GREAT BRITAIN took part in Operation Overlord for a number of reasons. One such reason was pressure from other countries. As far

the capability to penetrate deep inside Nazi occupied nations to launch missions against enemy positions and to fight Luftwaffe craft more effectively than they had ever been able to before. This added effectiveness is often contributed to the development of the Mustang fighter, a fighter aircraft that could reach the far side of Nazi Germany, further than any warplane before it. The secure nature of the skies meant that if a European invasion was to be mounted then targets such as German installations and battle groups in France could be attacked from the air to weaken them ahead of any ground attack. This made British and other Allied commanders more confident that an invasion of Western Europe would succeed and probably more in agreement with such a plan than they would have been in previous years. Another reason for the idea of an invasion being enacted was morale. Morale in the allied countries was increasing and was at its highest point for a number of years. Military personnel, their commanders and civilians in Allied nations felt their position in the war to be more promising. As a result of this the British public, rank-and-file soldiers and military commanders began to favour a plan for an invasion. This boost in morale could be credited to the advances made in the war waged at sea which meant that more shipping was possible and people in the United Kingdom had more to eat than they had in previous years.

It is also true that the success of the British at El Alamein and of the American Operation Torch and the subsequent mass surrender of Nazi troops contributed to greater patriotism and an increase in morale. These successes in North Africa also provided a stepping point into Southern Europe for Allied troops. This was important in the larger picture of the war in Europe as now an invasion of Italy could now be staged. The benefits of an invasion of Italy would be numerous. As well as a significant Axis power being taken out of the equation it would mean that the Germans would have to divert troops to fight in Italy to stop Germany being attacked from underneath. An attack on Italy was launched later that year and soon Italy was fragmented. The Allies had overrun most of the south and overthrown the Italian government. An Italian state was maintained with German help in the north. Many German troops were diverted to fight the Allies in central Italy and the Germans became distracted by having yet another country to administer. Along with the increasingly successful Soviet campaign in the East this would leave Northern France under defended and more vulnerable to a successful invasion. As a result of all these factors it was believed that conditions in Europe were now right for an invasion. The British commanders agreed with the American and Canadian that such an attack should take place in early June 1944. The mission was to be called Operation Overlord.

2. IF the invasion of mainland Europe was to be successful, British military leaders thought, careful and detailed plans would have to be made beforehand so all knew what was to happen and how it must work. To begin with air attacks against Nazi Europe were mounted to damage the Nazi infrastructure and hinder the German war effort. This would weaken the Nazi's military capabilities and thus their fighting capabilities. It would also deplete German morale which would make a quick and simple surrender more likely after what the commanders liked to envisage would be a successful start to an invasion. Great Britain and America manufactured enormous numbers of aircraft and trained thousands of airmen. A particularly important breakthrough in regards to the air war was the development of the Mustang fighter that could escort a bomber craft all the way from England to the far side of Germany meaning that bombing raids on German cities such as Berlin were safer and more feasible. Large numbers of troops were obviously going to be necessary if the invasion of 'Fortress Europe' was to be a success as well as a large volume of equipment for infantrymen, engineers and other items vital to any military campaign. To do this ships came from North America every day for much of 1943 and 1944 carrying men and supplies and British and American factories massively stepped up production.

During 1944 at least 20,000 railway trains carried men and gear to the south coast assembly points where soldiers were based for the final few days to prepare for their mission into France. They would leave from 24 embarkation points in counties such as Hampshire and Dorset. To add to the manpower freshly drafted in from America and the replenished British Army groups that had fought in France four years before, men were withdrawn from actions in Italy and the Pacific and from bases around the empire. Before the invasion several mock invasions took place to train Allied troops for the invasion. The most notable of these was one that took place at Slapton Sands, an area of coastline on the English south coast, where United States vessels rehearsing for Operation Overlord were detected and attacked by vessels of the Kriegsmarine. As a result of this when Overlord itself took place German radar stations in the French North were blocked to prevent a pre-emptive German attack on an invasion fleet.

It was realised early in planning for Overlord that the Nazis would have to be deceived into making errors in their defences if the invasion was to be successful. One way in which the Germans were fooled was through the targeted bombing of France. For every tonne of bombs that was dropped on Normandy, the more important target, two were dropped on the area around Calais. The object of this was to make Nazi commanders think that an invasion would land at Calais not Normandy. This was also attempted by Spanish double agent 'Garbo'. Garbo was a spy for Great Britain masquerading as a spy for the Nazis. Garbo specialised in communicating misinformation to the Nazis. Most importantly he made German commanders believe that an attack was planned for Pays-de-Calais when it was actually due to take place in Normandy. He also gave cause for the Nazis to believe an invasion was due days later than it actually was. A false army consisting of inflatable tanks and ply wood soldiers was assembled in Kent and Sussex to trick German spy aircraft into photographing and reporting what they thought to be a large army preparing to attack at the Pays-de-Calais. An important part of maintaining Operation Overlord's secrecy was the monitoring of German coded communications. Because the codes used by the Nazis had been broken it was possible for German messages to be understood by Allied decoders. The Germans were ignorant to this and this ignorance had to be maintained for the full effect of decoding to be sustained. Occasionally an attack plan that had been discovered by the Allies would have to be allowed to take place to stop the Germans changing their coding system. Other such tactics as the printing of false news reports and the broadcasting of intentionally erroneous information on BBC radio were used to subvert German plans and ensure a successful operation. These tactics of deception worked. We know this because the coastline of the Pays-de-Calais was defended far heavier by Germany than Norman coastline, leaving thousands of German men and large amounts of equipment ill-placed to defend the Nazi empire in France.

