Refuse+Rommel's+Proposal

__** Refuse Rommel’s Proposal to Send Troops to Normandy **__

** Read the information below to see what __actually__ **** happened. **



__Decision__  In late May of 1944, Hitler canceled the movement introduced by ERWIN ROMMEL, field marshal, to send the five infantry divisions from Norway to France, at the last second.  Hitler was so concerned that the U.S. would attack Norway or Calais because the Allies kept on tricking him with fake radio signals (Ambrose 64).

__Garbo__  The Allies felt like the plan, FORTITUDE, was a total success. Then, HITLER began a movement of troops everywhere along the French coast.  GENERAL EISENHOWER thought that the plan had been deciphered. Making the news even worse, on May 29th, the Germans moved troops into exact areas where the Allied paratroopers and the U.S. First Division were going to land (Ambrose 64).  Although the Allies were very discouraged with the news, GENERAL EISENHOWER didn’t give up on FORTITUDE and didn't cancel the air drops.  To re-enforce the plan, GENERAL EISENHOWER had GARBO- the double secret agent who deceived the Germans as being on their side who instead worked for the Allies- send a coded radio message to the Germans saying that the battle was on its way. The message was deciphered, read, and transmitted to Hitler. Hitler was sleeping when it came in <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">; however, the officers decided to wake him up and give him the message anyway. It was too late though; troops were already landing. The battle of NORMANDY had begun (Ambrose 64).

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At 6:30 AM, the Allied “glider and parachute forces landed at a number of sites in Normandy” (Stokesbury 3). Most of them carried out their actions, however others were killed by the enemy. Later, ships and planes came in and fought the Germans. The Germans continued to think that this battle was a diversion and were waiting for the “real” battle at Calais. Therefore, they held back their divisions at NORMANDY. The Germans delayed, and delayed, and delayed, and the Allied forces were gaining control of the beach <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (Stokesbury 3). At the end the battle, the Allies were victorious. However, thousands of Allied forces were dead, wounded, or missing in action (Stokesbury 4). The Allied forces captured France and liberated it. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__Significance of Decision__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; text-align: left;">OPERATION OVERLORD was the largest land, air, and sea campaign in history. This battle indicated that HITLER’s dream of Nazi sovereignty would soon end. On June 6, 1944, over 5,000 ships and over 176,000 soldiers landed on five beaches of NORMANDY with a surprise attack against the German forces, where “not one German submarine, not one small boat, not one airplane, not one radar set, not one German anywhere detected [the] movement” (Ambrose 64). The decision to attack was scheduled for June 5, 1944, however, due to weather conditions, GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER decided to delay the attack 24 hours. The attack was brutal. It ended with 10,000 Allied injuries, 4,000 of those being deaths. It was an essential battle to the United States’ victory in World War II.