The year 1944 saw World War II take a major turn towards ending and closure.There is a lot of history involved in World War II. D-Day is one of the most important events that took place during this war.To understand the significance of D-Day, you have to look back to the year 1939 when a man named Adolf Hitler was all over the news. Hitler was a German soldier-turned-politician who was not happy about what happened to Germany after World War I.He was particularly angry at the terms inflicted upon his nation in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Germany was subjected to harsh treatment by the victorious parties, giving birth to serious problems. The German nation was in a very bad state economically and unemployment was soaring drastically.To address the issues of the day, Hitler joined politics and quickly rose through the ranks. In 1933 he successfully formed his government and became the Chancellor of Germany. Soon people were starting to see true colors as he made his intentions clear on the world stage. He tried to take over Europe and in this quest, teamed up with Italy and Japan to take over the whole world.In September of 1939, World War II started when Germany invaded Poland and a famous battle was fought. France and Britain declared war on Germany, as a result. Britain and France were joined by a large number of countries of Europe and the Commonwealth. The US did not participate in the war until 1942 after Pearl Harbour was attacked by Japan. Together they were the Allied Forces. After years of fighting and struggle, the Allied forces said enough is enough!Then they organized the largest amphibious land and water attack in military history. On June 6th, 1944 morning, they landed on the beaches of Normandy and took on the German army stationed at the beach. That was ‘D-Day’.You may be wondering what the ‘D’ means in the term ‘D-Day’. It simply means ‘day’, as in the fateful day when something big starts.If you are liking this article, go ahead and find out more fascinating historical facts by clicking on 1954 facts and 1974 fun facts!1944 History SnapshotEurope witnessed the wrath of the German war machine with devastating effects. Most of mainland and western Europe had fallen before the might of the German troops and only the Soviet troops were fighting back in the eastern front.The one country that was holding back any possible German attack was Great Britain. Despite the incisive aerial attacks on its territories by German aircraft, the British were still holding on to their grounds. Winston Churchill, who was the then British Prime Minister, proved to be a great leader to his people at this juncture. You may want to read some of his inspirational speeches from this time. They helped a country under brutal attack to find strength and fight back.By the beginning of 1944, the Allied forces were desperately looking for an opening into the European continent. A lot of time, energy, and money were being used into acquiring intelligence about the topography of the northern French coastline. Eventually, the high command of the Allied Forces decided on using the beach at Normandy as a landing spot for the troops. Before the operation began, Allied spies fooled their German counterparts into thinking that they would land at some other place.Imperial Japan, on the other hand, was engaged in fighting Allied forces comprising mainly of American troops. Japanese troops had been causing terror and panic in most of the Pacific sector of the war. Japanese forces under the command of General Tojo had conquered much of south and south-east Asia and were knocking on the doors of India. It is because of these reasons that the second world war was truly a global war.Born This YearPeople from various walks of life were born in 1944.Did you know that the erstwhile secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, was born in 1944?From politics, we shall move on t music and entertainment and tell you that the co-creator and producer of the Star Wars movie franchise, George Lucas, was born this year.So were musicians Diana Ross, co-founder of Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page, and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. If you have watched the quiz show ‘The Weakest Link’, you would be surprised to know that the presenter Anne Robinson, was also born this year.Hollywood celebrities Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, and Jaqueline Bisset, US talk show host Jerry Springer, former mayor of New York City and close aide of ex-US President Donald Trump, Rudy Guiliani, legendary boxer and former World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier, former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, and more, all came into this world in 1944.Wrestler-turned-actor and leading Hollywood superstar Dwayne Johnson, who more popularly goes by the name ‘The Rock’, has a big connection to this year. You see his father, the late Rocky Johnson, was born in 1944.D-Day And NormandyD-Day was seen as a turning point of the war. It was given the code name ‘Operation Overlord’. During much of the Second World War, military intelligence departments devised code names for their operations to evade the chance of getting their plans leaked in case spies were within earshot. A plan of such magnitude, that of recapturing Europe from the Nazi forces, was surely meant to be top secret.The number of machinery deployed on the morning of June 6, 1944, was staggering. Numbers exceeding 13,000 aircraft and 5,000 ships showed up on the beach of northern France on that fateful day to direct the attack. Thousands of soldiers came in with