History of Europe

Why did the battle of Normandy begin?

Operation Overlord (commonly known as the Battle of Normandy, or D-Day) began the liberation of German-occupied France (and later Western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory in World War II.

- The campaign was planned by Supreme Allied Commander (General) Dwight D. Eisenhower. Allied forces landed simultaneously by air and sea at five Normandy beachheads, code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword.

- In total, almost 3 million personnel crossed the channel in more than 6,900 landing craft and 864 warships in less than two months after the initial assaults. Some 871,749 troops (573,017 Americans, 214,877 British and Canadians, plus 83,856 from other Allied nations) landed on 6 June. For comparison, there had been roughly 390,000 British and Commonwealth and 575,000 US men landed along the whole Mediterranean coast of north Africa in Operation Torch less than two years earlier.