Sharp Blade/Autumn Wave
Never before in human history has a war been as large as world war II, with 61 countries and regions participating in the war, and more than 2 billion people forced into the war, causing more than 90 million casualties. In the face of the well-prepared German-Italian-Japanese fascists, the other countries had little power to fight back at first, and France, the world's recognized power, surrendered even within a month. It was not until 1943 that the victory in the defense of Stalingrad declared the defeat of Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front, and the Normandy landings in June 1944 opened a second battlefield on the Western Front, and the combined forces of the United States, Britain, France and other countries attacked Nazi Germany on both sides together with the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, hastening the demise of German fascism.
The Normandy landings were by far the largest landing operation in the world, and in the campaign code-named Operation Overlord, the Allies mobilized a total of 2.88 million troops from 36 divisions, including the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, with 176,000 vanguard troops alone. In addition to landing operations, the Allies also harassed the German rear through air bombardment and airborne operations, which can be said to be out of the nest. The total strength of Nazi Germany on the entire Western Front was only 760,000 troops, and there were even fewer troops deployed on the front line of the landing zone such as Normandy, so although the landing operation was beneficial to the defenders, due to the full preparation and close coordination of the Allied forces, the German army had to retreat again and again until August 25, 1944, the liberation of Paris and the official end of the Battle of Normandy.
In such a large-scale battle, both sides are also very aware of what the outcome of the war means, so neither side has left any spare strength, Montgomery, Patton, Eisenhower, Rommel and other famous generals of World War II who are familiar to us, and the elite units of the US 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the British 7th Panzer Division have also participated in the battle. The Allied assault was very brave, and the German resistance was also very tenacious, so both sides suffered very heavy losses. According to official statistics, the number of Allied casualties was as high as 220,000 (killed, wounded or missing), of which 29,000 were Americans, 11,000 were British, 5,000 were killed in Canada, and 300,000 German casualties were also reached, but the Germans only lost 23,019 people, but the number of missing people was as high as 200,000. Of course, in the war, the specific number of casualties is impossible to count, but the Normandy landings were indeed very tragic, and Eisenhower once called it one of the largest slaughterhouses in the field of war. Of these, the fighting on Landing Day was the most tragic, and in the face of Nazi Germany's intensive coastal firepower, the Allies suffered heavy casualties, and the rain of bullets and bullets was not a metaphor at this time, but a real thing. A bunker machine gunner in Nazi Germany had inflicted more than 3,000 Allied casualties in nine hours at Omaha Beach.
Although the casualties were heavy, but the Battle of Normandy is still a successful landing operation, its significance to the end of the Second World War does not need to be said, only from the military strategic level, the Allied meticulous preparation before the landing, the acquisition of air and sea supremacy on the impact of landing operations, landing operations and airborne operations coordination and even logistical support for this campaign have become the focus of later military scientists' research, this campaign is of great significance to the guidance of related operations in later generations.