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Limited gains were made in the Netherlands with OPERATION MARKET-GARDEN that month. Ike’s Allied Armies fought their way across France and Belgium, reaching the border of Germany by mid-September. In the first three weeks of fighting in Normandy the Allies suffered 60,771 casualties, but they fulfilled their initial objective of breaching the enemy’s coastal defenses and beginning the long-awaited advance into northern Europe. But when told that on the following day, June 6, 1944, the weather would likely improve enough to allow for favorable conditions, Ike made the crucial decision, “OK, let’s go!” The operation was a very complex undertaking and its success – securing the much needed beachhead from which the Allies could eventually drive the German forces back to their homeland – was by no means assured.īad weather forced Ike to delay the attack by one day. The D-Day invasion of Normandy was the largest amphibious attack in history, involving approximately 6,000 vessels, over 11,000 aircraft, and 156,000 ground forces. Many historians consider his most important decision of the war was issuing the order to launch the D-Day assault on German defenses in occupied France. During the 1944-45 campaigns in Western Europe, nine different nationalities served on his headquarters staff. His skill at getting all the different Allied forces to work together as a team was critical to the invasion’s success. He had skillfully led three amphibious invasions and had often tactfully dealt with the sometimes difficult relations between the American, British, Canadian, and French Allies. In December 1943, he was given the top job of Supreme Allied Commander for the all-important invasion of Normandy, France. Later in 1943, Eisenhower also was in command during the campaigns in Sicily and Italy. His forces, augmented by General Montgomery’s British Eighth Army, brought about the complete defeat of all Axis forces in the North African campaign by mid May 1943, setting the stage for further advances in the Mediterranean Theater. In November 1942, Eisenhower commanded amphibious troop landings on the coast of northwest Africa. Marshall had such great confidence in Eisenhower’s abilities that in June 1942 he placed Ike in command of the American forces gathering in the United Kingdom. Marshall in developing important global strategy. There at the War Plans Division he assisted Army Chief of Staff General George C. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was ordered to Washington, D.C. Although during the First World War he had been in charge of a Tank Corps training camp at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he had never seen combat. Army’s 1941 maneuvers in Louisiana he was promoted from colonel to brigadier general on September 29 that year, just a few months before America’s entry into World War II. He was best known by the nickname acquired while growing up in Abilene, Kansas - Ike.Īs a result of his organizational skills during the U.S. He also later became the 34 th President of the United States (1953-1961).
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Eisenhower (1890-1969), born in Texas to pacifist parents and a graduate of the West Point Class of 1915, was one of the most important American generals of World War II.