Who was the ranking commander of US Navy forces for the D-Day invasion?
549645
Ernest Joseph King, Chief of Naval Operations, Commander in Chief of US Naval Forces.\n\nOperation Overlord involved five beachheads - code-named Juno, Sword, Gold, Utah & Omaha - so I'm fairly sure that more than one fleet was involved in the attacks.
422262
UK:  Field Marshall Sir Bernard Law Montgomery\n     Air Marshall Cuningham\n     General Sir Harold Alexander\n     Rear Admiral Reginald G.H. Henderson\n     Admiral Sir Philip Vian\n     General Sir Richard O'Connor\n     General Sir Alan Brooke\n\nUSA:  General Dwight D. Eisenhower\n      General Douglas MacArthur\n      General Wainright\n      General "howlin mad" Smith\n      General Omar Bradley\n      General Vandegrift\n      Admiral Chester W. Nimitz\n      Admiral William F. Halsey\n      General George S. Patton\n      General Hap Arnold\n      General Buckner\n      General Curtis LeMay\n      General George C. Kenney\n      Admiral Raymond A. Spruance\n      General George C. Marshall\n      General Mark W. Clark\n      Maj. Gen. Frederick L. Walker\n      Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Keyes\n      \nGermany:  Field Marshall Erwin Rommel\n          Luftewaffe Marshall Gerring\n          Admiral Dernitz\n          General Kesselring\n          Field Marshall Jodel\n          Heinrich Himmler\n          Maj. General Dietrich von Choltitz\n          Feldmarschall Gunther von Kluge\n          General Heinrich von Vietinghoff\n          Generalleutnant Fridolin von Senger\n          \n          \nJapan:  General Tojo\n        Admiral Yamamoto\n        General Tokugawa\n        General Takeo Yasuda\n        Admiral Chuichi Nagumo\n        General Tomoyuki Yamashita\n\nThere are many more that I can't think of right off the top of my head.  I just got home from work and my brain is fried.  I hope this helped.
423597
Just like I figured, the usual names that are mostly a product of the press they've received.  Stonewall Jackson was probably the best general of the Civil War on either side, with a grasp of operational level warfare seen only by Prussian and German generals (and good old Napolean).  \n\nThe best general we had in WWII was Alexander Patch, the only general to have major commands in all 3 theaters of war (European, Mediterranean, and Pacific), who never lost a major unit and accomplished every mission assigned to him.\n\nPatton is forever overrated for too many reasons to mention here, and MacArthur was brilliant one minute and incredibly stupid the next.  Eisenhower ended up being a politician in uniform, and had next to no battlefield experience.
418744
I'd say it's probably Churchill.  I don't really like the man, but he was a great, inspirational leader who pulled Britain through the Battle of Britain, which wasn't so much a battle as it was a barrage.  He was a strong, proud, charismatic man who rallied a nation against fascism.  I'd call him much more of a hero than FDR or LaGuardia or even Patton, because he was in it for so much longer, when it looked like he wasn't going to get help from the US.\n\nNot that I don't love FDR.
68647
At 3 am on 6 June 1944, a huge armada of 6,000 ships – including 864 converted merchant ships and 4126 landing craft – set sail for Normandy in 47 convoys.   They carried 200,000 seamen, 185,000 soldiers and 20,000 vehicles.
1117827
He has a Defense Distinguished Service medal as the highest. Check a photo of him and his ribbons then go to a military site and look each one up individually. There is a master list of military awards in order of preference that you can cross reference.
1069897
The General Charles De Gaulle
913970
In English military parlance, D-Day is a term often used to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. While the initial D in D-day does not stand for anything, it often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar terms.\n\nBy far, the best known D-Day is June 6, 1944 — the day on which the Battle of Normandy began — commencing the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II. However, many other invasions and operations had a designated D-Day, both before and after Operation Overlord. D-Day was originally planned for June 5, 1944 but bad weather and heavy seas delayed that.\n\nThe terms D-day and H-hour are used for the day and hour on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. They designate the day and hour of the operation when the day and hour have not yet been determined, or where secrecy is essential. There is but one D-day and one H-hour for all units participating in a given operation.\n\nWhen used in combination with figures, and plus or minus signs, these terms indicate the point of time preceding or following a specific action. Thus, H−3 means 3 hours before H-hour, and D+3 means 3 days after D-day. H+75 minutes means H-hour plus 1 hour and 15 minutes.\n\nPlanning papers for large-scale operations are made up in detail long before specific dates are set. Thus, orders are issued for the various steps to be carried out on the D-day or H-hour minus or plus a certain number of days, hours, or minutes. At the appropriate time, a subsequent order is issued that states the actual day and times.\n\nThe earliest use of these terms by the U.S. Army that the Center of Military History has been able to find was during World War I. In Field Order Number 9, First Army, American Expeditionary Forces, dated 7 September 1918: "The First Army will attack at H hour on D day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel Salient."\n\nD-day for the invasion of Normandy by the Allies was originally set for 5 June 1944, but bad weather caused Gen. Dwight D Eisenhower to delay until 6 June and that date has been popularly referred to ever since by the short title "D-day". (In French, it is called JourJ or Le Choc.) Because of this, planners of later military operations sometimes avoided the term. For example, Douglas MacArthur's invasion of Leyte began on "A-day", and the invasion of Okinawa began on "L Day". The Allies proposed invasions of Japan that would have begun on "XDay" (Kyūshū, scheduled for November 1945) and "YDay" (Honshū, scheduled for March 1946).
