ia_2009_b_nacho

=B. Summary of Evidence (500-600 words) Tips]= On June 6, 1944 the most important anecdote in the London Late Edition of The Times was that the "city [of Rome was] now occupied by Allies," troops of the Fifth Army, Gen. Alexander’s troops together with the British Eight Army, were pushing upwards from the Mediterranean. A few columns to the right, “between 500 and 750 American heavy bombers” had bombed the “military installations near Boulougne and Calais.” June 6 1944 is nowadays associated with the invasion of "Hitler's European fortress" at Normandy, however the Allied Command had been very careful to keep this a secret, to avoid filtrations to the Germans, a secret that had been kept for more than 6 months and that had turned from an idea into the largest seaborne invasion of all times. " In November, 1943, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met together in Teheran, Iran, to discuss military strategy and post-war Europe. "  Stalin had requested a Western front and promises had been made for "landing troops in Western Europe in 1942"  (Operation Sledgehammer), and so at the turn of 1944 Stalin’s impatience was made aware during the conference reaching a deal that the Western Front would be opened in the spring of 1944 -the code name for the invasion of northwest Europe was Operation Overlord.
 * __ Introduction __**

Operation Overlord (was "postponed...from 5th June to 6th June" due to suboptimal meteorological conditions) consisted in the division of the Norman beaches into 5 landing zones, Utah, Omaha (US objectives), Gold, Juno and Sword (British objectives). There were 2 phases to the invasion, firstly the airborne operations "to capture key objectives, such as bridges and roads in order to reduce the enemy’s capability of a counterattack", taken ahead by the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions assigned to the west of Utah Beach and the British 6th Airborne Division assigned to the eastern flank of the beaches and the second phase which was the amphibious assault, it involved more than 5,000 ships. At Omaha 2 5 minutes after the hour H, the “entire first wave [was] foundered,” nevertheless the first wave managed to survive although in some companies up to "      half their number were casualties   ".
 * __The Development of the Invasion__**

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) was the Allied Supreme Commander and the Ground Forces Commander in Chief was the North African veteran Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976). Around "10 divisions of the USA, UK and Canada were there representing roughly 156,000 men with around 10,000 casualties on D-Day." On the German side, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (1891-1944), the Desert Fox, another veteran from the North African Campaign was in charge of the troops in Normandy and under command of the Supreme Commander of the West Gerd von Runstedt (1875-1953). On D-Day "6 infantry divisions, representing 30,000 men, where defending the first line in Normandy with around 9,000 casualties on D-Day".
 * __Forces Present__**



On one hand the Allies required naval and air superiority to make sure that the Invasion was successful. "15,000 aircraft were present in this operation, 5,049 fighters, 3,467 heavy bombers, 1,645 medium and light bombers and 698 combat planes for example to through torpedoes; 2,345 transport planes and 2,591 gliders. The Allied Armada had more than 5,000 ships many of these to transport and disembark the troops but also 8 battleships, 22 cruisers, 93 destroyers, 159 minor units and 255 minesweepers." On the other hand, on D-Day the German Forces had "128 fighters, 190 bombers and 115 transport planes". Many of the air units had been "destined to the Eastern Front and the defense of the Reich as a result of the allied bombardments on Germany". "The Kriegsmarine had 3 destroyers, 33 submarines and 38 minor units which did not represent a sufficient force to repel the Allied Armada." Nevertheless "Erwin Rommel had [prepared the beaches full of] traps which he called 'my inventions'," millions of mines and even remote controlled robots full of "high explosives and was intended to be used for multiple purposes " called Goliaths.
 * __ Armament __**