Is There Any Reasoning As To Why D-Day Normandy Landings Were Specifically Planned For May/June?

[Jopa79]

Don't forget Bagration...

Well, I don't. But Bagration was launched not until 22nd of June - something like 18 after Normandy.

The Soviet Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive was launched Normandy +5 days.

 

[Grandpa Maur]

To answer the title - Is There Any Reasoning As To Why D-Day Normandy Landings Were Specifically Planned For May/June? - yes, there are at least two good reasons. The weather, of course, is one. Making the landings during early summer gives the Allies much better opportunity to have success, than let's say for instance, if the landings would have happened in November-February.

A second reason, not so well known, already earlier the Allied and the Soviets had agreed, Stalin would launch a simultaneous, a supportive offensive at the Eastern Front early summer of 1944, to draw the Axis' attention elsewhere from Normandy and by doing so, to give the Allies a better chance to make a successful landing. The Soviet Union launched a massive offensive against Finland at the Eastern Front, on June 9th, 1944, nearly resulting Finland to collapse at the end of the month.

Oh Finns... I don't know how to break it to you The massive offensive was Bagration, not the operation against Finland...

(seriously, everyone considers that one to be the offensive in question. That made me genuinely curious, is it different in Finland or not?)

 

[Darth Howard]

Well, I don't. But Bagration was launched not until 22nd of June - something like 18 after Normandy.

The Soviet Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive was launched Normandy +5 days.

Yes, but that massive offensive was Bagration. The Soviets even did not pursue the Finnish Campaign as much as they could because they focused on Bagration. Even then, I doubt June 6th was elected and not June 5th or in May due to the Finnish or Belarus campaign

 

[Grandpa Maur]

Yes, but that massive offensive was Bagration. The Soviets even did not pursue the Finnish Campaign as much as they could because they focused on Bagration. Even then, I doubt June 6th was elected and not June 5th or in May due to the Finnish or Belarus campaign

Allied decisionmakers didn't know the planned start of Bagration (and neither the Soviets knew the date of Neptune)

 

[Jopa79]

Oh Finns... I don't know how to break it to you The massive offensive was Bagration, not the operation against Finland...

(seriously, everyone considers that one to be the offensive in question. That made me genuinely curious, is it different in Finland or not?)

Sir, I think, it might be vice versa. It's oftenly almost completely ignored elsewhere. The Soviet Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive. It was not anykind of a probe attack, but the first of the Soviet operations launched in summer of 1944 and the first, launched after the Allied Normandy landings.

It was participated by two Soviet Fronts - Leningrad and Karelian and those consisted of 5 Soviet armies. Nearly half a million Soviet soldiers encountered 75 000 Finns in the initial phase. The Soviet Fronts were later reinforced by 5 divisions. The Finnish Army Corps were also reinforced, having later a total strength of 268 000 in men.

Of course, everyone knows, Operation Bagration, it was the main Soviet offensive, to support the Normandy invasion, or to secure the success in it. But having some 750 000 men and women fighting on the Karelian Isthmus and from north to Lake Ladoga, it surely ain't no skirmish anymore. Also, the operational area was much smaller here than in Bagration. The translation to English, the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive, it's a dismissive one. In Finnish it's 'Neuvostoliiton suurhyökkäys 1944', or 'Kannaksen suurhyökkäys 1944'. Literally in English, 'the Soviet all-out assault of 1944', or 'the Isthmus all-out assault of 1944'.

Yes, but that massive offensive was Bagration. The Soviets even did not pursue the Finnish Campaign as much as they could because they focused on Bagration. Even then, I doubt June 6th was elected and not June 5th or in May due to the Finnish or Belarus campaign

I call it also massive, if we have 750 000 of soldiers together combating on our border (in Bagration, it was 2 million). The Soviets pushed and pursued very much indeed in their campaign of 1944, in the Continuation War against Finland. But their forces were depleted. They spent their reserved strength, to break the Finnish lines and occupy Finland. The Soviet campaign against Finland in summer 1944 was the only one which was repelled and Helsinki, among London and Moscow was the only European capital which was not occupied among the warfaring European countries.

Allied decisionmakers didn't know the planned start of Bagration (and neither the Soviets knew the date of Neptune)

Maybe they didn't know the exact date, but at least, they had much better chat connection and exchange of information as we had.