![]() Most of the Americans were packed into flat-bottomed Higgins boats launched from troop transports 10 miles from the French coastline. Hours later, the largest amphibious landing force ever assembled began moving through the storm-tossed waters toward the beaches. Their job was to blow up bridges, sabotage railroad lines, and take other measures to prevent the enemy from rushing reinforcements to the invasion beaches. Just after midnight on June 6, Allied airborne troops began dropping behind enemy lines. It was one of the gutsiest decisions of the war. The delay was unnerving for soldiers, sailors, and airmen, but when meteorologists forecast a brief window of clearer weather over the channel on June 6, Eisenhower made the decision to go. But on the morning of June 4, foul weather over the English Channel forced Eisenhower to postpone the attack for 24 hours. “We couldn’t wait.” Meanwhile, the American and British air forces in England conducted a tremendous bombing campaign that targeted railroad bridges and roadways in northern France to prevent the Germans from bringing in reserves to stop the invasion.Īllied leaders set June 5, 1944, as the invasion’s D-Day. “We were getting ready for one of the biggest adventures of our lives,” an American sergeant said. Trucks, tanks, and tens of thousands of troops poured into England. In the meantime, they prepared ceaselessly for the attack. (Editor's Note: This item was originally published June 3, 2016.At the Tehran Conference in August 1943, Allied leaders scheduled Overlord to take place on or about May 1, 1944. If you didn't know any of those things before today, now you do! But either way, make sure to remember those who gave their lives that day to help ensure a better future for all of us. military developed its own superior code machine - SIGABA - before entering the war. While controversial for its secrecy, the decoding process has been widely credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives and shortening the war by nearly two years. ![]() On D-Day itself, it also helped Allied commanders get word of their troops' progress quicker than through their own communication channels.īreaking Germany's codes, and later those of the Japanese, proved to be a huge advantage for the Allies. Officials said the German codes intercepted before D-Day precisely pinpointed nearly all of the German fighting units in the Normandy area. So for years, German plans were hindered by the decrypted messages, including on D-Day. Instead of telling the world about it, though, leaders thought the device would be more useful if kept secret. Early in the war, a team of Polish and British experts - led by Alan Turing, whose life and work are depicted in the Oscar-winning movie "The Imitation Game" - cracked that code through what became the foundation for the modern computer. The Germans had Enigma, which was thought to be unbreakable - until it wasn't. Long story short, since radio was the standard communication of the time, the Allies and the Axis powers both needed machines to turn military plans into secret codes. Decoding 'Enigma' Helped Us Winĭecoding the great German code machine known as Enigma, then keeping that decoding device a secret, is one of the most brilliant strategies that came out of World War II. troops managed to advance their positions for overall success. Omar Bradley, who led the Omaha forces, nearly considered abandoning the operation. Rough surf caused huge problems for the amphibious tanks launched at sea only two of 29 made it to shore, while many of the infantrymen who stormed off the boats were gunned down by Germans. The Omaha offensive turned out to be the bloodiest of the day, largely in part because Army intelligence underestimated the German stronghold there. Many also missed their landing spots, as did the seaborne forces, which landed more than a mile from their intended destination, thanks to strong currents. paratroopers died during their drop behind enemy lines at Utah Beach, having been shot out of the sky by enemy fire or weighed down and drowned in flooded marshlands. While the ultimate goal of liberating France and ousting the Germans did happen, a lot went wrong on D-Day - especially for the Americans, who were the first to launch the invasion.
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