63 years ago, the largest attack was planned by the US...?

Question

How many lives were were lost and was it really worth it?

Remember, back then some people thought it was a bad idea to attack Nazi forces.

Answer 1

"How many Allied and German casualties were there on D-Day, and in the Battle of Normandy?"

" “Casualties” refers to all losses suffered by the armed forces: killed, wounded, missing in action (meaning that their bodies were not found) and prisoners of war. There is no "official" casualty figure for D-Day. Under the circumstances, accurate record keeping was very difficult. For example, some troops who were listed as missing may actually have landed in the wrong place, and have rejoined their parent unit only later."

"In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day."

"Total Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. British casualties on D-Day have been estimated at approximately 2700. The Canadians lost 946 casualties. The US forces lost 6603 men. Note that the casualty figures for smaller units do not always add up to equal these overall figures exactly, however (this simply reflects the problems of obtaining accurate casualty statistics)."

"Casualties on the British beaches were roughly 1000 on Gold Beach and the same number on Sword Beach. The remainder of the British losses were amongst the airborne troops: some 600 were killed or wounded, and 600 more were missing; 100 glider pilots also became casualties. The losses of 3rd Canadian Division at Juno Beach have been given as 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner."

"The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach."

"The total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4000 and 9000 men."

"Naval losses for June 1944 included 24 warships and 35 merchantmen or auxiliaries sunk, and a further 120 vessels damaged."

"Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the German forces during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket (August 1944) alone, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners."

"Today, twenty-seven war cemeteries hold the remains of over 110,000 dead from both sides: 77,866 German, 9386 American, 17,769 British, 5002 Canadian and 650 Poles."

"Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed, mainly as a result of Allied bombing. Thousands more fled their homes to escape the fighting."

"D-Day and the Battle of Normandy: Your Questions Answered", D-Day Museum, Portsmouth : http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm#casualities

"Casualty rates among all the armies were tremendous, and the Commonwealth forces had to create a new category - Double Intense - to be able to describe them. Manpower problems would plague the British and Canadians for the remainder of the war. Britain disbanded an entire division (the 59th) in Normandy and would later downgrade several more to non combat roles. Canada would bring about conscription for overseas service in November 1944, due to the losses in Normandy and later operations in the Low Countries (eg Battle of the Scheldt)."

"Battle of Normandy : Allied logistics, intelligence, morale and air power" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Normandy#Allied_logistics.2C_intelligence.2C_morale_and_air_power

The Normandy Landing diverted German resources and attention from the Eastern Front, and shortened WWII by about a year.

Answer 2

YES it was worth it. As to some thinking it was a bad idea at the time, hindsight is 20/20 isn't it? Imagine if you had asked this the day AFTER. That would have made for an interesting thing to look back at what was said.

Answer 3

You are talking about D-Day, but you not quite correct about the planning
It was planned by the Allies, mainly the Brits, but because of US involvement they had a large degree of input.
The invasion planning started after the fall of France, long before the US even entered the war.
The number of lives lost was well worthwhile as it liberated Europe from the yoke of fascism.

Answer 4

Are you saying that Operation Overlord, the military plan of the Allies to invade Nazi occupied Europe, to liberate the world from Naziism was a bad idea because you are saying some people think Naziism was a good thing to keep in the world?

Or are you saying there were problems with the plan, that it was dangerous for a whole range of reasons? Yes the plan was dangerous, Yes war is dangerous, but losing a major war can be far far worse than not fighting it. Exception being a war of invasion where if you lose, you are not going to see the enemy on your shores. For example the War in Vietnam was a mistake. Those people were fighting for their independence from Colonial France. By opposing that, we made the communists stronger in much of the world, prolonging the Colld War, and planting seeds for the kind of trouble we are seeing today with China.

But in a world war, like we are now fighting with Fundamentalists who use suicide bombing to try to save our souls, because they feel that is their only way to get into Heaven, we need to have really good plans by minds as brilliant as those who dreamed up Operation Overlord, and the associated plans to make the Axis think the invasion was really coming some place else. Currently we may be losing the war on terrorism, because we lack such brilliant plans to figure out how to end the war in our favor, and also seems to me about 1/2 the American public is in denial that we are even at war right now.

There is a similarity of strategic error between Vietnam and Iraq today. Political leaders in Washington DC are micromanaging the war, instead of telling the Generals what is needed, like was done in the first Gulf War and in WW II then let the professionals get the job done right. We won the first Gulf War and WW II because those wars were fought by military professionals who were given the resources they needed. We lost the war in Vietnam, and have similar mess in Iraq today, because the war is led by people who are as unqualified to be in charge of a war, as Hitler was unqualified to make military decisions in WW II.

Operation Overlord succeeded, partly because Hitler was to the defense of Nazi-occupied Europe, as Washington DC leadership was to running the war in Vietnam & Iraq today. I am not saying their morality like Hitler, I am saying their failure to delegate authority to military experts spells downfall of a war that will have devastating historical consequences.

I am glad Saddam is no longer the leader of Iraw, but there are other huge issues, too big to resolve here..

During WW II there were loyal people in opposition. But they were pacifists, they did not oppose national defense, they basically felt that they personally should not be contributing to the violence. Different situation today. There are an enormous number of people who either want bin Laden to be victorious, or who think all the bad stuff said about him is propaganda.

This parallels the plight of Jews in WW II. Many in Europe heard bad things being said about Nazis, thanks to the underground and military intelligence knowning exactly what was going on in the death camps. Yes there had been propaganda in WW I that was totally false, and this led people to believe that a lot of bad stuff claimed about people was just propaganda, false, so millions of people died in death camps, because they believed the good in the Nazis.

Answer 5

D Day, the invasion of Normandy.

Answer 6

i'm not sure how many where killed but i know there was a 1,000 casualties taken on Omaha alone. i think it was worth it just 6 weeks after D-Day we liberated Paris