The task was much tougher at Omaha beach, however, where the U.S. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno and Sword beaches so did the Americans at Utah. Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for the largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of northern France, commonly known as D-Day.īy daybreak, 18,000 British and American parachutists were already on the ground. An additional 13,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion. At 6:30 a.m., American troops came ashore at Utah and Omaha beaches. “There will be ceremonies and speeches to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day this week, and as we pause to mark the occasion,” says Herrnson, “it’s worth stopping to ask how well we’re keeping the memory of those events alive.On June 6, 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. These results are very similar to Gallup’s findings for this age group in the U.S. A survey of 18-35 year olds commissioned by Universal Pictures in support of the Royal British Legion showed that just over half (52.45 percent) knew that D-Day marks the day of the Normandy landings, with over a fifth (21.66 percent) suggesting that it marks the end of the Great War ( The Courier, May 16, 2014). A poll taken by FirstNews, a British online weekly for young adults, on May 21, 2014, shows that 38 percent of its readers believed D-Day was either during WWI (16 percent) or the Iraq War (22 percent).Īge also plays a role in Britain. Gallup, 2004Ī lack of accurate knowledge about D-Day isn’t restricted to the U.S. adults surveyed in 2004 giving inaccurate information regarding the landing site and the identity of the adversary army on D-Day. However, education was a much better correlate of an accurate perception of D-Day than age, with only 16 percent-17 percent of college graduates either not knowing or mistaken in their perceptions of where the Allied landing occurred or who the Allies were fighting that day, compared to 48 percent-49 percent of respondents with only a high school degree. In their analysis, Gallup found that the WWII generation and their children, aged 50 and over at the time, were more likely to give an accurate response to these two questions (approximately 70 percent) than were young adults (40 percent-50 percent). Gallup surveys archived at the center showed that in 2004, roughly 60 percent of Americans were able to identify Germany as the adversary on that day, and France/Normandy/Omaha Beach as the location of the fighting. adults, with a majority giving the correct answer, Germany.Īmericans did a little better 10 years later, when provided with the prompt that D-Day involved an invasion by the Allies during World War II. and allied forces were fighting against during the D-Day invasion among U.S. Correct, incorrect, and no answers to the question of what country’s army the U.S. “We’re a country that makes a point of honoring our veterans, but it seems we’re not always clear exactly what we’re honoring them for,” says Paul Herrnson, director of the Roper Center and a political science professor at UConn. bombing of Japan or dropping the atomic bomb on that nation. Another 7 percent linked D-Day to the U.S. Another 10 percent thought D-Day was the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Among those who answered incorrectly, the most frequent response was that D-Day was the day the U.S. When asked “As far as you know, what does the term ‘D-Day’ refer to?” only 27 percent gave the correct answer, 29 percent responded they did not know or offered no answer, and 44 percent gave an incorrect response. Public knowledge of D-Day was already waning 20 years ago, despite saturation media coverage of the invasion’s 50th anniversary and a much greater number of D-Day veterans still alive, according to a CBS News poll archived at the Center. adults could not accurately identify what D-day referred to. If so, that would be nothing new, according to data archived at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at UConn. ( image)Īs people all over the world observe the 70th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy – widely considered the turning point of World War II – some commenters have expressed concern that the passing of the generation that fought the war means people are at risk of forgetting the importance of that titanic struggle. Copy Link The Allied invasion of Normandy, widely considered the turning point of World War II, took place in 1944.