Cossac was lieutenant General Sir Frederick Morgan and his team, the nuts and bolts behind the D-Day operation. They appointed SHAEF which stood for the Supreme H.Q. Allied Expeditionary Force which was headed by Eisenhower.
One main operation which would prepare the allies for D-Day was that of Dieppe which caused many problems. It was the first time an attempt was made to land tanks to support an infantry assault during the war. This was a disaster as only a few tanks made it out of the beach and they were stopped in the town by concrete road blocks and enemy fire. This taught the allies not do experiment like this again and not to go through with operation Sledge Hammer and also that a huge force would be needed at the point of attack, even if the invasion was to be launched over open beaches.
The engineering for operation overlord involved artificial harbours that could be assembled in England and towed across the channel. A team soon devised these Mulberry harbours in secrecy. This construction involved a huge labour force of thousands of men. There was another problem for the planners however and this was how to give an adequate supply of petrol to mainland. Here a project known as Pluto would come into play. This involved to types of pipes being tested and in August 1944 two pipe lines were laid across the channel to Cherbourg. The next planning which had to be done was the designing of tanks to help the infantry. The man to do this was Major General Percy Hobart who was in charge of the development of a range of specialist armour. These vehicles that were designed were one of the main factors to the success of D-Day.
To achieve secrecy and surprise, operation Fortitude was established. The main point of this operation was to concentrate the German minds on England’s South Eastern port opposite the Calais area. One part of the deception plan was the creation of the false head quarters known as the first US army group based around Dover in Kent with fake radio traffic.
Another factor was how to invade? Here the preparation of training and the invasion would start. Training was one of the most important factors in ensuring D-Day went well. The soldiers would practice hand to hand combat, large areas of the country side were closed for firing ranges and the conditions of training were made as realistic as possible. There were also a lot of rehearsals in basic trainings such as water proofing rifles. The French resistance also helped preparations. They would keep a low profile and just collect information. There main job in the invasion would be to slow down movement of German armoured divisions into the battle area. All over Normandy the resistance sabotaged the German war operation y doing such things as destroying bridges and railways. Then suitable bombing targets were then told to England. Lastly, the Sausage machine also played a role in preparing for D-Day. It was basically the food rationing for the soldiers.
Conditions needed to be perfect to go through with the attack. Firstly, the moon had to be in the right place because it affects the tide and if the tide was powerful the invasion would not be able to start. Secondly, visibility had to be three miles and cloud cover had to be lower than sixty percent. Lastly, the weather had to be good. As the weather on the 4th of June was atrocious Eisenhower postponed the invasion by twenty four hours. Equipment and men had started to embark on the 2nd of June but because of the weather the invasion did not get under way till the 6th of June when conditions had improved.
By Adip Shaunak 4F
