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全新版大学英语综合教程第四册
Unit 1 Text B
Would nature be on the side of the
Allied forces as they prepared to invade mainland
Europe or would it favour the Germans?
No one was certain.
大自然会站在秣
马厉兵准备进攻欧洲大陆的同盟国一方，还是会偏袒德国人？
谁也说不准。
The
Normandy Landings
诺曼底登陆
1.
The largest and most ambitious
military expedition
in
history was
the invasion of
Normandy
in northern France
by British, American and Canadian forces that took
place
in the summer of 1944.
Even nature played a role.
2.
It took more than a year
for military planners to
orchestrate
every movement of
troops,
artillery, ships and aircraft and to
set everything in place for the move that was
to open
up a second
front
in Europe. This would liberate
France and way for
the final assault
on
Germany itself.
历史上最大最具野心的军事远征是
1944
年夏天英国、<
/p>
美国和加拿大军队在法国
北部发动的<
/p>
诺曼底入侵
。
甚至自然也发挥了作用。<
/p>
军事侵略家
精心安排军队、
大
炮、
船舰和飞机的每一步运作
，
< br>将进军的一切准备就绪去
打开在欧洲的第二战线
，
这种准备花了一年多的时间。这将解放法国并且
为对德国的最后攻击开路
。
3.
Everything was
controlled; right down to the placement of
military decoys
across
the English Channel to
fool
the Germans
into thinking the attack
would come from
Britain's closest point
to France at Pas de Calais rather than in Normandy
as planned.
4.
Everything
was controlled, that is, except the weather.
一切尽在掌控之中。
军事诱饵
的布置也准备好横穿
英吉利海峡以欺骗德国人，
使
他们误
以为攻击会从英国距法国最近的那个位置即加莱海峡而不是按照计划在
诺曼底登陆。除了
天气，一切尽在掌握之中。
5.
D-day, the code name given to the day
of invasion, was
originally scheduled
for
5
June
1944
. This date had been arrived at
by considering two factors--moonlight
and
tide
. The hour of the
invasion would need to be near sunrise, when
the seaborne troops
would have
a rising
tide
. This would enable them to land
close to the obstacles that had
been
placed
to
hinder
their
landing
without
coming
ashore
on
top
of
them
.
The
paratroopers needed a
full moon for visibility. The days with the
proper tide-moonlight
formula
closest to the
target date were 5, 6 and 7 June. (1) The fifth
was chosen for D-
Day to
allow a safety margin
in
case the attack needed to be postponed.
入侵日子的
代号
，
登陆日，
最初定在
1944
年
5
月
1
日。
这一天在月光和潮汐
这两个因素的
考虑中到来了。
入侵的时间需要在日出左右，
那时海上运输的军
队
将会遇到上涨的潮汐。
这将使他们接近已经设置好的用来阻碍
他们登陆的障碍物
而
不用上岸
。
伞兵部队需要一轮明月来提高能见度。
拥有适当的潮汐、
月光的方
案的日子属
6
月
6
、
7 <
/p>
日最接近预定日期。
第五天被选作诺曼底登陆日，
万一进
攻需要延期，这样可以留有安全的余裕。
6.
In addition
to moonlight and favourable tides,
calm
seas
were needed for the crossing.
(2) But an unusually
stormy
transition from spring toward summer
that year held our
little
hope
that
there
would
be
a
suitable
break
in
the
weather.
It
also
meant
the
possibility
that
Operation
Overlord
,
as
the
invasion
was
called,
might
have
to
be
postponed until later in the year or
even the following year.
除了月光和最合适的潮汐，
平静的海面对于横渡也是十分需要的。
但是那年从春
季到夏季的不平常的猛烈过渡表明天气上不会有一个合适的间隙，
它也意味着这
场被称作
霸王行动
的入侵有可能不得不
延期到年后或下一年。
7.
With the arrival of 5 June, the weather
was so bad that General Eisenhower, supreme
commander of the invasion forces, was
forced to postpone the invasion by one day.
When he met with his staff to
review their options
, they
were faced with
the grim
reality
that 6 June did not
look much better than the original D-Day. The
meteorological report
gave a thin ray
of hope
that
a lull in the
storm
would allow enough time to launch
the
invasion.
Consultations
went on late
into the night on whether to
press
ahead
. Opinions
were
divided. Finally, Eisenhower made his decision.
I am quite positive
we must
give the
order
,
I don't
see how we can do
anything
else.
an armada of
3,000
landing craft, 2,500 other ships, and
500 naval vessels began to leave
English ports.
6
月
5
日到了，
天气太糟糕了，
入侵军队的
最高指挥官艾森
·
豪威尔将军被迫延迟
一天入侵。当他和他的将士回顾他们的选择时，他们面临了残酷的现实。
6
月
6
日看起来并没有比
最初的登陆日好多少。
气象预报表明在这场暴风雨中暂停以求
得
足够的时间来发动入侵几乎没什么希望。
关于是否继续进行入侵的磋商持续到
很晚，意见发生了分歧。最后，艾森豪威尔做出了决定。
“
我很确定我们必须下
达命令，
”
他说，
“
我不喜欢，
但是情况就是这
样。
我不知道我们还能怎么做。
”
几<
/p>
个小时内，由
3000
艘登陆艇、
2500
艘其他船只和
500
艘舰艇组成的
无敌舰队
开始撤出英国港口。
8.
Meanwhile,
critical
errors
by
the
German
side
allowed
them
to
be
taken
completely by surprise
.
Due to
the bad weather, the
German navy
cancelled its usual
patrol of the English
Channel
. Also,
a practice
drill scheduled for June 6 was called
off
. The Garman
meteorological services
were unaware
of
the break in the weather.
On the eve of the attack, many of the
top
German leaders
were
absent from their
commands
.
Rommel, the general
in charge
of
the coastal defenses, was in Germany
visiting
his
wife
on
her
birthday,
and
several
officers
were
some
distance
away
in
Rennes or
on their way there for
a war-game
exercise.
同时，
德方的关键性失误令他们大吃一惊，
由于天气糟糕，
< br>德国海军取消了它在
英吉利海峡的正常巡逻。
并且，
定于
6
月
6
日的训练取消了。
德国气象局没有意