Is there something I don't know? Wouldn't be easier to be drop somewhere else? What was so important about that place?
2007-02-02 08:58:38 · 9 answers · asked by Shadow 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Military
Several reasons.
The other parts of the shoreline were too heavily defended for a landing to be sucessful, so they had no choice but Normandy.
They couldn't "drop" somewhere else; at that time in our nation's history, the only thing we could airdrop were troops and supplies. The heavy artillery, tanks, and support vehicles - plus the millions of tons of supplies that would be needed to support an invasion - could not be airlifted over for two reasons: one, we didn't have the aircraft to carry them, and two, we didn't have the technology to drop them without destroying them.
The only choice for the allies was an invasion at Normandy.
2007-02-02 09:03:41 · answer #1 · answered by Team Chief 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The entire coast was guarded by the Germans. There were only a limited number of places they could either dock ships or land troops with landing craft. The trick was to make the Germans they were going to land in one place, then land in another. It worked. Until it was too late, the Germans were holding troops in reserve because they thought the Normandy invasion was just a diversion and not the actual attack.
And FYI, there was also an invasion on the south of France which you never hear about. The idea was that if the Normandy invasion failed, they still had a foothold down south to work from.
2007-02-02 17:14:16 · answer #2 · answered by forgivebutdonotforget911 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One of the reasons Normandy was chosen was to wrong foot the Germans, who expected a landing around Calais, as it is the closest point to England. Also for the size of the invasion force they needed a large area to land so that the troops wouldn't bottleneck. The germans knew the allies would try a landing at some point on the French coast and so made sure it was heavilly fortified. No matter where the allies landed there would have been massive loss of life, however the Normandy beaches where the most accesable.
2007-02-02 17:05:41 · answer #3 · answered by sirdunny 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Germany had massive fortifications along the coast. The allies actually feigned an attack to another part of the coast to draw German forces up there, while the main force landed at Normandy. There was no other soft landing spot that was unguarded, seriously think about your question. The allies needed a landing spot near enough to the UK so that there was a base of operations nearby to support the whole operation (operation overlord). Look up all the facts in wikipedia.org.
2007-02-02 17:04:21 · answer #4 · answered by Dude 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They were looking for a place that was easy to get to from England as was also a strategic point to fight the Germans back. It would be way too difficult to land too far from England. It would also leave them too far from the main German army. There were actually closer spots to land, but the Germans were too strong there. There is a lot of stuff behind the D-Day attack. You should look it up on wikipedia or something.
2007-02-02 17:04:32 · answer #5 · answered by Take it from Toby 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go around to where? Russia? WAAAY to difficult.
Nothing was important about it, but they had to have a decent beach head to land on. Only trick was faking out the Germans as to where.
2007-02-02 17:01:49 · answer #6 · answered by MarauderX 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
why, because it seemed the most strategic spot, all the other spots were too heavily defended, and would have cost more lives.
2007-02-02 17:26:21 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go around ? Where ?
2007-02-02 21:21:16 · answer #8 · answered by blindogben 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it was all part of the ruse, read up on it yourself
2007-02-02 17:01:55 · answer #9 · answered by chumpchange 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