Despite this, Allied forces were able to make it past the German defenses and forced German forces out of northwestern France. This was due to the advanced technology and strategy of the Allied forces, counterintelligence, and strong morale. While the Axis powers, specifically the Germans, had superior firepower, numbers, and topography, the combined Allied powers were still able to achieve their missions. Part of the Allied success was due to learning from past mistakes, such as the raid on the port of Dieppe in 1942 (this showed what could be expected from a direct assault on Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” without sufficient resources) and the amphibious assaults in Sicily and Italy. With this in mind, the Allies knew that they would have to use aerial bombings and paratroopers sent in early to soften the beaches and prevent the Germans from resupplying. They also learned how to improve their amphibious technology in order to make the landings on the heavily defended beaches (the Germans placed a plethora of landmines and anti-landing craft spikes). For this, the Allies had to use specified landing crafts that would be able to carry troops and supplies to the …show more content…
For instance, there could only be beach landings (not on rocky terrain), the landing zone had to be close to a port so that supplies could be offloaded, it had to be within range of air cover, there had to be a full moon so night operations could be conducted, there had to be a low tide to allow landing crafts to avoid German beach obstacles. Most importantly, there had to be nice weather to deliver soldiers to shore and use air superiority. As said in the video D-Day, June 1944, “Put all that together and a wide-open calendar started to look quite restricted.” On top of this, if Allied troops were unable to secure the beaches and meet up with the French front lines before the Germans assembled a large enough force to defeat them, the mission would fail and the Allies would be hard-pressed to make another landing anytime soon, which could have affected the outcome of the war. While all of the logistics and strategy were important, the Allies knew that the mission would have a much lower chance of succeeding if they took on the full German force. So, they came up with Operation