Essay: D-Day: What This Triumphant Victory Led To

“On the morning of June 5, 1944, U.S General Dwight Eisenhower announced ‘O.K. we’ll go” (National WWII Museum Para 1). The battle of Normandy, or also known as D-Day, was truly the turning point for World War II. D-Day was won by an Allied victory which was crucial in order for them to win. The Allies had much more man power and were industrialized quicker than Germany allowing for an easy victory. Without the huge victory at the invasion of Normandy, who knows where we would have ended up today. The freedom we have now and the lives that we are all living could have been drastically worse if the Allies never won the Invasion of Normandy. The allied victory at D-Day resulted in the liberation of Paris, the death of Hitler, and ultimately Germany surrendering to the allies ending conflict in Europe.
The Allied victory at D-Day resulted in the liberation of Paris. In June of 1940, Paris’s lovely city fell crumbling to pieces. The Germans were in Paris for more than four years taking away Parisians music, holding people hostage, and installing their own businesses and emblems. It was no longer the Paris everyone knew. Most of the Germans were presumed to be stationed in Paris. Two days before Allies secured the beaches of France, a group called the French Resistance was already inside of Paris doing their best to free the hostages. Hitler, not wanting to lose Paris, told his men that they had to protect Paris with everything they had. Hitler’s men could not give up, surrender, or lose any Parisian land. On August 24, even more French troops poured into Paris. As they helped the Resistance who had been stationed here before, they were freeing more and more hostages and taking more of the Germans territory in Paris. Hitler refused to let his men give up therefore the Germans fought on. The Germans proceeded to “fire on French fighters from behind barricades, often catching civilians in the crossfire” (History.com Para 2). Suddenly, on August 25th there was word from General Charles de Gaulle that the allies could now come from securing the beaches in Normandy and join the fight (History.com Para 3). An allied soldier wrote to his wife about the arrival at France. They had been waiting for the perfect time to reach France and finalize their battles,“We at last touched ground in France!…..when I saw for the first time dead bodies, first a German soldier and afterwards quite a few of our own soldiers” (Bannerman). Before the allies arrived it had only been the members of the Resistance freeing all of the hostages they could and ridding any of the German soldiers that they were able to. As the allies entered Paris, outnumbering the Germans, the allies were able to wipe out the Germans before the Germans surrendered. Everyone was in a frenzy of fighting and even those who ended up surrendering were still attacked (History.com Para 3). Paris was now liberated. The allies entered Paris and helped the Resistance in removing the Germans and taking back Paris. The aftermath of this battle allowed for the hostages to be freed though, some had not survived due to vicious acts of defense from the Germans. Paris was back under the Parisians control and the Nazi’s were no longer in control of Paris.
The Allied victory of D-day led to the liberation of Paris but also Hitler’s death. Hitler was confident in the fact that his men would win. D-Day would not have been successful and he would still have control of Paris. After the victory of D-Day his confidence sunk. He had a terrible strategy where he would not allow his men to surrender. He made them fight day and night. The allies had months of planning on how to get into Normandy and defeat the Nazi’s but on the other hand, the Germans had not. Especially with Hitler’s poor decision making, the allies had a multitude of advantages. Hitler weakened his troops and did not give them any time to plan even after it became extremely evident that the Nazi’s would be defeated by the allies, “Since at least 1943, it was becoming increasingly clear that Germany would fold under the pressure of the Allied forces” (History.com Para 2). The fact that Hitler’s troops were failing under the Allied forces for a while now had affected him greatly. Hitler and his troops were supposed to be able to defeat anything or anyone. Being a dictator, control over everything is key. Though, it was Hitler’s own strategies and fighting techniques that led to his downfall. Hitler’s men wanted to surrender and wanted to rid Hitler as their leader. Hitler’s men knew the choices Hitler was making in the battles were not the right ones. If Hitler’s men were to speak up who knows what could have happened to them, “By July 1944, several German military commanders acknowledged their imminent defeat and plotted to remove Hitler from power so as to negotiate a more favorable peace.” (History.com Para 2). They were forced into a two front war during the attacks on D-Day in which they did not have enough troops on either side to defend and were defeated. After the huge victory of D-Day and the liberation of Paris Hitler lost his control in both land to the allies. His men, being fed up with this constant failure, tried to assassinate Hitler. They wanted to show their power and show that they were not in agreement with Hitler’s decisions. Before they knew it, Hitler decided to finally take his own life. After all of his losses and defeats Hitler commited suicide. Hitler, “poisoned themselves and their dogs, before Hitler then also shot himself with his service pistol” (History.com Para 2). He did not have control over France anymore, he did not hold people hostage, he was not ruining lives anymore. The newspapers took two days to fully release this information. “Hitler Dead, Churchill hints peace is at hand,” printed on big letters across one newspaper (Stars and Stripes Newspaper). People were excited, people felt freed. This feeling was because of D-Day. D-day was a huge reason for his death. The Allies had a greater advantage leading to the victory on the beaches of Normandy. The military failed at keeping Hitler’s one command, not giving up any land in Paris, not surrendering to the allies under any circumstances, and not giving the allies an easy victory. The allied victory at D-Day was the end for Hitler.
