Why Was Normandy Selected For D-Day?

In the debut episode of the Logistics of D-Day we explore the logic and planning that resulted in Normandy being chosen as the location for the largest amphibious invasion in the history of human kind.



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Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.


Thank you to my patreon supporters: Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Thomas Barth, Johnny MacDonald, Stephen Foland, Alfred Holzheu, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Binghaith, Brent Higgins, Dexter Appleberry, Alex Pavek, Marko Hirsch, Mikkel Johansen, Hibiyi Mori. Viktor Józsa, Ron Hochsprung

[RealEngineering]

Huge thanks to Simon Clark for reading that radio announcement last minute yesterday. The original version of this video on Nebula has the original radio speech, but some American music label seems to think they own the rights to BBC speech from 1944...

[alphaxalex]

*Because the English wanted to get back on the Normans from 1066*

[MartinCHorowitz]

You left out one of the key reason for Normandy being picked, The french resistance captured plans for defense construction for Normandy, which made it a prime location for consideration.

[bluesweater]

As oversimplified said

“Because it was less defended, and the beaches were nicer.”

[alexkorman]

The allies also invaded North Africa and Italy, so it’s not like they didn’t have experience with naval landings.

[mrglayden]

I'm from Guernsey (shown quite a lot in this video but not mentioned) and we had a lot of the atlantic wall built here, being the only british soil occupied by the Nazi's during the war they wanted to hold onto us, "Almost 10% of all the concrete used in the Atlantic Wall was used in the Channel Islands"

[alexwild]

The two swimmers mentioned were one of several beach reconnaissance teams. I seem to recall in the history of the SBS, Special Boat Service [but it might have been the early days of the Commands], teams were landed from midget submarines. Carrying no guns but survey equipment they stood on the sandy beach in the dead of night using drills to take core samples of the sand which was used to assess the maximum weight of vehicles the sand would support without bogging down and becoming stuck.
Tanks obviously spread their great weight over the foot print of the tank tracks. Lorries, while much lighter, might only have six wheels and a much smaller foot print of rubber tyre to spread their weight. So the assumption that "If its alright for tanks it will be fine for lorry carrying a ton or two of supplies" isn't as clear an assumption as it might first appear.


Thus any beach the allies were seriously interested in using, this assessment had to be made for each beach. These were high risk missions because if the team were discovered their presence would indicate a clear higher than normal interest in that beach. If the technicians back at base weren't able to get satisfactory core samples the team were sent back again. This information was critical to the allies.


Further the gradient of the beach wasn't the only consideration.Often a false foreshore, or sand bar was formed in the sand some yards off the real beach. The effect of this was to stop the landing craft short of the real beach thinking they had touched down in shallow water. When the vehicles were discharged they'd soon find themselves completely submerged on the shore side of the sand bar and still way off the real beach.


Of course this all sounds tricky enough while carrying no mention of the mined obstacles littering the beaches foreshore, all of which had to be negotiated to get teams on to and off the beach with this vital information.,


Midget submarines were in place off the D-Day beaches atleast the night before [more likely several days before] as they acted as marker buoys or navigation lights pointing only out to sea to guide the landing teams into the right corridors towards the beaches. In part this small but vital role was afforded to them in recognition of many missions they had made collecting information in the run up to D-Day.

[TheVergile]

because landing in berlin directly through the spree-channel was deemed a tad cocky by high command

[napoleonibonaparte]

Soviets: Why did the Soviets pick everywhere.

[Azakadune]

"led by britain and america."








Canada cries every night lol

Edit: I appear to to have started a war. All I remember from grade 10 history is Canada decided on its own to join the war, so for this instance, it was technically “independent” in its decision making.

[parthibpandit]

"because it was less fortified, and the beaches were a lot nicer"

[jasperlilienfeld]

Loved this video. I went to Normandy when I was 16. Going there is a strange and sombre experience. You can still see the war there with the floating harbour being a stark reminder that no matter how long ago the war was, the struggle of those men will never leave those beaches.

[silversnow]

Who knew that Normandy had many upsides to the Allies during D-day; had it been different, Normandy wouldn't been the primary contender and wouldn't been remembered. Also, its really amazing how much work and time the surveyors put in to give the High Command much needed information about Normandy, good job🍻

[ephraimboateng]

Canadian Soldiers were victim of poor communication and planing and got badly defeated at Dieppe. But we got a second chance a Juno and we were (with Sword, i think) the best.

Proud of our soldiers!🇨🇦
Fier de nos soldat!🇨🇦

[Masa.]

I first read "Why Did The Aliens Pick Normandy?" :D

[welcometonerdland]

Can we talk about the fact that he definitely says “power troopers” rather than “paratroopers” at 4:58

[andrewmason]

Im such a fan of how this is basically a verbal essay on why they chose that particular beach. Laying out the reasons, proving them, then recapping. So satisfying to listen to.

[aRandomFish]

This video has next level editing. Well done!

[Squeeonline]

Brian, I dont know who had an extra hand in this video or if all Nebula videos get this treatment. There's something extra about this. It might be the subtle soundtrack, or extra editing of the script but this is a special video. There's no fluff. Honestly videos like this will make me sign up for Nebula. Seriously this is good stuff. No clickbaity title, quality, sourced content. Great job!

[movementproject]

It's amazing to see how your channel has progressed. The production quality and information is great. Very happy for you.