Introduction

Operation OVERLORD, as the invasion of Northwest Europe is known, was the largest amphibious assault to have ever taken place and involved almost three million Allied troops from twelve participating nations. It took more than two and a half years to plan and prepare and culminated in the capture of Paris 80 days after the Allied forces landed on the coast of France.

It began in the early hours of Tuesday 6 June 1944 when three Allied Airborne Divisions were dropped by parachute and reinforced by gliders to secure the flanks of the invasion area. These airborne landings were followed up by a massive air and naval bombardment of the German coastal defences in preparation for the early morning amphibious assault. At 06.35 hrs the seaborne landings commenced with the amphibious assaults in the American sector at UTAH and OMAHA Beaches, which were followed fifty minutes later by the amphibious assault in the British sector at GOLD, JUNO and SWORD Beaches.

The following 80 days saw the Allies consolidate and breakout from their lodgement area, capture the vital deep-sea port of Cherbourg, fight their way across the Normandy Bocage to capture Saint-Lô and Caen, in what is now called the Battle of Normandy. This finally culminated in the encirclement of the German forces in the Falaise pocket and the liberation of Paris on Wednesday 25 August 1944.

Tuesday 6 June 1944 or D-Day as it is now known marked the beginning of the end of Hitler's Nazi German state. It has gone down in history as one of those days that changed the face of the world.