What is the significance of D-Day?

Answer 1

The invasion of northern France from England was launched not in May, as its planners had initially prescribed, but on June 6, the famous "D-Day" of World War II. A huge armada had been assembled, including 1,200 fighting ships, 10,000 planes, 4,126 landing craft, 804 transport ships, and hundreds of amphibious and other special purpose tanks. During the operation 156,000 troops (73,000 U.S. and 83,000 British or Canadian) were landed in Normandy, 132,500 of them seaborne across the English Channel, 23,500 airborne. The beaches chosen for the landings stretched from the estuary of the Orne to the southeastern edge of the Cotentin peninsula, with the British and Canadians taking the eastern beaches and the Americans the western. The ground forces for the initial assault, under British Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery's direction, comprised: (1) the Canadian 1st Army under Lieut. Gen. H.D.G. Crerar, the British 2nd Army under Lieut. Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey, and the British 6th Airborne division; and (2) the U.S. 1st Army and the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions under Lieut. Gen. Omar N. Bradley.

Delayed 24 hours by bad Channel weather, the invasion began before dawn on June 6 with units of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions making night landings near the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, while British commando units captured key bridges and knocked out Nazi communications. In the morning, the assault troops of the combined Allied armies landed at five beaches along the Normandy coast code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. While four beaches were taken easily and quickly, the forces landing at "Bloody Omaha" encountered stiff German resistance. By nightfall, sizable beachheads had been secured on all five landing areas, and the final campaign to defeat Germany was under way.

Answer 2

D-Day was, and for all I know still is, a generic term for the day an invasion is to begin. The actual hour of the commencement of the attack was designated H-Hour.

D-Day has in common usage become a proper noun refering to the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944. The significance of that particular invasion was that it open up a second front in Europe, which further taxed the German army.

Answer 3

D-Day is a term used in military talk to identify the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be launched.
The best known, and most famous, D-Day is June 6, 1944 —
the day on which the Battle of Normandy began — and the Western Allied "liberation" of mainland Europe from Nazi occupation.

However, many other invasions and operations had a designated D-Day, both before and after Operation Overlord.

The invasion of France was originally planned for June 5, 1944 but bad weather and heavy seas delayed that.

The French call D=Day "Le Jour J " or, 'Le Choc". Because of its historical magnitude, military planners sometimes avoided the term. For example, Douglas MacArthur's invasion of Leyte began on "A-Day", and the invasion of Okinawa began on "L-Day". The Allies proposed invasions of Japan that would have begun on "X-Day" (Kyūshū, scheduled for November 1945) and "Y-Day" (Honshū, scheduled for March 1946).

Answer 4

The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between Nazi Germany in Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Over sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, still remains the largest sea borne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in the then German-occupied France. It is most commonly known by the name D-Day.

Answer 5

June 6, 1944 was one of the most important dates in WW2. It started the full-scale invasion of American and British alliance on the territory of occupied Europe. Although Soviet Union was already pushing towards Berlin and was keeping most of Nazi troops on the East borders, but when the invasion took place Nazi military machine was disintegrated. The resistance with the fact of invasion took a lot shorter period of time and as a result saved thousands or maybe millions of innocent lives.

Answer 6

D Day is a term used by the Military to denote day one of a specific event without revealing the actual date. The general population has adapted it in the same vein.

D Day, 6 June 1944 was significant for a number of reasons. It signaled a turning point in the war because although the Allies had invaded Southern Europe and Germany was engaged with the Russians in the east, this was a closer threat to the Home Land and required a third front lines of defense.

It was the first invasion to retake occupied territory in Europe and as such gave a tremendous boost in morale to the polulation of other occupied countries.

It was also verysignificant because of the tremendous loss of life in establishing the Beach Heads.

The operation required astronomical planning and an Army of Deception in Northern England, under the command of Gen Patton, to deceive the German High Command in the intended landing site.

The invasion required landing practice on beachs in South West England. This required the displacement of hundreds of English families and evacuation of towns. The exercises had to be conducted in complete secrecy even though it was not unusual for German Torpedo Boats to operate in the same area as the landing craft. (Note Added: This was called Operation Tiger with a casualty rate of nearly 1,000 troops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Tiger)

Upon landing and establishing a beach head supplies had to be funneled in at a rate never before seen to feed, fuel and arm the invaision force.

This huge logistic support effort even required the first ever international pipeline which was laid from England from huge spools of pipe mounted on barges. (I believe the operation was called Pluto.) The fuel was piped ashore in Normandy and then distributed to the advancing forces.

All supplies had to be supplied to the front from resources at the beachs. It would be like chasing a moving goal post.

Field hospitals had to be set up to deal with the wounded who for the most part would require evacuaton. As macabre as it seems, even the dead had to be processed by special teams prepared for the task.

The effort and sacrifice of that day may be why Cornelius Ryan, chose to call his book, "The Longest Day".

Answer 7

D-Day is the Day the allied forces, including Canadians, landed on the beaches of Normandy to try and defeat the Nazis then occupying France and most of Europe.

We remember it to honour all those who participated in this operation, and those who died there in particular.
Only a few of those who were there are still alive.

On the next D-Day, try and watch films of the event if you want to know more. Apparently, it was awful.

Answer 8

It was the day that Germany got a real clue of how largely they messed up. They thought that they had the whole world wrapped up in some neat little package. Then the whole world "showed up" on every beach front they thought they "owned". And that world took everything the Germans could dish out. And the world "WON"....this is from the granddaughter of a German soldier....
Word

Answer 9

The invasion of France by the Allied forces in WW2 which signalled the end of Nazi Germany

Answer 10

Most historians regard D-Day as the turning point of World War II