D-Day — Normandy Landings
On 6 June 1944, 156,000 Allied troops — American, British, Canadian, Free French, and others — landed on five Normandy beaches in the largest amphibious operation in history (Operation Overlord), opening the long-awaited second front in Western Europe. The operation required the largest deception plan in history (Operation Bodyguard) to convince Germany that the main landing would be at Calais; Rommel, who commanded the coastal defences, believed armour should be held in reserve rather than placed on the beaches. American forces suffered catastrophic losses at Omaha Beach; elsewhere the landings succeeded. By nightfall 156,000 men were ashore. The subsequent Normandy campaign broke out of the beachhead in Operation Cobra in late July; Paris was liberated on 25 August. With the USSR advancing from the east, Italy and North Africa secured, and now the Western Allies advancing through France, Germany was squeezed from every direction. D-Day was the beginning of the end — the opening of the front that, combined with Soviet operations in Belorussia (Operation Bagration, launched 23 June), made Germany's position strategically hopeless.
- Year: 1944 CE
- Category: Military
