D-Day at 70: Russia’s role in opening up the D-Day landing.

D-Day at 70: Russia’s role in opening up the Western front. HT: RBTH.

By weakening the German army and keeping it occupied on the Eastern Front, Soviet Russia prepared for the way for the Allied success of D-Day in the West.

The retired Royal Navy cruiser the HMS Belfast fired its six-round salute at midday on June 5 in London to mark the 70th anniversary of the assembly of the D-Day fleet, beginning the commemoration of one of the key battles of World War II, an amphibious assault that remains the largest the world has ever seen. The Belfast, which is now preserved as a museum, fired one of the opening salvos on June 6, 1944, attacking a German artillery position at La Marefontaine, supporting British forces landing on Gold and Juno beaches.
On June 6, U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will join veterans from the U.S., the UK and Canada in Normandy to mark their contribution to the defeat of fascism in Europe. Alongside them will be Russian President Vladimir Putin, and while no Soviet forces took part in the amphibious operation itself, his presence there is apt, given the enormous part Russia played in the success of Operation Overlord.

The air supremacy enjoyed by the Allies on D-Day and crucial to its successful outcome owed much to events on the Eastern Front. The combined Allied air forces flew 14,000 sorties in support of the D-Day landings and met with fewer than 100 German ones in response, an overwhelming superiority.
Moreover, in the months preceding D-Day, the Allied air forces had been free to disrupt utterly the arrival of German reinforcements. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, in charge of the German defenses of Northern France, desperately wanted Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber units to defend the Atlantic Wall, but was denied them by Hitler who insisted they remain on the Eastern Front.

The situation in the air was mirrored by events on the ground. Two-thirds of the Nazis’ available manpower was tied up fighting on the Eastern Front. Given the huge resistance encountered, particularly by U.S. troops on Omaha beach and the fierce fighting which followed, notably in Falaise, it’s clear that had the D-Day landing force encountered anything like the full strength of the Wehrmacht, the outcome of the battle could have been very different.

Perhaps inevitably, given the rapid post-War cooling of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the West, the Red Army’s role both in the success of the D-Day landing and the outcome of the war itself was drastically underplayed. But, as one document being displayed on HMS Belfast at the June 5 celebration makes clear, not everyone in the West was unaware of the Russian sacrifices.Read the full story here.

More on the 70 year remembrance of D-Day can be found here,(d-day70years.org). - D-DAY 70 CONCERTS

D-day memorial on Omaha_beach Normandy France

D-Day-Monument,-in-Bernieres-sur-Mer