What happened on June 6 1944?
The
June 6th, 1944: More than 150,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy, France, as part of the largest seaborne invasion in history. Known as "D-Day," the name and date loom large in the memory of World War II—perhaps second only to December 7th, 1941.
In other words, the D in D-Day merely stands for Day. This coded designation was used for the day of any important invasion or military operation.
A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians.
D-Day: Operation Overlord. In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, Americans received word that three years of concerted war efforts had finally culminated in D-day—military jargon for the undisclosed time of a planned British, American, and Canadian action.
The cost of the Normandy campaign was high on both sides. From D-day through August 21, the Allies landed more than two million men in northern France and suffered more than 226,386 casualties: 72,911 killed/missing and 153,475 wounded. German losses included over 240,000 casualties and 200,000 captured.
Germans were aware that the allies were massing forces in England preparing for an invasion. They expected the attack to occur on the French Atlantic coast near Calais. Nonetheless, the entire coastline of Europe was fortified. Germany had divisions even in Norway in case invasion occurred there.
The bloodiest day of World War II is widely considered to be the first day of the Battle of Stalingrad, which was on August 23, 1942. The Battle of Stalingrad was a pivotal and brutal confrontation between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.
German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were documented for at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead.
Lieutenant-General Frederick Morgan (1894-1967) was the principal planner of Operation 'Overlord'. In early 1943, Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff to the then-unnamed Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) and it was his job to produce a plan for the invasion of Europe.
Are there any D-Day survivors still alive?
Survivors. A few thousand D-Day veterans may be still alive; the youngest are in their late 90s.
| # | Country | D-Day Casualties |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 6,000 |
| 2 | United States of America | 2,501 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 1,449 |
| 4 | Canada | 391 |
The Most Deadly Battle In History: Stalingrad
The figures for the Battle of Stalingrad battle are shocking even by the standards of the other campaigns on this list. Running from August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943, Stalingrad led to 633,000 battle deaths.
Those born before June 20th fall under Gemini and are said to be highly intelligent, quick-witted, and indecisive. (With two Geminis in the house, I can definitely back up the indecisive part!) Those born after the 20th fall under the Cancer sign and are known for being loyal and loving.
June Personality Traits:
People born in June are considered social butterflies because they are charismatic, talented and good looking! They are very intelligent, are extremely inquisitive and have a childlike nature. June borns are great communicators and can easily draw everyone's attention.
Did you know that on this day in 1944, the Normandy landings started in France during WWII? They were originally planned for June 4th but postponed due to bad weather.
Planes dropped 13,000 bombs before the landing: they completely missed their targets; intense naval bombardment still failed to destroy German emplacements. The result was, Omaha Beach became a horrific killing zone, with the wounded left to drown in the rising tide.
Here is the nub of Churchill's gut instinct towards the cross-Channel invasion: he may not have been as warm to it as the Americans, but he was not against it. However, the prime minister was far more enthralled by the Mediterranean theatre, which he felt held more promise and was a known quantity.
Ted Roosevelt Jr., who landed at Utah Beach, has always received credit as the D-Day general (like Cota, Roosevelt also demanded that he land on D-Day—and then died of a heart attack a month later), but Cota is the hero-general of the day, having landed early on D-Day on bloody Omaha.
Adolf Hitler applauded the attack and declared war on the United States even though the United States had only declared war against Japan. Before Pearl Harbor, many Americans maintained an isolationist stance and were reluctant to become involved in the war in Europe.
What did Germans think of Americans in ww2?
For the most part, the Germans neither respected nor feared American troops. By the time D-Day was over, all that had changed and the Americans had some battle hardened troops who could and did defeat the Germans even when numbers superiority was not on the American Side.
It was cold, he recalled, miserably cold, even though it was June. “The water temperature was probably 45 or 50 degrees. It was up to my shoulders when I went in, and I saw men sinking … I tried to grab a couple, but my job was to get on in and get to the guns.”
The American Civil War is the conflict with the largest number of American military fatalities in history. In fact, the Civil War's death toll is comparable to all other major wars combined, the deadliest of which were the World Wars, which have a combined death toll of more than 520,000 American fatalities.
The deadliest day in recorded history is January 23, 1556. An earthquake struck China and killed around 830,000 people in one day. The Indonesian tsunami in 2004 is considered to be in 2nd place, with 230,000 killed in one day.
While it's hard to say with certainty, by many accounts the deadliest day in human history was actually the result of a natural disaster. On the morning of 23 January 1556, a massive earthquake rocked China's Shaanxi province, at the time considered the 'cradle of Chinese civilization'.
