D-Day Operation Overlord - Allied Invasion of France

1. D-Day Operation Overlord - Allied Invasion of France By Ibrahim Adams

3. Allied Landings

4. Background Information • Operation Overlord was the codename for Allied Invasion of Northwest Europe • The assault phase of Operation Overlord was known as Operation Neptune • Operation Overlord began on D-day and continued until Allied Forces crossed River Seine on August 1944

5. Background Information Cont’d • June 6th 1944 close to 200,000 troops landed along a 50 mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. • General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the Operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory”. • More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircrafts supported the D-day invasion. • By days end on June 6th, the Allies had gained a foothold in Normandy. • The cost of D-day was high, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed/wounded.

6. Actors • The assault was conducted in 2 phases • Air Assault • Amphibious Landing which Included infantry & armored divisions on the coast of France. • The landings took place along a 50 mile stretch divided into 5 sectors. Utah, Omaha, Juno & Sword. • The actors on the Allied side were: American, British, Canadian & French troops.

7. Motives • The objective of the operation was to make an enclavethat was anchored in the city of Caen. • The believe was that as soon as Normandy could be secured, the Western European campaign and the downfall of Nazi Germany could begin.

8. Interesting Facts / German Defense • By 1944, Nazi Germany’s military forces had reached its peak • By D-day, 157 German divisions were stationed in the Soviet Union • 6 were stationed in Finland, 12 in Norway • 6 in Denmark, 9 in Germany • 21 in the Balkans, 26 in Italy & 59 in France, Belgium & the Netherlands • German defense had large bunkers containing machine guns & high caliber weapons • The also used cliffs and hills to gain height advantage • It is also said that their defenses were built and honed over a four year period • It is obvious that the Germans were spread thin.

9. German Defense Cont’d • Germans utilized the Atlantic wall • Coastal fortifications built by the German 3rd Reich to defend against Allied invasion • Barbed wire • Thousands of mines to deter landing crafts/ships

10. Games Played (Deception) • Deception - Various factions of French resistance were alerted of when to attack by BBC broadcasts from French service in London. • Meaningless messages were sometimes sent with a few actually carrying a true message. • Codenames were used to refer to various Operations in the invasion • A deception operation called Operation Fortitude was conducted months leading up to the invasion to mislead the Germans regarding the day and date of the invasion • The amphibious landings; the 5 beaches being named

11. Games Played (Pre-emption) / Pre-emptive attack • The action of the Allies was waged in an attempt to repel or combat the threat of the Nazis • Their goal was to gain an advantage in an impending & unavoidable war before the threat worsened • (Pre-emptive attack) - Allied forces rehearsed their roles for D-day months before the invasion. On April 28th 1944, on the English coast 638 US soldiers & sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised one of the landing exercises

12. D-day Games against Nature • Weather predicted for June 6th may have been advantageous in terms of the (Zero-sum) game against the Germans as opposed to the Game against Nature • To invade only with favorable tides & full moon entailed disadvantages in terms of the Game against the Germans, but evidently more than compensating advantages in terms of the Game against Nature • The Game against the Germans was strictly determined

13. Nash Equilibrium • Given the strategy of the other player, neither player has an incentive to change his strategy. Each players strategy was the best reply to the others

14. Strategic Intelligence & Deception • A player may allow the other player to apparently find out his strategy in advance, but this information may be misleading

15. Decisive military engagement • D-day was an example of Decisive military engagement because as the Department of Defense defines: • It was an engagement on land and naval in which a unit is considered fully committed and cannot maneuver or extricate itself • The action had to be fought to a conclusion & either won or lost with the forces at hand • Allied warships provided supporting fire for the land forces