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Invasion of Normandy

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This article is about the first few weeks of the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day). The first day of the landings are covered in more detail at Normandy landings.

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Operation Overlord
Part of World War II

Assault landing one of the first waves at Omaha Beach as photographed by Robert F. Sargent. The U.S. Coast Guard caption identifies the unit as Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division.
DateJune 6, 1944 – mid-July 1944
LocationNormandy, France
Result Decisive Allied victory
Belligerents
 Australia
 Canada
France Free France
New Zealand New Zealand
Netherlands The Netherlands
 Norway
 Poland
 United Kingdom
 United States
Germany Germany
Commanders and leaders

United States Dwight Eisenhower
(Supreme Allied Commander)
United Kingdom Arthur Tedder (Deputy Supreme Allied Commander)
United KingdomBernard Montgomery (21st Army Group, Ground Forces Commander in Chief)
United Kingdom Trafford Leigh-Mallory (Air Commander in Chief)
United Kingdom Bertram Ramsay (Naval Commander in Chief)

United States Omar Bradley (U.S. 1st Army)
United Kingdom Miles Dempsey (British 2nd Army)
Nazi Germany Gerd von Rundstedt (Oberbefehlshaber West)
Nazi Germany Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B)
Nazi Germany Friedrich Dollmann (7.Armee Oberkommando)
Strength
1,000,000 (by July 4) 380,000 (by July 23)
Casualties and losses
United States: 1,465 dead, 5,138 wounded, missing or captured;
United Kingdom: 2,700 dead, wounded or captured;
Canada: 340 dead; 621 wounded or captured;
Total:10,264
Nazi Germany: Between 4,000 and 9,000 dead, wounded or captured

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Operation Overlord
(Battle of Normandy)
Prelude

Airborne assault
British Sector

American Sector

Normandy landings
American Sector

Anglo-Canadian Sector

Logistics

Ground campaign
American Sector

Anglo-Canadian Sector

Breakout

Air and Sea operations

Supporting operations


Aftermath

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Western Front
(1944–1945)

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Western Front of
World War II
Phoney War

Luxembourg

The Netherlands

Belgium

France

Britain

1941–1943

1944–1945

Germany

Strategic campaigns

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The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy, France during Operation Overlord in World War II. It covers from the initial landings on June 6, 1944 until the Allied breakout in mid-July.

The invasion was the largest seaborne invasion at the time, involving over 850,000 troops crossing the English Channel from the United Kingdom to Normandy by the end of June 1944.

Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on June 6 came from Canada, Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. In the weeks following the invasion, Polish forces also participated and there were also contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. Most of the above countries also provided air and naval support, as did the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Royal Norwegian Navy.

The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments, an early morning amphibious landing and during the evening the remaining elements of the parachute divisions landed. The "D-Day" forces deployed from bases along the south coast of England, the most important of these being Portsmouth.

Allied preparations

Eisenhower speaks with 1st Lt. Wallace C. Strobel and Company E, 502d Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division on the evening of June 5, 1944.
Main article: Normandy Campaign § Allied Preparations

The objective of the operation was to create a lodgement that would be anchored in the city of Caen (and later Cherbourg when its deep-water port would be captured). As long as Normandy could be secured, the Western European campaign and the downfall of Nazi Germany could begin. About 6,900 vessels would be involved in the invasion, under the command of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay (who had been directly involved in the North African and Italian landings), including 4,100 landing craft. A total of 12,000 aircraft under Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory were to support the landings, including 1,000 transports to fly in the parachute troops; 10,000 tons of bombs would be dropped against the German defenses, and 14,000 attack sorties would be flown.

Some of the more unusual Allied preparations included armoured vehicles specially adapted for the assault. Developed under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Percy Hobart (Montgomery’s brother-in-law, and an armoured warfare specialist), these vehicles (nicknamed Hobart's Funnies) included "swimming" Duplex Drive Sherman tanks, the Churchill Crocodile flame throwing tank, mine-clearing tanks, bridge-laying tanks and road-laying tanks and the Armoured Vehicle, Royal Engineers (AVRE)–equipped with a large-caliber mortar for destroying concrete emplacements. Some prior testing of these vehicles had been undertaken at Kirkham Priory in Yorkshire, England. The majority would be operated by small teams from the British 79th Armoured Division attached to the various formations.

U.S. soldiers of the 2nd Ranger Battalion march through Weymouth, a southern English coastal town, en route to board landing ships for the invasion of France.

Planning of the Invasion

Allied forces rehearsed their roles for D-Day months before the invasion. On April 28, 1944, in south Devon on the English coast, 638 U.S. soldiers and sailors were killed when [[E-boatof a new major front. Allied material weight told heavily in Normandy, as did intelligence and deception plans. The general Allied concept of the battle was sound, drawing on the strengths of both Britain and the United States. German

  1. John Herington, Official History of Australia in the Second World War Volume IV – Air Power Over Europe, 1944–1945, (1st edition, 1963),
  2. The Norwegian Navy in the Second World War
  3. http://ibiblio.net/hyperwar/USA/USMA/WEurope1/WEurope1-3.html
  4. Zetterling, p. 32: "When Operation Cobra was launched, the Germans had brought to Normandy about 410,000 men in divisions and non-divisional combat units. If this is multiplied by 1.19 we arrive at approximately 490,000 soldiers. However, until July 23, casualties amounted to 116,863, while only 10,078 replacements had arrived."
  5. "Frequently Asked Questions for D-Day and the Battle of Normandy". D-Day Museum, Portsmouth. Retrieved 2007-11-10. Note that casualties are for 6 June 1944 only.
  6. Keegan, John. The Second World War.
  7. "Frequently Asked Questions for D-Day and the Battle of Normandy". D-Day Museum, Portsmouth. Retrieved 2007-11-10. Note that casualties are for 6 June 1944 only.
  8. Ian Holm. (Documentary). UK: BBC. Event occurs at 49:45. The fleet of ships now embarking on the 24 hour journey to France is the greatest armada the world has ever seen. {{cite AV media}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. "By midnight, 155,000 Allied troops were already ashore" The Second World War. 1989. p. 534. ISBN 9-780805-017885. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  10. Williams, Jeffery. The Long Left Flank.
  11. John Herington, Official History of Australia in the Second World War Volume IV – Air Power Over Europe, 1944–1945, (1st edition, 1963),
  12. The Norwegian Navy in the Second World War
  13. Keegan, John (1989). The Second World War. ISBN 9-780712-673488. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  14. Hakim, Joy (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509514-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)