D-Day

Can the success of D-day be attributed to masterful planning or to sheer luck?

Plan of the D-Day Invasion

I believe the success of D-Day was the result of much skilled planning and preparation. The Allies had been organizing D-Day for over two years and developed many intelligent tactics which gained them advantage during the attack. The Allies created many decoys with the goal of confusing the Germans on where the actual attack would take place. They decided to try to trick the Germans into thinking they would be bombarding Pas-De-Calais. This plan went under the code name "Fortitude South". Though not the most well known fact about the D-Day invasion, I believe that this stragedie was essential to its sucess. To further mislead the Germans a fake invasion force was built in Kent. The Allies built fake tanks and air crafts as well as filled harbours with imitation landing crafts. From a German aircraft's perspective it all looked very realistic as the Allies were very detailed and even gave the impression that the fake camp was trying to camouflage theselves. The Germans were concerned about this growing Allie army and tried to find out more. Expecting this the Allies used double agents which planted stories and fake documents to German spies. They also sent out pretend radio messages to give the impression of a working army. The Allies thought of every detail to fool the Germans and their effort paid off. The Germans kept many of their troops in Pas-De-Calais which they fully thought the main attack would be. To further convince the Germans, the Allies dropped foil from the sky on the day of the attack to give the illusion that planes and ships were coming from Dover. This plan worked so well that the Germans thought that the attack on D-Day was just a diversion and they kept many tanks and troops back at Calais to wait for the 'actual' attack.

Birds eye view of the fake invasion force

Another plan by the Allies was that they sent fake parachuters into German territory. This was very clever because not only did the Germans fall for this but they also began doubting which attempts were real so many Allied troops were able to enter German area. The Allies also weighed each decision they made carefully. They thought of the many possible outcomes to their actions and how to successfully handle them. The used passed failures such as the Dieppe Raid to help them better prepare for D-Day. Many different types of specialized armoured vehicles where developed by the British after Dieppe to allow engineers to accomplish almost all their tasks under armour. These vehicles were very useful during D-Day. Improvements were also made to communications and bigger ships were built for support. It took much carefull preperation before the Allies executed their attack on Normandy and though there were many casulties because of this threrough planning the Allies succesfully invaded Normandy.

"According report hitherto reliable source [sic]. American troops concentrating on large scale in Southampton area. Report appears trustworthy and fitted in with plans connected with the regrouping of FUSAG*."

An actual message from the Germans (intercepted by the British) about the imitiation invasion force.

."I have decided to reinforce the defenses in the West, particularly at places from which we shall launch our long-range war against England. For those are the very points at which the enemy must and will attack; there-unless all indications are misleading-will be fought the decisive invasion battle."

A message from Hitler proving he belived the attack was to be near Pas-de-Callais.

Quotes gathered from www.utexas.edu

* FUSAG: First U.S. Army Group a mainly inactive group after June 1944. Was used to further convice the Germans of an attack at Pas-de-Calais