Operation Quicksilver and D-Day
World War II was an incredibly gruesome affair with millions of innocents being sacrificed to obtain the requests of their leaders. Hitler is often times portrayed as the great enemy of the war because of the Holocaust but was close to complete victory when seemingly all at once three key battles were lost which turned the tide of the war to the allied forces. One of these critical battles was D-Day. The invasion of American forces in northern France caught Hitler and the Nazi party off guard. Even though several ships and other military forces were sailing to Northern France another important American operation was taking effect near the white cliffs of Dover in England. This was operation Quicksilver. Operation Quicksilver was an American-British led army consisting of 11 military divisions (Almost twice as large as D-Day). The goal was to distract the German forces in Northern France with D-Day and once Hitler had committed his troops and sent them clear over to France to defend his western borders the 11 military division of operation Quicksilver would quickly sail from England to Sweden and then due south to attack the heart of Germany. Hitler was tricked! When D-Day started June 6, 1944 Hitler was fearful of the Allied forces overrunning his forces and reclaiming France. He had spies check out Dover, England but saw no movement with these divisions so committed his troops hoping to quickly crush the American forces at D-Day and then move them north across the English channel to destroy the Operation Quicksilver divisions. Unfortunately for Hitler D-Day was a successful decoy and as German forces swarmed the beaches of Normandy Operation Quicksilver unleashed the might of 11 divisions into the heart of Germany. By July of 1944 the 11 divisions of Operation Quicksilver had devastated Nazi Germany and brought an end to Hitler’s reign. They swept across western Germany and met up with the D-Day remaining forces in Belgium to complete the destruction of the German army. It would take a few weeks before Hitler would commit suicide ending his official reign in Germany and another year beyond that before peace would spread through Europe but the heroic efforts of George Patton and his 11 division Quicksilver troops will be remembered for successfully tricking the Kaiser and restoring order to Europe.