Why was Operation Overlord and D-Day Important?
Before Operation Overlord, Allied attacks against Germany and Italy had been in the south of Europe, far away from Germany. Overlord represented the first real threat to Germany’s control of Western Europe. It opened up a second major front against Germany and convinced Russia to remain in the war. Prior to D-Day the Russians felt that they were the ones doing all the fighting against Germany in Eastern Europe. The invasion of Normandy was also a means of countering Russia’s growing Communist influence in Europe. It was clear that Germany was going to be defeated at some future point. America and Britain were very concerned about what the Russians would do. The Russians might make a separate peace with Germany. This would leave Britain and America to fight on alone. Or Russia might successfully conquer Germany and control most of Europe. D-Day stopped this from happening. Operation Overlord put Russia’s fears to rest by opening a second front and eventually aided the Allies in stopping
