June 6th, 1944. The largest amphibious invasion ever undertaken is in full swing. Our June Map of the Month was published in commemoration of that historic event- known as D-Day. This map was one in a series of maps published throughout the second world war; the “Dated Events War Map”. Ours in particular was created to celebrate D-day, as it has ‘Invasion Map of Fortress Europe, Commemorating D-Day, June 6th, 1944’ for a secondary title. Illustrated by Stanley Turner and published by C.C. Petersen.
The Invasion of northern France involved the largest amphibious fleet ever assembled by mankind. It comprised nearly 7,000 vessels, the majority of which were landing craft to get troops ashore. Only 1,213 out of the total were warships. The amphibious invasion was actually not the first troops ashore- the first invasion troops were actually British and American paratroopers. They were tasked with neutralizing defenses and in general slowing or eliminating the ability for the Germans to mount an effective defense- critical for the beach landings that were to happen just hours later. Relics of the invasion fleet still remain as museum ships in the U.S. or elsewhere; of note is the USS Texas, a battleship from 1914 that served in both wars and bombarded the beaches of Omaha- going so far as to nearly beach itself to provide fire support as far inland as possible.
This map has dates for significant events that have occurred since the Munich Agreement, which was on September 30th of 1938. The Munich Agreement, the infamous settlement reached between Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy, permitted Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of war after his successful annexation of Austria into his 'third German Reich'. The latest date on the map appears to be for the battle line on the eastern front, July 26th of 1944. By this point, the battle line had reached the Baltic states and the Polish border. It’s a stark contrast to the furthest extent of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, portrayed as it was on December 7th of 1941. Two days earlier on December 5th, the Soviet Union began their own counter-offensive to push the Germans back from Moscow.
The map’s portrayal of the allied hold on Normandy is still a very small foothold on France, which is consistent with the latest date found on the map for the eastern front. Allied forces didn’t break out of Normandy until the end of July and the beginning of August. In mid-August, the majority of the German Army west of the Seine river would be encircled and destroyed in the Falaise pocket, ending the battle of Normandy. The liberation of Paris would follow rapidly, liberated just a few days later on August 25th. Also mentioned is an U.S. Air raid on Berlin of March 8th, 1944. That raid involved more than 700 bombers and 800 fighters and was the first successful large-scale mission to Berlin by the U.S. Eighth Air Force. That raid was only part of the larger allied effort to suppress the Luftwaffe and gain air supremacy over Europe prior to Operation Overlord- the invasion of France. As the invasion progressed, those bombing raids would grow rapidly. Later raids included over a thousand bombers in flights that would stretch for hundreds of miles.
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- Eric Friesenhahn, Map and GIS Specialist