ia_2009_d_nacho

=D. Analysis (500-650 words) Tips]=

The significance of D-Day at the time was the crucial turning point in the development of the war and on an ideological level it was head-on confrontation of the democracies against the dictatorships. D-Day was one of those episodes in history which provides many lessons for us now, through D-Day we learned that sacrifice is needed in order to preserve the liberties and freedoms of the people and races, we learned to cooperate even if there were differences in religion, language or culture because as a special correspondent of ‘The Times’ at an English Port, June 5 said, “This is not only the greatest combined operation of history, but in all its aspect it is the greatest united effort ever to be undertaken.” However it is the way in which these lessons are transmitted to the new generations that interests this investigation, the significance today is that our technology allows us to transmit these experiences in new ways for example videogames. In the game we are shown that the invasion was the amphibious assault on the beaches of Omaha. In some aspects this is accurate, the Able Company, the company which the game focuses on did fight at Omaha beach. In other aspects it is inaccurate the parachutists which were dropped on the flanks of the beaches are mentioned but there is no mission in which you can experience what happened. The reason the game is inaccurate is that since Operation Overlord was such an broad project it would be very difficult to thoroughly deal with every aspect of the invasion; what games tend to do is to concentrate on certain fragments of the operation having in mind that there are many other games out in the market which deal solely with the parachutists, this way they also make sure that if you did like their game on the beach landings you will go out and buy another one from the same producers on the paratroopers. In the game we are shown the D-Day landing at Omaha through the Able Company, the first wave is completely obliterated and we have to make sure that the second wave makes it. In some aspects this is accurate "Company A of the 116th was due to land" at Omaha ; however in other aspects it is inaccurate, the Able Company landed with the first wave and managed to survive although "estimates of its casualties range as high as twothirds" 
 * __ The Development of the Invasion __**
 * __ Forces Present __**
 * // Introductory video: First wave of troops landing at Omaha in the game // ||

In the game we the Allies have access to infantry units, some air support, paratrooper support, commandoes, engineers, and Shermans (tanks), some with special devices to get rid of mines; meanwhile the Germans have access to diverse armament such as Panzers, a special unit similar to the commandos, the normal infantry and anti-tank weapons but no air support. In some aspects this is accurate for the allies, in terms of the Air Force, had air superiority; in terms of the Army, they had infantry, commandos (Rangers), engineers and tank divisions eventually landed at Normandy. As for the Germans, it is true that they had no air superiority and this is clearly represented in the game as also are the defenses on the beaches since we are able to recognize some of Rommel’s ‘inventions,’ however what is most surprising is that this game is the first one to have researched and included the Goliaths (the remote control robots). In other aspects it is inaccurate; the scale of the forces both for the Allies and the Germans is much smaller than the real forces present (156,000) and so there is a limit to how many troops you can deploy. For the Allies, there is little air support and no naval support having in mind the enormous superiority they had. As for the Germans, they had no units of experience because the divisions deployed in Normandy (15th and 7th) had too many "limited employment divisions" many were mainly old men and young children since all the more able men where at the Eastern Front. The reason the game is inaccurate is firstly, when looking at the number of troops, that the game would require more memory from the computer which would slow down game and so it would not be accessible for those users that do not have an excellent hardware; as for the lack of experience in the German forces, as with every other game, there are different levels of difficulty to chose from, therefore imposing a smaller AI [|[1]] onto the German side would not have any effect when the difficulty changed.
 * __Armament__**