How did the D-day become overrated

[buritobr]

The is no doubt that the Normandy landing was ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT battles of the WW2. But the myth that the Normandy landing was THE MOST IMPORTANT battle of the WW2 is just... a myth. This myth was built in such a way that many ordinary people, who don't care too much about history, believe that Germany was winning the war until the June 6th 1944. This is not true. After the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk, it was clear that the nazis would be defeated in just a matter of time. The Third Reich was still controling a large part of Europe, but it didn't have enough resources to fight for so long time. The western Allies were already controlling the south of Italy.

Brazilian historian Icles Rodrigues, in a book published this year, explained how the myth was built. He researched documents, articles, movies, speeches. According to his research, the beggining of this myth was Reagan's speeches in Normandy in 1984, in the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the battle. These speeches were broadcasted live on TV and had very large audience.

Before 1984, there was no such kind of celebration. Articles about the WW2 didn't portray the D-day as the turning point of the war. There were movies about the D-day, like D-day the Sixth of June (1956), The Longest Day (1962), Overlord (1975), The Big Red One (1980), but these movies didn't promote the narrative that the Normamdy landing was the turning point of the war. And there were movies about many other battles. The Normandy landing didn't receive special coverage from the entertainment industry. Besides, there were no big political events on June 1954, 1964, 1974.

Reagan started the tradition of big events in every June of year ending with 4. Bill Clinton also spoke an important speech in 1994. Bush's speech on June 6th 2004 was overshadowed by Reagan's death one day before. Reagan's speech of 20 years earlier was more broadcasted than Bush's speech.

The movie Saving Private Ryan (1998), the series Band of Brothers and the games Call of Duty and Medal of Honor were also important in the building of the myth.

Unfortunately, the book was still published only in Portuguese. And I found articles and videos about this book only in Portuguese
https://leituraobrigahistoria.com/o-dia-d-como-a-historia-se-tornou-mito/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRYUrdkgPxA

[buritobr]

It is basically US-centrism.

In Germany the basic understandig of the general public is, that the turning point (or at least, the point, that made the turning obvious) was Stalingrad and that if/when a second front was established the German military collapse was only a matter of time, anyway (and the landing at Sicilly somehow does ot count).

Yes. I know that in the context of the Cold War, the western media used to highlight the western European front and erase the eastern European front from the collective memory. That's why I used to think that the narrative of the D-day as the biggest event was built in the middle of the Cold War.
What I learned from this new published book is that this narrative of the D-day was not created in the middle of the Cold War, but when the Cold War was close to the end (1984).

Even if you consider only the battles fought by the western allies, you don't need to consider the Normandy landing the top battle.