D-DAY June 6, 1944

In 1940, France was occupied by The Nazis. In November 1942, the Nazis took over the rest of France. By then, they controlled much of Europe between the Spanish and Russian borders… Great Britain stood alone.

Since 1942, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had been pressing his allies, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to mount a second front in the west. It was impossible in the circumstances. America's army was still forming, while the landing craft necessary to bring such an army across the English Channel had not yet been built. Nevertheless, Britain had begun to prepare plans for a return to the continental mainland soon after the retreat from Dunkirk, France, in 1940

Allied forces proposed 1942 (Operation Sledgehammer) and 1943 (Operation Roundup) invasions of France North African Operation Torch was principal operation of 1942 Sicily and Italy invasions of 1943 postponed the English channel invasion further Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill adopted May 1944 as the date for the cross channel invasion

Commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied forces decided to invade Normandy, since their only other option, Pas De Calais, was highly secured.

Practice Landings in England

DEFENSE ON THE BEACHES

 Between April 1 and June 5, 1944, the British and American strategic air forces deployed 11,000 aircraft, flew 200,000 sorties, and dropped 195,000 tons of bombs on French rail centers and road networks as well as German airfields, radar installations, military bases, and coastal artillery batteries

Two-thirds of the bombs were dropped outside the invasion area in an attempt to persuade the enemy that the landings would be made northeast of the Seine. Difficulties in assembling landing craft forced a postponement until June, but June 5 was fixed as the unalterable date by Eisenhower on May 17.

Stormy weather on June 5 forced a postponement of the invasion with many units already embarked and at sea. Conditions did not promise to improve substantially, but Allied meteorologists predicted a small window of opportunity on the June 6. Aware that the moon and the tides would not be favourable again for some time, General Eisenhower gave the go ahead. There could be no turning back.

While it was still dark in the early hours of June 6, Allied paratroopers, including 450 Canadians, jumped from aircraft or landed in gliders behind the German coastal defences.

A little after daybreak, 4,000 transports, 800 warships, and an unknown number of smaller boats arrived at the beaches of Normandy with the US, Canadian and British armies. H-Hour…..June 6 th, 1944

Canadian fighter pilots fought the Luftwaffe in overcast skies, contributing in large measure to the achievement of Allied air supremacy. As well, they protected the soldiers on the beach. The Royal Canadian Navy provided 109 vessels, and 10,000 sailors as its contribution to the massive armada of 7,000 Allied vessels which went to sea on D-Day, and attacked German formations on the ground.

D-Day, the name given to the day of the Allied invasion of France during WWII, was the greatest land-and-sea operation in history. Scene from the movie “Saving Private Ryan”

Northwestern France, 1944

WWI Map Comparison

Operation overlord - a landing in Normandy between Caen and the Cotentin Peninsula

Moving across the channel

The Allies invaded five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Omaha was the toughest of them all. Two American divisions were sent to Omaha, giving it the highest number of casualties out of all five,about 2,400 casualties at Omaha on June 6.

Omaha beach

UTAH BEACH American low lying beaches 4th Infantry Division had to consolidate a lodgment area, then seal off the Cotentin to the west, then advance northwards to capture the rest of the peninsula, notably Cherborg

GOLD BEACH British 50th Infantry Division low flat beaches with high bluffs on each side of it 25,000 men came ashore in this sector before the day was done ended close to Bayeux

SWORD BEACH British 3rd British Infantry division stopped short of CAEN and was pinned down for nearly a month. German defenses were inexperienced and not that heavy

JUNO BEACH British 3rd Canadian Infantry Division offered low shore line with no natural obstacles reached close to highway 13

The landing area code-named Juno Beach was approximately 10 km (6 miles) wide and stretched on either side of the small fishing port of Courseulles-sur- Mer By evening the 3rd Division had linked up with the British 50th Division from Gold Beach to the west, but to the east the Canadians were unable to make contact with the British 3rd Division from Sword Beach—leaving a gap of 3 km (2 miles) into which elements of the German 21st Panzer Division counterattacked. The Canadians suffered 1,200 casualties out of 21,400 troops who landed at Juno that day—a casualty ratio of 1 out of 18

Beached at Juno

Canadians at Juno

Reaching shore

Landing at Juno Beach

The Germans thought the attacks would be on Calais. Once they realized Normandy was the true site of invasion, it was too late. The allied forces had already started to establish a firm control of France.

By evening, Canadian troops had progressed further inland than any of their Allies. It was a remarkable achievement but, despite casualties being less than expected, it was an expensive one, too. "The German dead were littered over the dunes, by the gun positions," a Canadian journalist reported

By the end of D-Day, the Allies had landed as many as 155,000 troops in France by sea and air, 6,000 vehicles including 900 tanks, 600 guns and about 4,000 tons of supplies and, astonishingly, had achieved complete surprise in doing it. The Atlantic Wall had been breached. But the battle had just begun.

On August 16, the day after a Franco-American force had landed on the Riviera (Operation Dragoon), Hitler at last recognized the inevitable and gave permission for a withdrawal from Normandy.

By 1944 the Germans, after two years of withdrawals in Russia, were expert at organizing retreats. August 26, General Charles de Gaulle, head of the Free French, made a triumphal parade down the Champs-Élysées to Notre- Dame Cathedral, where a mass of victory was celebrated. Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, who took heavy casualties in the first wave but by the end of the day succeeded in wresting control of the area from defending German troops

 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.