382822
Five-Star Generals and Dates of Rank:\n\nGeneral of the Army George C. Marshall: December 16, 1944\n\nGeneral of the Army Douglas MacArthur: December 18, 1944\n\nGeneral of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower: December 20, 1944\n\nGeneral of the Army Henry H. Arnold: December 21, 1944\n\n(Redesignated General of the Air Force pursuant to Public Law 58, 81st Congress, approved May 7, 1949):\n\nGeneral of the Army Omar N. Bradley: September 20, 1950 \n\nThe Navy's Five-Star Fleet Admirals:\n\nAdmiral William D. Leahy \nAdmiral Ernest J. King\n\nAdmiral Chester Nimitz\n\nAdmiral William F. "Bull" Halsey\n\nThe Air Force Five-Star General:\n\nGeneral Henry "Hap" Arnold --Note: General Arnold actually was awarded this rank twice. In 1944, he received his fifth star while the air force was still part of the Army. It was then known as the U.S. Army Air Corps. After the Air Force separated from the Army, he became the new service's only Five-Star General.
116801
WHY WAS IT CALLED D-DAY?\n\n“D” is derived from the word "Day". D-day is the unnamed day on which a particular operation commences or is to commence. (US Dept of Defence, Defence Technical Information Center)\n\nWHY IS D-DAY SO IMPORTANT?\n\nD Day was a fork in the road of history, a role of the dice which could have led the world down one of two paths - if it had failed Germany could have regrouped and secured its territory gains. Some claim Hitler, whose scientists were already demonstrating their achievements in rocketry, could have developed of the atom bomb. \n\nBesides the incredible courage, and brilliant strategy it was arguably only as a result of a combination of coincidences and mistakes that the Germans didn't succeed in resisting the landings. Never had world history had such a pivotal day (arguably the Cuban missile crisis deadline is comparable).\n\n- Rommel, the German commander, returned from his headquarters in Normandy to Germany for his wife's birthday on June 6th, removing the immediacy of a local army commander. He believed the weather conditions to be unsuitable for an invasion\n\n- Hitler, who succeeded early in the war by giving generals initiative, micro mangaged later in the war with-holding key tank forces that could have prevented the beach-head\n\n- Eisenhower needed very specific weather for the invasion - a late rising moon and a low tide. Meteorologistsof the day told Eisenhower these weather conditions would exist on June 5th, 6th, and 7th. Originally, Eisenhower chose June 5th as the invasion day, but due to an unexpected storm, he postponed it for 24 hours. Meteorologists then reported a new weather front that would cause some temporary clearing over the English Channel. The clearer weather conditions would last only until the morning of the 6th and then the weather would get worse. Rather than postpone the invasion, Eisenhower and his commanders decided to go through with the invasion on June 6th.\n\n- a double agent codenamed Garbo told his German coordinators at 3am on the night of June 6th that an invasion was occurring in Normandy, revealing the true invasion intentions. He knew they would be starting to receive reports corroborating this giving his intelligence great creditbility. Then after telling the truth he sold the German intelligence the really big lie - that the Allies were communicating to their forces that there was to be utter secrecy about 'other landings' (leading German intelligence to believe what they wanted to hear - that the Normandy invasion was a bluff and the real attack was in the pas de Calais) a bluff which succesfuly led to Hitler holding back his forces in the believe that the real landings were in Calias.\n\nThe outcome of D-Day was an early end to the war in both Europe and Japan. Had D-Day failed the allies would have needed to wait until 45 or 46 to reattempt the landings. \n\nThere is great debate as to whether if D-Day had failed Hitler could have used the extra time to develop the atom bomb. Some sides say he disputed this Jewish physics pioneered by Einstein, however he did develop heavy water facilities in Normandy. If D-Day had failed with the bomb he might have brokerered a peace securing his territory gains.\n\nIt must be pointed out that even if D-Day had failed the Russians would still have been likely to have succeeded and potentially secured a much larger amount of territory in Europe when peace was secured. Without D-Day the western allies would not have had control of France, Spain and England which might have fallen to communism and the Cold War would have been a very different story.\n\nImagine a world where Europe had been run by a brutal totalitarian state through the 40s and 50s. America would have become isolated. One can only speculate on the outcome but it would be hard not to imagine millions more dying and the implications affecting more than just those countries directly involved in the conflict.\n\nMa
635046
Dwight David Eisenhower.  His nick name was Ike
607762
European\nBattle for Stalingrad, Battle of Normandy, and Second Battle of El Alamein \n\nPacific \nBattle of Midway, Battle of Guadalcanal, and Battle of Okinawa
462303
Bo Gritz.  He was decorated 62 times for combat.\n\nHere is an odd one.  Timothy McVeigh? He won a Bronze Star in the First Gulf War and then he was executed.
47026
June 6, 1944 Normandy, France\n\nedit: \nyep, December 7, 1941 December 7, 1941 December 7, 1941 December 7, 1941 December 7, 1941 December 7, 1941
40408
That was the code name! \n\nIt was code for the Allied invasion of Europe by way of Normandy, France.
722325
The initial raids were carried out by the Twentieth Air Force operating out of mainland China in Operation Matterhorn under XX Bomber Command. Initially the Twentieth Air Force was under the command of Hap Arnold, and later Curtis LeMay.
816647
Nothing.\nIn English military parlance, D-Day is a term often used to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. \nWhile the initial D in D-day does not stand for anything, it often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will or has occurred.\nBy far, the best known D-Day is June 6, 1944 — the day on which the Battle of Normandy began — commencing the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II.