord" operation began, and the allied commander Dwight? d？ General Eisenhower issued a statement saying: "The Allied Navy, under the cover of a powerful air force, began to send allies to the northern coast of France." The day passed slowly, but the actual number of people who landed has not been announced. However, their landing position is gradually known. Many people landed near Caen, 65 miles southeast of Cherbourg. A German communique said that these people landed at the mouth of the Seine River. Four groups of liberation fighters were led by thousands of paratroopers. They jumped off the C-47 transport plane with ammunition and equipment tied to their backs or chests. Some paratroopers will act as infantry behind enemy lines. The others are engineers, and they will occupy the German airport. If it fails, they will build a new landing airport. More than 900 tractors and gliders from the Transport Command of the Ninth Division of the Air Force sent 1 soldiers ashore. Armed with weapons and military supplies, these attacking troops waded the last few yards, drenched in seawater and sweat. Next to it are jeeps, cannons and huge petrol tanks. The third and fourth batch of liberation fighters are scheduled to arrive tonight and tomorrow. As the Germans strengthened their defenses, these soldiers had to fight a harder battle. As predicted by Eisenhower and another commander, the Nazis began to retaliate. As expected, 2% to 3% of the allied planes were shot down. The Germans added searchlights, and 20 mm cannons were used against one army after another. Machine guns constitute the Nazi's main ground defense weapon, but there are also some primitive combat tools. The allies found many sharpened stakes buried in the beach battlefield. Eisenhower made a speech to the people of Western Europe on the morning of June 4th. Most of what he said was aimed at the French, and he admitted that the French bore the brunt of the joint attack. He praised their army and then turned his attention to the French people. He announced, "French citizens! Since the first landing took place on the territory of your, I would like to reiterate my message to the people of other occupied countries in Western Europe and follow the instructions of your leaders. At this critical moment, the immature uprising of all French people will hinder the greatest assistance to your country. Be patient and get ready ... This landing is only the beginning of the war in Western Europe. Large-scale fighting is still behind. I call on all those who love freedom to stand with us. "

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the campaign, the allies stepped up the transportation of troops and munitions from Britain and the United States to the occupied landing sites through the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, defending the traffic line has become the main task of the allied navy. To this end, the Allies increased 15 ~ 20% of the troops defending the traffic lines, including 103 escort carrier, 65438 escort destroyer and fleet destroyer, 5 15 frigate, more than 3,900 other patrol ships and minesweepers, more than 100 submarines and 395,500. At the same time, it also strengthened the vigilance against the escort fleet, tightly blocked the German submarine base, bombed the German shipbuilding industry center, and launched a limited attack on the German maritime transport line, further curbing the German navy's combat operations.

By the beginning of June, 1944, the German navy had eight submarine detachments in Brost, Laurian, San Nazaire, Lapris and Bordeaux in the Bay of Biscay, with about 100 submarines. In the Battle of Normandy, the Germans sent submarines to the English Channel to participate in anti-landing operations. Due to the small number of submarines invested by the Germans, the late deployment, low technical performance and lack of support from other forces, it did not have a significant impact on the entire anti-landing campaign. In August, when the allied forces rushed inland from Normandy, the German naval command ordered some submarines from the French coastal base to be transferred to bases in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and Norway. On August 25th, the German army cancelled the headquarters of the Western French Navy Group. After that, German submarines had to enter the allied navigation area from Germany or Norway via Scotland and Northern Ireland, while Britain deployed a powerful anti-submarine defense belt in the Orkney Islands-shetland islands-Iceland waters. This allows German submarines to stay at sea for an average of 37 days and nights, and only 9 days and nights can be active in designated waters. But also because German submarines are concentrated in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Norwegian bases, they are often bombed by allied air forces. It can be seen that the German submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean was restricted by the allies to some extent, and it was no longer possible to carry out powerful destructive actions against the Atlantic communication lines of the allies.