Assignment 7 - Drew

Without a doubt, World War II (1939-1945) is the most important world event in the last several centuries, perhaps in the entire history of the modern world. On September 30th, 1944, German troops in Calais, France, surrendered to Canadian troops following the resoundingly successful Allied Operation Overlord (commonly called D-Day, the Allied invasion of continental Europe). For those lacking a keen interest in military history, this event will seem small, insignificant, and to be quite honest, boring. But I'm going to attempt to explain it anyway. Calais is one of the major French ports on the English Channel; after the fall of France in the early stages of WWII, Allied planners began thinking about a counter-invasion of continental Europe to expel the Germans. In order for such an invasion to happen, Allied forces would first have to succeed in landing, establish a temporary base of operations, and then capture a more permanent jumping off point, like an established port, through which would travel the needed volume of supplies and troops. A long story short, in 1944 when the Allies did invade Europe, Calais would play a major role in the advance following the successful landing at Normandy. Allied planners optimistically called for Calais to fall to Allied forces weeks after the Normandy invasion, perhaps a month. But Calais would prove a major obstacle, and would hold out for several months until September 30th, 1944, when the Germans holding out there finally surrendered, giving the Allies the port they needed to guarantee the success of the invasion of the Nazi's fortress Europe.