June 6th, 1944. D-Day was heralded as “the longest day” of the war, yet it was but the opening salvo for the Allied offensive into western Europe – an offensive that would last for almost a year before the Allies could declare victory in the European theater.
The objective of the invasion: to dismantle Hitler’s “Wehrmacht,” the once-mighty German armed forces; liberate the occupied countries of western Europe; and ultimately to subdue the threat from Germany and the Nazi regime that ruled it.
Although bludgeoned by defeats in Russia and Africa and systematically weakened by Allied bombing of its supply and production infrastructure, the German army remained a formidable foe. The soldiers and officers of Hitler’s army were well trained, battle hardened, and in possession of some of the finest and most lethal equipment of the war.
Over the course of the Allied offensive, American forces would undertake the brunt of the fighting in northern France and Belgium, while their British allies would concentrate on the Netherlands and the liberation of the Scandinavian countries.
The American and British forces slowly but surely advanced towards Germany, yet not without problems. In Arnhem, a daring joint offensive by the Allies was struck down by German defenses, and Nazi forces nearly broke the American lines during the last major German offensive in the Ardennes forest.