10 Most Important Battles In US History

“D-Day”, concealed by the Allied forces as Operation Neptune, was the US and fellow allies’ first attempt at reclaiming Western Europe from Nazi Germany. It was a part of a series of invasions known as Operation Overlord. The invasion began on 6 June 1944 with around 156,000 plus allied troops landing “somewhere” on the coasts of France, without any German intelligence of where the attack would take place.

The tide was in the allies favor, and yes, pun intended. The low tides allowed the allies to unload from their boats without damaging their weapons and provided a somewhat easy landing on the beaches. Compared to what they could have encountered if the moon decided it wanted to create a bulge in the ocean earlier, the weather conditions of the beach landing were not perfect, but could have been significantly worse.

The allies threw brute force at the Germans, racing up the coast lines under heavy suppressing fire from bunkers up on bluffs that were manned by German troops. American men made up around 73,000 in troop numbers. Casualties ensued, and the allied forces pushed the Germans out of Normandy in July, leading to the defending German forces retreating south towards Paris.

This was where the Americans truly showed off their military dominance and strategic ability. This was also the beginning of the end of Hitler’s control of Western Europe.