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Last Minute Decisions That Changed History

Khalid Elhassan September 2, 2019 58 min

Sanno Shrine - Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum — Nagasaki after the atomic bombing. 112 International

Eisenhower with paratroopers of the 101st Division, shortly before they boarded airplanes for Normandy. AP/ US Army Signals Corps

34. Eisenhower’s D-Day Gamble

Not invading on June 6^th would have required turning thousands of ships back, and disembarking the troops already aboard. That would have increased the odds of the Germans finding out about the aborted attempt. The safer bet would have been to cancel and reset for the following month. However, on the evening of June 4^th, Royal Air Force meteorologist James Stagg met Eisenhower, and shared his prediction that there would be a break in the bad weather on the 6^th, that would allow the invasion to proceed. The weight of command rested heavily on Eisenhower’s shoulders as he pondered the decision: invade on the 6^th, or cancel and wait for the next window in a few weeks?

After consulting with his subordinates, Eisenhower decided to trust in the meteorologists’ judgment, and ordered the invasion to proceed on June 6^th. As it turned out, Eisenhower’s weather gamble was correct in more ways than one, as the invasion would have faced a weather disaster if it had been pushed back to the next available date, June 18^th to 20th. A major storm struck the Normandy coast from June 19^th to 22^nd, which would have made landings impossible, or cut off those troops that managed to land from reinforcements and resupply. However, the Allies were still not out of the woods: even with perfect weather, the enterprise could still end in failure.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.