D-Day

Author: [British] Fuller, translated by Zhang Guoliang, Lü Shengli, and Wang Yonggang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-06-01
Features: General Eisenhower of the United States was appointed as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces. Nearly 3 million Allied land, sea, and air troops gathered on the island of Britain, preparing to cross the English Channel, land on the European continent, open a second front, and coordinate with the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front to encircle and attack the German army. This large-scale operation was codenamed "Operation Overlord." The Allied General Staff thoroughly analyzed the intelligence on the German defenses along the Western coast of France provided by French guerrillas and intelligence operatives, combined with other conditions, and decided to choose Normandy in the northwest of France as the landing site. However, how could the Allies mislead the German army, which had already deployed heavy forces and was fully prepared, so that they would not know the Allies' actual landing site? The Allies set up a "deception operation": props such as "landing craft," "ammunition depots," "hospitals," "barracks," and "aircraft and artillery" were designed by British film studio set designers and placed along the southeastern coast of Britain; Allied intelligence operatives began collecting detailed maps of the Calais coast in France from neutral countries; British architects constructed "oil tank docks" in prominent coastal areas, equipped with power plants and oil storage tanks, etc. Additionally, a "million-man" army was transferred to the southeastern coast, ready to attack Calais. The news quickly reached the Western Front command of the German army. "It seems certain that the Allies will land at the Calais coast!" General Rommel, who had been summoned by Hitler to command the defense, confidently concluded. He immediately ordered the strengthening of the defenses along the Calais coast. Within days, the seabed was littered with mines, coastal fortifications were built, anti-tank traps and trench fortifications were laid out. Hitler also concentrated the elite 15th Army Group in this area, placing it under Rommel's command. Calais had become a solid link in the German army's Atlantic Wall. Rommel was extremely proud and confident. The Allied million-man army was now ready to land at Normandy. The scheduled landing date was June 6. Meanwhile, on the other side of the English Channel, Rommel was preparing to drive back to his home in Germany to give his wife Lucy a birthday gift—a pair of beautiful women's leather shoes he had bought in Paris. Sitting in an open-top car, he looked up at the sky, where dark clouds gathered and the wind howled. The Air Force weather station reported that the weather in the English Channel had been for the past few days. Such bad weather would make it impossible for the Allies to launch a cross-channel operation. Rommel felt there was no need to worry about the situation. He was also planning to visit Hitler in Berchtesgaden the next day.
On the morning of June 6, over 3,000 British and American transport aircraft and gliders carrying three airborne divisions took off from 20 airports in Britain, flying toward the Normandy coast of France. Four thousand ships and countless landing craft, under the cover of aircraft, left the heavily camouflaged British Southern Coast base. The famous "Normandy Landing" began! At this point, the German army was still in the dark. While the German Western Front commander von Rundstedt was sleeping, he received an urgent report from the Normandy front: "A British and American air force unit has landed—it appears to be a large-scale operation." He replied casually: "Don't be alarmed. Airborne troops are a common tactic used by the Allies for deception and feints—they won't be a large-scale operation." At dawn, 1,136 aircraft of the Royal Air Force dropped 5,853 tons of bombs on 10 German coastal fortifications that had been selected in advance. 1,083 bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force then dropped 1,763 tons of bombs on the German coastal defenses. Allied aircraft of various types bombarded coastal targets and inland artillery positions repeatedly. The sun rose, and the Allied naval battleships began firing at the German coastal positions.， sun, turning the vast sky red. The Normandy beaches became a sea of fire, shaking the earth. At 6:30 a.m., the U.S. Fourth Division landed on the Normandy beachhead. At 7:20 a.m., Montgomery's British Second Army also landed on the coast. Follow-up troops and equipment continued to arrive. Rommel, who was at home, received the news and immediately canceled his plan to visit Hitler, driving back but only arriving at the Western Front command headquarters in the afternoon. von Rundstedt and several German generals anxiously reported the situation to Hitler, requesting approval to urgently transfer two elite tank divisions to Normandy. Hitler replied that these two tank divisions could not be moved rashly and that the situation should be waited out. After speaking, he went to bed for a nap. Despite the constant emergency calls from the Western Front, no one dared to disturb him.
At 3 p.m. that afternoon, Hitler woke up from his nap, and the front reported: "The Allies have landed large numbers of troops and have advanced several kilometers inland." Only then did Hitler wake up. He hastily approved the deployment of armored divisions to support Normandy and issued orders: "We must eliminate the landing enemy and recapture the beachhead before evening." However, it was too late! By evening, the Allied forces that had landed in Normandy had established solid positions. By midnight, nearly 10 divisions, along with tanks, artillery, and other weapons, had landed, and follow-up troops continued to arrive.
On June 12, the Allied forces in Normandy linked up at several beachheads, forming a continuous line. Hitler's vaunted "Atlantic Wall" had been breached! From then on, Fascist Germany was caught in the pincer grip of the Soviet Union and the Allied forces of Britain and the United States, accelerating its path to ruin. Stalin highly praised the Normandy Landing operation, saying: "In terms of its scale, grand design, and outstanding execution, there has never been an undertaking in the history of war that can compare to it." "History will record this achievement as one of the highest accomplishments." Normandy Landing uses accurate and detailed primary sources, clear and realistic battlefield photographs, comprehensive and authoritative historical documents, as well as the accounts and memories of those who experienced the war on both sides, vividly recreating the bloody battle scenes of the Allied advance and liberation of the European continent in days of war, taking us back in time to June 6, 1944—the 'decisive 24 hours' predicted by German Army Rommel and the 'longest day in history' called by Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower.