Saturday, June 6, marks the 65th anniversary of “D-Day,” the Allies’ invasion of Nazi-held France that marked the beginning of the end of World War II. The largest amphibious operation ever staged, the assault was a high-risk gamble in which literally tens of millions of lives hung in the balance. Had it failed, the world of 2009 would likely be much different than the one we know today.
What “D-Day” Was All About
Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Hitler declared war on the United States. For the next three years, American, Canadian and British forces battled German forces in North Africa, the Mediterranean and in the skies over central Europe. But the bulk of Europe remained firmly in the grip of Nazi control.
The “D-Day” invasion of Europe—officially known as “Operation Overlord”—was designed to change that. Following months of troop build-ups, Allied land, sea and air combat units, all under the command of Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, left England’s southern coast shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944. Their target was a 50-mile stretch of beach in Normandy, France, just a few hours away to the south.
In all, approximately 160,000 Allied troops, 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft took part in the invasion. More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed during the first 24 hours of the attack. But within the next few days, the Allies had secured the French beaches and from there were able to begin a march across Western Europe that would ultimately end 11 months later in Berlin.
What if D-Day Had Failed?
The D-Day invasion was a massive gamble that could have gone wrong in any number of ways. What would have happened if Operation Overlord had failed? Although historians may debate the specifics, most agree that:
- WWII could have easily dragged on for at least another year, resulting in tens of thousands of more deaths as well as the total extermination of European Jewry through Hilter’s Final Solution.
- Britain would have been devastated by Germany’s new rocket weapons.
- American air power would have been seriously threatened by Hitler’s emerging first generation of jet-powered fighters.
- The Soviet Army, which by 1944 had become virtually unstoppable, would have likely defeated Germany by mid-1945, perhaps continuing its march west until it placed all of Europe behind the “Iron Curtain.”
In other words, if D-Day had failed, the bulk of Europe would have likely gone from Nazi to Communist—and the second half of the 20th century would have been much different from the one we and our parents remember.
