With the 75th Anniversary of the June 6, 1944 Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France upon us (D-Day) I thought it would be appropriate to highlight one of the more important contributions to the D-Day effort. That being the armor tasked with supporting the assaulting infantry at Omaha beach. During the abortive Dieppe raid of August 1942 it had become obvious that significant armored support was essential if any Allied invasion force had hopes of getting past the German beach defenses. There, only 29 Churchill tanks landed.
Today is the anniversary of the largest amphibious assault in history; codenamed Operation Overlord by the Allies, but universally known since as "D-Day". Exactly 69 years ago approximately 160,000 Allied soldiers landed on the coast of Nazi occupied Normandy, France thus beginning the Second World War's final act. Though thousands of Allied soldiers, mostly U.S. and British, would be killed or wounded on June 6th the day's greatest carnage was centered on one location - the invasion beach code-named Omaha.
One of the favorite topics of alternative history (and one of the scenarios endlessly replayed in war games such as Axis & Allies and 3rd Reich) is what if Germany had attempted Operation Sea Lion. Assuming a Luftwaffe victory over the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain was Sea Lion feasible in other respects? Could Hitler have knocked the United Kingdom out of the war in the summer of 1940 or would the attempt have led to his first major defeat?
