World War II: D-Day President Roosevelt and War Department Planning and Operational Documents

World War II: D-Day President Roosevelt and War Department Planning and Operational Documents

6,143 pages of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Roosevelt Administration’s War Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff files related to Operation Overlord, the invasion of Northwestern Europe entering through Northern France. The invasion is commonly known today as D-Day. The material also includes information about Operation Anvil. Anvil was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15 August 1944. The operation was initially planned to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, the Allied landing in Normandy, but the lack of available resources led to a postponement of the second landing.

Materials include: Correspondences between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, strategic studies, intelligence reports, outline plans, operational reports, minutes of FDR meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, FDR drafts of speeches with handwritten notations and changes, plans for and minutes of the meetings between President Roosevelt, Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill.

The D-Day invasion was the carrying out of President Roosevelt’s “Grand Strategy.” FDR wanted to pursue a “Germany First” strategy.  This policy was in contrast to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s preference for a peripheral strategy.

Early in the war, both President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill believed that a second front needed to be open in Europe to defeat Germany. Both believed that without an invasion deep into mainland Europe, an unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany would not be possible. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was pressing for the relief a second front would give the Russian army on the east front. As the war was executed, a divergence emerged between the two leaders on the timing and urgency for opening the new front.

The pace of progress of American preparations, vicissitudes of fortune on the battlefield, the influence of  Stalin, and in the days leading up to the invasion, weather conditions, caused regular changes in the plans for D-Day.

Originally plans were for an invasion, "Operation Sledgehammer," to take place in spring of 1943. However, the demands of fighting in two theaters meant that America would not be able to provide the necessary ships, landing crafts and troops by that time. Focus moved from an invasion of Western Europe, to an invasion of Northwest Africa, "Operation Torch." The operation pushed back any invasion of Western Europe; however, it was the first major operation U.S. troops took against the German army.

When in February 1943 Roosevelt and Churchill met in Casablanca they agreed on an invasion of Sicily beginning in July, an enactment of Churchill’s peripheral strategy. Unfortunately for the Allies, the North African and Italian campaigns were longer and harder fights than anticipated, with defeats at Dunkirk, Anzio, and Salerno.

General Dwight Eisenhower and British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery agreed that a massive invasion of Normandy was necessary. Churchill preferred to stick with peripheral attacks and avoiding a large direct attack into Western Europe. With Stalin also supporting a Normandy invasion, in January 1944 Churchill began indicating support for "Operation Overlord."

After years of planning, as dawn broke on June 6, 1944, mostly American, British, Canadian and Free French troops landed on five beaches along the Normandy coast of France. The largest amphibious military assault in history.  Also participating were Australian, Czech, Polish, Norwegian, and New Zealander troops.

At the end of the first day of Operation Overlord, Roosevelt addressed the American public by radio.  His address took the form of a prayer. The success of Operation Overlord leads to an establishment of a “Second Front” in Europe. Hitler now faced fighting the Red Army in the East and expanding Anglo-American-Canadian lead forces in the West.

Allied D-Day casualties were approximately 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. German losses are estimated to have been between 4,000 and 9,000 soldiers. By late-August 1944, all of northern France was liberated from German control. Ten months later Allied forces completed the defeat of Nazi Germany.




















Also see:

World War II: Allied Air Force D-Day/Operation Overlord Planning Documents

D-Day Invasion of Normandy - Operation Overlord Documents and Photos 

D-Day - Invasion of Normandy Artwork (1944-1945)