OPERATION OVERLORD

April 28, 2019

Preparations are in full swing to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which took place in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, on a grand scale.

About:

Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy.
It was the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II.
Timeline:
- The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943.
- The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day).
Battle Summary:
- The coast of Normandy of northwestern France was chosen as the site of the invasion, with the Americans assigned to land at sectors codenamed Utah and Omaha, the British at Sword and Gold, and the Canadians at Juno.
- A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels.
- Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
Aftermath: By the end of August 1944 all of northern France was liberated, and the invading forces reorganized for the drive into Germany, where they would eventually meet with Soviet forces advancing from the east to bring an end to the Nazi Reich.