Over 1 million men would take part in these landing, spread across 39 divisions. The Americans would land on Omaha and Utah, The British on Sword and Gold, and the Canadians on Juno. The plan centred around five beach areas in Normandy, and the division of troops between them. Churchill’s anxieties never quite went away he wrote to Eisenhower on October 23rd 1943 saying “my dear friend, this is much the greatest thing we have ever attempted” (Hastings, 2010: 5). It was at the Trident Conference in Washington, May 1943, that the Allied leaders made more concrete plans for the Normandy landings, and Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of the entire Operation. There was intense pressure from Stalin for the Western Allies to alleviate the struggle on the Eastern Front. However, he did not dispute that an invasion was necessary: “Churchill’s uncertainty concerned not whether to invade Europe, but when to do so” (Hastings, 2010: 7). However, Churchill expressed great reluctance to do so initially, believing that, even with the aid of the US, the British military simply wasn’t strong enough to secure a victory in France.
1942:Īs early as 1942, the Allies forces acknowledged the need to stage an invasion in mainland Europe to combat the force of the Nazis. The Operation was a crucial event in the course of the Second World War, marking a significant victory for the Allies, and the loss of vital territory for the Nazis. The initial stages of the operation did not move as fast as had been planned, but the Allied forces were able to drive the Germans out of northern France, starting the push eastwards that would culminate in the surrender of Berlin in May 1945. June 6th saw the largest seaborne invasion ever staged in the history of warfare, (Pitt, 2008: 92), with some 160,000 soldiers landing on the beaches before midnight. Operation Overlord was the code-name for the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, landing on June 6th 1944 on the Normandy beaches – now known as D-Day – and culminating in the Liberation of Paris on August 25th 1944. WW2 Planes: A History of World War 2 Aircraft.Which countries were involved in World War Two.
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