NEW ORLEANS (January 21, 2009) – As the world prepares to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6, The Na...

Operation FORTITUDE involved a group of double agents feeding disinformation to the Germans but the group was an odd collection of criminals, playboys, party girls, and a woman obsessed with her dog.

Within 48 hours of the amphibious assault, over 130,000 GIs and some 17,000 vehicles came ashore. With more troops and equipment arriving daily, the amount of supplies required to support this force grew exponentially. 

Planning the Overlord assault didn’t just happen overnight. It was a result of a prewar doctrinal framework built upon six identified components for an amphibious assault.

This column is the second of three D-Day columns written by war correspondent Ernie Pyle describing the Allied invasion of Normandy.