The invasion of Normandy took 26 hours to complete. The time it took to build up the necessary manpower and supplies, however, took 2 years. When the United States started sending supplies to England, for Operation Overlord, the English people thought we were over reacting of a sort. Every week new transports filled English bays undocking new cargos of artillery shells from IL. , Blood plasma from TN., Jeeps from Detroit, and K rations from WS. . (Hastings 34) In fact America shipped 17,47,606 tons of supplies from January to July in 1944 alone. (Patrick 88) All these supplies were necessary in our success in over throwing the Germans at Normandy.

Not only were we sending vital supplies to England, we were also fighting a pre battle. This battle was the fight to gain air superiority over the Germans. The American P-51 Mustang played a m

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All of the Battle ships were very old. Some of them were commissioned in 1912. "The Old ladies" was the name given to the out of date battleships. The battleships were actually being used to draw large enemy shellfire from the invasion force. This tactic proved successful. The invasion force felt little of the German heavy artillery.

At 0309 the United States luck ran out. German radar spotted the invasion force. The news of an Allied attack reached German high commander Admiral Krancke. He then scrambled a fleet of U-boats to attack the huge force that crept up underneath their noses. He also sent word to his shore batteries to prepare to repel an invasion. (Ambrose259)

The Allies prepared in other ways as well.

Only on D- Day, when a mere 319 German sorties resisted was the truth suspected. In the weeks that followed, as enemy air activity remained negligible it was confirmed. The critical air battle had been fought and won by the Americans over Germany weeks before the first Allied soldier waded ashore. (Hastings 54)

The minesweepers went in first. There were 255 of them. Their job was to sweep up lanes from the Isle of Wright through the channel up to the transport anchoring area off the French coast. The mines, which the minesweepers sought, were the Germans most effective - indeed, virtually only - naval defense. These mines consisted of a variety of types. There were: floating mines, anchored mines, and pressure mines that lay on the bottom. (Ambrose 255)

In the bombardments group shadow came the transports. This group was compiled of LCIs, LCCs, LCMs, and various others. The entire fleet included 229 LSTs, 245 LCIs, 911 LCTs, and 481 LCMs all under their own power. Riding on the LSTs were 1,089 LCUPs. Among these transports there were various other boats including Coast Guard boats, PT boats, and blocking boats to be sunk to create artificial harbors. (Ambrose 257)

Some common words found in the essay are:
Admiral Krancke, GIs Infantry, Wright Normandy, Isle Wright, Calais French, Royce Merlin, Coast Guard, Germanys Panzer, D- Day, Allies Germans, d- day, dd tanks, allied forces, german resistance, german radar, invasion force, p- 51 mustang, world war, isle wright, radar sites, amphibious assault history, ambrose 257, nazi party ambrose, day june 6, june 6 1944,
Approximate Word count = 2141
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)