Existing comment:
The Road to Victory:
"'This is D-Day,' the BBC announced at 12 o'clock. 'This is the day.' The invasion has begun!... Is this really the beginning of the long-awaited liberation? The liberation we've all talked so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy tale ever to come true?... the best part of the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way. Those terrible Germans have oppressed and threatened us for so long that the thought of friends and salvation means everything to us!"
-- Anne Frank, diary entry, June 6, 1944
News of D-Day electrified the world. At last the Allies had a "second front" in Europe. The Germans now faced the Soviets in the east and the Americans, British, and Canadians in the west. Hitler also had to contend with Allied armies in Italy and the ongoing Allied bombing offensive against Germany. Victory in Europe seemed within reach.
In reality, nearly a year of hard fighting lay ahead.
During June 1944 the Allies made important advances. On June 22 the Soviets unleashed a major offensive on the eastern front. In six weeks of intense battle they drove the Germans lines back into Poland.
Meanwhile, in Normandy, on the morning of June 7, the invasion entered a new phase. The Allies and the Germans rushed to move reinforcements into place. Allied air power made this difficult for the Germans, who were also hampered by Hitler's continuing belief that the Normandy invasion was just a diversion. In contrast, the Allies had men, tanks, guns, and supplies offshore and in England ready for unloading. They were poised to win the battle of the buildup. |