six-wheel drive amphibious truck, the Duck was a valuable piece of the Allied war machine.

Wowever
they struggled in the rough Channel waters.

The steadily rising tide also caused major problems,
reducing the shore’s depth, which caused men, vehicles and equipment to bunch up, restricting
movement off the beach and providing good targets for German gunners.

The impact of this is clear in
the British advance on the city of Caen.

What was meant to be a quick advance was slowed by German
strongpoints as well as the traffic jams on the beach.

The city, an objective for D-Day itself,
would remain in German hands for another 6 weeks.

Though many key objectives were not taken,
D-Day was undoubtedly a major success – with 156,000 Allied troops ashore.

On the 7th of June
the Allies further expanded their Beachhead.

Meanwhile the Germans struggled to build up for
their counterattack.

The Allies had near total control of the skies and so as Panzer Group West
moved towards Normandy, they were hampered all the way by Allied fighter-bombers – so much so that
they had to abandon daylight movement.

Elsewhere, members of the French Resistance attempted to slow
German reinforcements and though they found some success, local people faced brutal reprisals.

All
this delayed and dislocated the German response.

When it came it was the 12th SS Panzer Division
from Panzer Group West who made the strongest effort, attacking against the 3rd Canadian
division on D-Day+1.

But the Allies were well prepared.

The Canadian 3rd Division had
twice the normal amount of field artillery and as many gunners in their order of battle as
infantrymen.

This Sexton self-propelled gun was one such weapon.

With its 25-pounder gun
it was able to provide mobile fire support for British and Canadian forces in Normandy.

Assisted by Allied warships off the coast, overwhelming Allied firepower was able to put
a stop to the German counterattacks.

When the Panzer Lehr Division arrived to join the attack
on D-Day+2 the momentum had now been lost, and instead of counterattacking, they were forced to
dig in to block the Allied attempts to take Caen.

On the 12th of June the Allies captured Carentan,
linking all five beaches together.

With a constant stream of men and equipment pouring into their
now vast beachhead on a daily basis any German hopes of pushing the invaders back into the sea
was folly.

Hitler’s chance for a counterattack was gone.

The Western Allies had pulled off
the largest air, land and sea operation in the history of warfare – a monumental achievement.

It worked thanks to their skillful planning, overwhelming material advantage and the
heroism and sacrifice of their fighting men, as well as many German failures.

While D-Day
was by no means a turning point in the war, it did mark the beginning of a new phase.

Within a year, crushed by Allied advances from east and west, the tyranny of the
Nazi regime would finally come to an end.

 

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