The Allied victory at D-Day led to Hitler’s death as well as Germany surrendering to the Allies ending the conflict in Europe. Hitler reinforced the idea that his men could not surrender under any circumstance. After his death, his men finally felt able to surrender to the Allies finally ending World War II in Europe, “On May 7, 1945, Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to the European conflict in World War II.” (Huffington Post Para 1). The main reason why they lost to the Allies during D-Day was the fact that they had to fight a two front war. A common misconception was that the Allies forced Germany to fight a two-front war during D-Day which they were not capable of, which was not true. Germany had previously been fighting a two-front war, “Hitler breaking his promise with Stalin, forced Germany to begin fighting a two-front war in 1941” (Alexandra Hayoz). D-Day occured in the year 1944. In that case, the Allies did not start the two-front war, they just carried the two-front war on. Germany could not defend both sides of the war due to the fact that the Allies were more industrialized in their weaponry and they had much more manpower than the Germans had. D-day also split the Germans resources as well as their manpower. The Allies “staged phony exercises meant to confuse German intelligence. Two-dimensional dummy tanks were arranged to distract air surveillance” (Ushistory.org Para 1). The Allies had astounding forms of distracting the Germans while the allies prepared to start fighting during D-Day, which made sense because this attack had been planned for quite some time before the Allies set off. They made sure the weather was correct, the sea’s were not too rough, as well as “supply logistics to ensure a sufficient amount of food and medicine and establish secure lines of communication” (DDay.org Para 1). The Germans on the other hand, were not as planned. The only thing Hitler was giving them was his horrid command, do not give up. The Germans needed to give up. There was no way they were going to beat the Allies. However, after the victory at D-day, the liberation of Paris and Hitler’s suicide his men finally surrender to the Allies in 1945. At first the Allies commander only wanted the surrender of Germany’s western troops, “but General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. If this demand was not met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off the Western front” (History.com Para 2). Eisenhower would seal off the Western front so the Germans could not flee forcing them to surrender. Finally, Hitler’s successor, Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, signed and agreed to surrender ending the conflict in the west. Though, fighting in the east would occur for another day, the fighting in the west was over.
The triumphant victory of the Allies at D-Day led to some amazing successes. The Allies aided the Resistance in liberating Paris, the allies defeated Hitler causing him to feel failure and led to his suicide, and the allies defeated the Germans causing the Germans to surrender. Without these few successes, we could be living in a totally different world. The Nazi’s would still have control over Germany and they could even spread their control elsewhere. Germany would not be living as freely as they are now, as well as Paris would still be under the Nazi’s control. Though Hitler would not still be alive, another dictator could have fallen into Hitler’s position continuing the leadership of the Nazi’s. Due to D-day, this was not the outcome. As the beaches filled with Allied soldiers on June 6, 1944, Hitler’s empire began to crumble around his feet. Just over a year later, the Third Reich was gone forever and Germany was no longer under control of the Nazi’s. World War II in Europe had concluded.