-
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.
历史上规模最大、最具雄心的军事远征是
1944
年夏天，英国、美国和加拿大军队在法国北
部的诺曼底登陆。甚至大自然也起了作用
。
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 open the
way for the final assault on
Germany
itself.
军事策划者花了一年多的时间来协调军队、
大
炮、
船只和飞机的每一次行动，
并为在欧洲开
< br>辟第二次战线的行动做好一切准备。这将解放法国，并为对德国本身的最后攻击开辟道路。
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
Calais3 rather than in Normandy as planned.
一切都在掌握之中
;
甚至包括在英吉利海峡对岸布置
了军事诱饵，让德国人误以为袭击会从
英国离法国最近的加莱海峡发动，而不是按计划在
诺曼底发动
Everything
was controlled, that is, except the weather.
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 arising 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. The fifth was
chosen for D-Day to allow a safety margin in case
the attack
needed to be postponed.
诺曼底登陆日
(D-Day)
是入侵日的代号，
原定于
1944
年
6
< br>月
5
日。这个日期是通过考虑月
光和潮汐两个因素得出的。
入侵的时间需要在接近日出的时候，
那时海上部队的涨潮将会出
现。
这将使他们能够在靠近那些用来
阻碍他们登陆的障碍物的地方着陆，
而不需要在它们上
面上岸。
伞兵们需要满月来提高能见度。
潮汐
-
月光公式最接近目标日期的日子是
6
月
5
日、
6
日和
7
日。选择
5
作为诺曼底登陆日，是为了在攻击需要推迟的情况下留出安全余地。
In addition to moonlight
and favourable tides, calm seas were needed for
the crossing. But
an unusually stormy
transition from spring toward summer that year
held out 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.
除了月光和有利的潮汐外，
横渡还需要平静的海面。
但那年，
从春季到夏季的过渡阶段出现
了一场罕见
的暴风雨，天气会出现合适的转机的希望不大。这也意味着这次被称为“霸王行
动”的入
侵可能不得不推迟到今年晚些时候，甚至明年。
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.
like it, but there it is. I don't see
how we can do anything else.
3,000
landing craft,2, 500 other ships, and 500 naval
vessels began to leave English ports.
随
着
6
月
5
日的
到来，天气非常糟糕，以至于入侵部队的最高指挥官艾森豪威尔将军被迫
将入侵推迟一天
。
当他与他的工作人员开会审议他们的选择时，
他们面临着严峻
的现实
:6
月
6
日看起来并不比最初的诺曼底登陆日好多少。气象报告给了我们一线希望，认为暴风雨暂
时停歇会有足够的时间发动进攻。
关于是否继续推进的磋商一直进行到深夜。
意见分歧。
最
后，艾森豪威尔做出了他的决定。
“我非常肯定我们必须下达命令，”他说。我不喜欢它，但
它就在那儿。我看不出我们还
能做什么。”在几个小时内，一支由
3000
艘登陆艇、
2500
艘
其他船只和
500
艘海军舰艇组成的舰队开始离开英国港口。
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 German 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
defences, 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.
与此同时，
德国队的严重失误使他们完全措手不及。
由于天
气恶劣，
德国海军取消了在英吉
利海峡的常规巡逻。
此外，
原定于
6
月
6
日举行的演习也被取消。
德国气象部门没有
意识到
天气的变化。
在袭击发生前夕，
许多德国高层领导人都缺席了。
负责海岸防御的隆美尔将军
在妻
子生日那天去德国探望她，
而几名军官在雷恩城外，
或者正在前
往那里进行军事演习的
路上。
The assault on Normandy began at12:15
a.m., when the pathfinders for the American
airborne
units left their planes and
parachuted to earth. Five minutes later, on the
other side of the
invasion area, the
British pathfinders made their jump. The
pathfinders were specially trained
to
find and mark the drop zones. The main airborne
assault was to commence within the hour.
对诺曼底的进攻于凌晨
12
点
15
分开始。当美国空降部队的探路者离开飞机，降落伞降落
在地球
上时。五分钟后，
在入侵区域的另一边，英国探路者们跳了起来。探路者经过专门训
练，可以找到并标记空投区域。主要的空降攻击将在一小时内开始。
The airborne attack became
confused because of stiff winds and the evasive
flying of the
transport planes when
they encountered anti-aircraft fire. As a result,
the paratroopers were
scattered over a
wide area and most missed their drop zones, some
by as much as 20 miles.
Other
complications were caused by the terrain, and the
worst terrain was on the Cotentin
Peninsula. The Germans had laced the
open fields with anti-personnel and glider stakes
and
flooded the low areas. The flooding
caused the most trouble for the Americans of the
101st