Dwight D. Eisenhower called D-Day a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory”, but what made the operation so successful? In my investigation, I will try to find out if Operation Fortitude South was the main factor in the success of the D-Day landings in Normandy. I will also look at other factors such as; other covert operations, the Allied and Nazi spy network and the type of warfare used on the beaches of Normandy. Winston Churchill once said ‘the farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see’. I will try to show how this mind-set inspired the strategists behind the D-Day landings to learn from previous mistakes to ensure the success of the operation German forces had occupied North Western France …show more content…
However, the objective was now to convince the Germans that the attack on Normandy was only a distraction leading up to the main offensive. Fake boats and a few real battleships were placed in the waters surrounding Southern England, the Channel was swept for mines and Garbo and Brutus continued to feed information to the Germans to give the impression that there was a second, larger offensive on the way lead by Patton’s army. These messages were received by Hitler who not only cancelled the movement of forces from Calais to Normandy, but diverted reinforcements away from Normandy and towards Calais. Even weeks after the Normandy landings, as Allied troops worked their way deeper into France, Hitler was still convinced there was a second offensive imminent, so held the majority of his forces in the Calais area. It was only when Patton’s real army advanced on Calais from the South that infantry forces and Panzer divisions were deployed away from Calais. Thanks to Operation fortitude South, Hitler and the majority of his forces spent months waiting for an invasion which never came, allowing the Allied forces to take control of a large portion of France. By March 1945, the Allies had successfully forced the Nazi’s back into Germany, making the whole D-Day operation a