the boats. From the sky, paratroopers were also descending on the beach to join the field infantry units. On the eve of the Normandy invasion, more than two million soldiers had assembled in Britain to prepare for D-Day. These troops of the Normandy invasion were brought in from 12 different countries. British troops, US troops, and Canadian troops came together. Canadian troops, British troops, and US troops formed the bulk of the forces.With these numbers at their side, the Allies launched the biggest amphibious landing operation the world has ever seen. This particular operation was called ‘Operation Neptune’ and came under Operation Overlord. Soldiers totaling around 175,000 stormed the beaches of Normandy and successfully took control of more than 80 square miles of French territory, thus allowing the reopening of the second front in Europe against Nazi Germany.There were five landing zones within a 50-mile radius. They were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The allied troops could not benefit from the element of surprise completely as there were a great many casualties on their side. At Omaha Beach, United States troops led the assault against the Nazi forces and consequently suffered the greatest difficulties in achieving their objective. These American forces paid the ultimate price to secure their objective and contributed to the naming of this beach as ‘Bloody Omaha’.The allied forces were fortunate to occupy the coastline that day. That is partly because the German military failed to identify the exact location of the Allied landings. They had been aware of an attempted invasion for days before it took place. German military hero and Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was the commander of the German forces in Northern France before D-Day took place and he believed that Germany would only be able to stop the advance of the invading force before it reaches the shore. Rommel, the person who won North Africa for Hitler, tried very hard to convince his superiors about the impending danger to Normandy. But the German high command did not take his advice seriously. Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt, to whom Rommel reported about his military insights, did not see any danger coming through Normandy and instead shifted most German troops to a different part.On top of that, as was the case throughout the war, Hitler made unnecessary interferences with the deployment of forces. All this made the German resistance on the Normandy coast weak and understaffed. This indecisiveness on the German front turned out to be a boon for the Allies.1944 Pop Culture HistoryAs the war in Europe and the Pacific raged on, back in the United States people were still going for their regular dose of entertainment.The singer Bing Crosby was the undisputed heartthrob of the nation in 1944. His records were selling like hotcakes all around the country. In Hollywood, leading actors and actresses such as James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Rita Hayworth, and more, were ruling the charts of the movie theatres. This period falls within the time frame dubbed as the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’.The war was all over the news during this time in America. So it will not surprise you if we tell you that the famous Time Magazine chose the US General Dwight David Eisenhower as its ‘Man of the Year’. You may be aware of the fact that Eisenhower later went on to become the president of the United States. The president of States in 1944 was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The GNP of the United States doubled between 1940 and 1944.Tactics And The Cost Of Victory In NormandyThe D-Day assault was not the only reason for Allied victory in the war. But it was certainly the beginning of the end for Germany.As thousands of allied troops entered France from its north, Italy and southern France was being liberated simultaneously. On the eastern sector of the war in Europe, the Soviet forces of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin were steadily pushing back the German Army from its lands in eastern Europe.So we see that the Allied leaders and commanders had quite cleverly distributed their forces. It allowed them to engage German troops in different places rather than in one single spot. This came as a major blow to German troops as they then had to divide their attention as well as arms.The Allied Forces had planned another parallel operation to speed up the surrender of German forces. This was code-named ‘Operation Market Garden’ and was launched on September 17, 1944. Its principal objective was to take control of notable bridges of the Rhine Valley from Nazi occupation.The bridges were important to the Germans as they could send supplies to their troops using them. Getting control over those major thoroughfares was seen as a major blow to the German plans. Unfortunately, German intelligence already knew about this operation and was prepared to deal with it. As a result, Operation Market Garden could not reach its desired objective and the Rhine Valley remained under German control for the time being.Thousands of soldiers lost their lives in both Operation Overlord and Operation Market Garden. Their lives were the ultimate sacrifice on the road to achieving victory. Because of the efforts and the sacrifices of these soldiers, the Allied forces were victorious and peace was brought back to Europe.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 1944 facts then why not take a look at 1956 facts, or 1979 facts.
The year 1944 saw World War II take a major turn towards ending and closure.
