D- Day was about to begin. Although most prior operations had been a rush, the invasion of Normandy was very well planned and prepared. French beaches were surveyed exclusively, and vast forces had accumulated. There were over 1,200 fighting ships, 1,000 aircraft, 4126 landing craft, and 864 transport ships. On the beach, there were tanks equipped for almost every situation.
The Germans also had a huge arsenal of defenses. As mentioned on the preceding page, there were pillboxes, lookouts, bunkers, mortars, heavy weapons, and many Nazis armed to the teeth with the leading military technology.
The Allies certainly did not have their work cut out for them. They had to move 100 miles across the English Channel and storm a heavily fortified coastline on which they would have to fight troops that were trained by one of the world's best generals, Erwin Rommel. It didn't help that only 85% of the men who participated in D-Day had never seen combat before.
Although there were officially three countries that took place in the invasion, there were also invaders from Australia, Belgium, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Greece. On the German side there were many Russians and some other nationalities. Most of these people fought alongside the Nazis for the fear of becoming a German prisoner of war.
Planners of the invasion scheduled the attack for June 5, 6, or 7. These were perfect days because the weather would be just right, and so would the tide. If the invasion could not take place on one of these days, it would have to wait for months, disastrously decreasing allied morale. Eisenhower scheduled the invasion for June 5, but unfortunately the weather was bad, and he had a serious decision to make. Would he risk bad weather and try on the 6th or 7th, or would he risk postponing the invasion, with the consequence of everybody starting to give up. Eisenhower was a smart man that cared immensely for his troops, and he had an inhuman drive to succeed. Needless to say, he picked the sixth, and the historic date was set.
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