Recently I was able to witness (with alot of convincing on my part) the invasion of Normandy Beach, France. This invasion officially began on June 6, 1944 better known as D-Day. However, in truth, it began long before that. It took tactical, strategic, combat, and productivity skils for this operation to have a chance at success and for the battle to have a chance at beginning even the basic phase of the operation, let alone the actual invasion of Normandy Beach and the events that followed this critical victory leading to a really successful operation. In 1943, the production of American war material finally peaked. This was only possible because of the increase in manpower, including the addition of the famous …show more content…
This included the 101st airborne division, who are also known as the "Screaming Eagles". The 101st are better known as "Easy Company" (though there is nothing easy about their job) and are featured in the movie series "Saving Private Ryan", which is based off of their exploits. The job of airborne divisions was to secure the landing zones. They were also to seize all the possible exits from the beachhead. Finally, they were to capture communications equipment and cut off any possible enemy communications that they were able to seize, while also completing their other objectives. The airbore had trouble before they even started their missions. The gliders that they had were unreliable and many of the airborne died in glider crashes or were dropped miles away from the correct landing zone that they were supposed to be dropped at. Also, in their packs, they had a lot of supplies, including a cricket clicker to identify their friends. A lot of the paratroopers in the airborne divisions lost their packs, rifles, and other gear on the way down. In fact, some went into battle with only a knife, and whenever there was a dead body, either friend or foe, they would strip them of the necessary supplies. Also the Germans saw some of the planes and the paratroopers had to parachute down from the airplanes through tracer bullets, anti-aircraft fire, and in some cases, regular bullets fired by Nazis. The airborne divisions eventually accomplished the goals they had to accomplish before the landing craft could land and the waves of soldiers start washing over the beach, beginning the main phase of Operation Overlord, the invasion of France. Finally, the landing craft were able to land. The men swarmed over Juno Beach, Sword Beach, Gold Beach, Utah Beach, and Omaha Beach, often picking their way over fallen bodies and wounded men strewn across the beaches, screaming for help