D Day was a fork in the road of history, a role of the dice which could have led the world down one of two paths - if it had failed Germany could have regrouped and secured its territory gains. Some claim Hitler, whose scientists were already demonstrating their achievements in rocketry, could have developed of the atom bomb.
Besides the incredible courage, and brilliant strategy it was arguably only as a result of a combination of coincidences and mistakes that the Germans didn't succeed in resisting the landings. Never had world history had such a pivotal day (arguably the Cuban missile crisis deadline is comparable).
- Rommel, the German commander, returned from his headquarters in Normandy to Germany for his wife's birthday on June 6th, removing the immediacy of a local army commander. He believed the weather conditions to be unsuitable for an invasion
- Hitler, who succeeded early in the war by giving generals initiative, micro mangaged later in the war with-holding key tank forces that could have prevented the beach-head
- Eisenhower needed very specific weather for the invasion - a late rising moon and a low tide. Meteorologistsof the day told Eisenhower these weather conditions would exist on June 5th, 6th, and 7th. Originally, Eisenhower chose June 5th as the invasion day, but due to an unexpected storm, he postponed it for 24 hours. Meteorologists then reported a new weather front that would cause some temporary clearing over the English Channel. The clearer weather conditions would last only until the morning of the 6th and then the weather would get worse. Rather than postpone the invasion, Eisenhower and his commanders decided to go through with the invasion on June 6th.
- a double agent codenamed Garbo told his German coordinators at 3am on the night of June 6th that an invasion was occurring in Normandy, revealing the true invasion intentions. He knew they would be starting to receive reports corroborating this giving his intelligence great creditbility. Then after telling the truth he sold the German intelligence the really big lie - that the Allies were communicating to their forces that there was to be utter secrecy about 'other landings' (leading German intelligence to believe what they wanted to hear - that the Normandy invasion was a bluff and the real attack was in the pas de Calais) a bluff which succesfuly led to Hitler holding back his forces in the believe that the real landings were in Calias.
The outcome of D-Day was an early end to the war in both Europe and Japan. Had D-Day failed the allies would have needed to wait until 45 or 46 to reattempt the landings.
There is great debate as to whether if D-Day had failed Hitler could have used the extra time to develop the atom bomb. Some sides say he disputed this Jewish physics pioneered by Einstein, however he did develop heavy water facilities in Normandy. If D-Day had failed with the bomb he might have brokerered a peace securing his territory gains.
It must be pointed out that even if D-Day had failed the Russians would still have been likely to have succeeded and potentially secured a much larger amount of territory in Europe when peace was secured. Without D-Day the western allies would not have had control of France, Spain and England which might have fallen to communism and the Cold War would have been a very different story.
Imagine a world where Europe had been run by a brutal totalitarian state through the 40s and 50s. America would have become isolated. One can only speculate on the outcome but it would be hard not to imagine millions more dying and the implications affecting more than just those countries directly involved in the conflict.
Mao Tse Tung was asked 50 years ago what the effect of the French revolution of 1789 had been and he replied that it was too early to tell. This response could also not be more apt to describe the consequences and importance of D-Day today.