When the actual attack on Germany took place devices known as 'Hobart's Funnies' were used to aid operations by surpassing enemy obstacles or any difficulties that may arise from the sea and then the sandy and rocky terrain on which the opening battles of Operation Overlord would be fought. They were invented by a unit of soldiers and engineers from a British Armoured Division commanded by Major General Percy Hobart. One of their creations was known as a Bobbin and laid a canvas in front of a track driven vehicle on beaches to prevent them sinking into the sand. Hobart's unit also developed a device that could be fitted to more heavily armoured tanks that would enable them to accurately destroy pillar boxes, concrete bunkers sighted by the Nazis on French beaches. These worked to great effect when they were used by the British and Canadian invading forces against impediments such as tank traps and inconvenient drainage ditches along French shores.

The Germans heavily defended all their ports in Northern France and it would therefore be difficult for the Allies to immediately capture one to provide a docking point for cargo and troops that would have to be brought in very soon after an invasion to sustain Allied presence. To avoid the difficulties involved in waiting until a port could be immediately secured it was decided that ports would have to be built in England and taken to France soon after the landings there. They were made up of an outer breakwater of metal rafts floating at water level and an inner breakwater of scuttled sea vessels and concrete blocks. Ships were able to dock on the Mulberry Harbours and their cargo and passengers were brought inland via long jetties. The Mulberry harbours meant that after the invasion had broken through the outer defences the fighting inland could be properly supplied with men and equipment. The harbours were vital to winning the battle in Normandy. The Allies also planned to run a pipe between the United Kingdom and France to provide fuel for the vehicles involved in the fighting there. The pipeline, called PLUTO (Pipeline Under The Ocean), was necessary because fuel supplies in France were far from certain and probably would not be enough for all the divisions involved in the invasion. The pipelines proved vital in the months following the landings in Normandy and ensured that Allied vehicles were always fully fuelled, which prevented stoppages for refuelling in the battles that raged post-Operation Overlord.

3.AN attack was planned for Normandy on June 5th 1944 but the troops were stood down for twenty four hours that night due to storms in the English Channel. Despite this it was decided that night that an invasion could go ahead no later than June 6th, bad weather or not. During the early hours of June 6th several regiments of British soldiers entered France via aircraft. They secured bridges and vital roads as well as destroying Nazi artillery emplacements that could have caused severe problems for troops coming inland later. The Royal Navy also attacked the German defences at the British and Canadian beaches, destroying many emplacements that could otherwise have hampered efforts. The British efforts before the main landing on the Gold and Sword beaches were highly successful despite the loss of lives. The British landings from sea on the morning of June 6th were also largely successful. At Sword beach men came ashore and moved inland very quickly. At the day's end there were 30,000 British soldiers inland in the Sword sector. The troops there had a casualty ratio of under two men wounded for every hundred men successfully past the beach. Despite this good performance on the beaches and nearby the Sword beach contingent did not meet its objective of the day and liberate Caen. The Gold sector units suffered even fewer casualties and managed to link up with Canadian regiments from Juno beach but failed to secure the Caen road. Despite these minor failures it was felt that the British and Canadian units in Normandy had accomplished what was thought to be their main objective for the day and achieved a foothold on the European mainland from which further attacks could be mounted. The Allies also succeeded in assembling and operating two Mulberry Harbours between the 9th and 19th of June. But success turned to failure at one of the harbours, the American managed port, when a storm tore parts of it from its moorings almost two weeks after the first landings, rendering it inoperable. Despite this setbacks the two harbours served as a docking place for almost 2.5 million men entering the European theatre over the eight months following the start of Operation Overlord. Fortunately the British were able to acquire the port of Cherbourg on June 25th which meant that men and equipment could be unloaded there, partly making up for the loss of the American harbour. The failure to take Caen for weeks following the invasion was a problem as the plans for Normandy were partly based on Caen being taken by the British within one or two days of the first attack. This meant that battle plans had to be changed and units committed to fighting for Caen where they wouldn't have otherwise. The Allies managed to capture Port-en-Bessin which meant that British and Canadian troops could meet with the American forces and move inland in a more unified fashion. The problems in Normandy after the initial victories on the beaches were caused by the British, Canadian and American inability to advance quickly through the farmland south of the beaches. Troops became trapped for too long by German resistance and fields punctuated with dense hedges. Despite these problems the invasion force managed to breach German defences time after time and by August they had liberated Paris and pushed the Nazis into eastern France. I think the invasion of Europe in Operation Overlord was a definite success. Overlord provided the Western Allies with the ground in France they so desperately needed for a victory in the war. Without liberating the nations of Western Europe winning the war and ridding the world of Nazism was not a possibility. The entry into France was the only way that such countries could be liberated and the only way that Germany could be reached. Despite the loss of lives in the battles for ground in Europe I think it should be regarded as a success. The only possible way that Nazi Germany could be defeated was through war and death is an inevitable part of every large war. Operation Overlord provided a entry point for the Allies as part of their campaign to return the world to relative normalcy. Had this not happened it is very possible that the Nazis would have won the war and many more than were killed in Normandy would have been killed in the nations of the West.