2. Background to Operation Overlord
The history behind Operation Overlord started as early as the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 when Winston Churchill realised that an invasion of ‘Fortress Europe’ would be needed if Hitler was to be expelled from France and he ordered that planning should start with due speed. However Britain needed to bring America "on board".
In November 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt  met in Cairo. Here the main outlines of the plan were settled and, more important, the command structure was settled.
The planning and logistics behind Overlord were unparalleled in history

3. Background dates and information
OPERATION OVERLORD : D-day
the allies landed between and troops on 5 Normandy beaches
to a victory march through Paris.
1st April heavy bombers attacked German defences all along the Channel Coast
destroying all the bridges over the Seine.
Allies massed over one million troops in the South of England plus an
Invasion fleet of 5000 vessels and airborne divisions.
6th June Under the supreme command of General Dwight Eisenhower
Operation Overlord began. The Normandy beaches were attacked
At different times (corresponding to the tides).
- Utah Beach (American section)
-Omaha (American Section
-Gold (Anglo-Canadian)
- Juno
- Sword (GB)
By the end of the day men had managed to get ashore
(2.500 dead)

4. Memories of d-day -Official commemoration ceremonies Cemetaries Tours
Films
Documentaries
Personal accounts

5. tours MINIBUS TOUR #1 / Half-Day American East & British Sector
Pointe du Hoc
Omaha Beach
German batteries of Longues-sur-Mer
Arromanches
MINIBUS TOUR #2 /Full day
American East/West & British Sectors
Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach
Sainte Mère Eglise (St. Mother Church)
Arromanches,, Hiesville, Utah Beach
MINIBUS TOUR #3 / Full Day
Morning to Mount St.Michel + Tour #1 ( American East & British Sector)
Half day (1/2 journée) Mont Saint Michel only Price (prix) : 65 €
OTHER TOURS
Jeep / Buggy
ULA
Plane
Boat
P’tit Chef Academy

6. Bayeux War cemetary the largest British War cemetary in France

7. British - 3,935 Canadian Australian - 17 New Zealand - 8 South African - 1 Polish - 25 France - 3 Czech - 2 Italian - 2 Russian - 7 German Unidentified - 1

8. Queen Elizabeth II visits the Bayeux cemetary on the 50th anniversary (she also visited it in 2004 on the 60th anniversary with President Chirac and with François Hollande in 2014 on the 70th anniversary)

9. The Queen meeting British war veterans in Normandy during the 60th anniversary to commemorate the D-Day landings

10. THE GUARDIAN, Monday 7 June 2004
Yesterday George Bush and Jacques Chirac, apparently determined to set aside their differences over a more recent invasion, paid tribute to the dead of Omaha beach in the first of the official bi-national ceremonies of the 60th anniversary day.
Mr Chirac said the French would forever remain grateful to America.
"France will never forget," Mr Chirac said. "It will never forget those men who made the supreme sacrifice to liberate our soil, our native land, our continent, from the yoke of Nazi barbarity and its murderous folly. Nor will it ever forget its debt to America, its everlasting friend.“

11. France failed to invite the Queen on the 65th anniversary....
The failure to invite the Queen – who is head of state of both Britain and Canada – was seen by many to be an insult to the memory of the 17,556 British and 5,316 Canadian troops who died to free France and are buried there. The figure does not include many airmen and sailors whose bodies were never found.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the then conservative French president, was criticised for regarding the commemorations as "primarily a Franco-American occasion".

12. D-Day 70th anniversary: Putin appears isolated as Western leaders gather at Normandy

13. Robert Coupe, 88, Only 18 of his 100-strong infantry unit reached their objective.
“We were all so seasick. I didn’t care whether I got shot or not. I just wanted to get off that landing craft and get my feet on the ground. The Navy boys brought us as close to the beach as they could and then we waded to shore with water up to our armpits.”
The barrage thundered steadily on through the night and around 0500 hours we began to advance through cornfields and orchards towards Caen. The fields were mined," Mr Coupe said. "The Germans were ready for us as they knew we had to come by this route. As we crossed into no-man’s-land the hidden German guns opened up with ferocity. In the waist high cornfield when a soldier fell wounded he disappeared from view and many lads bled to death because medics couldn’t find them. Casualties were heavy, and we on the frontal assault felt we were battling at impregnable forces.”

14. Memories of d-day: anniversaries, cemeteries, personal accounts,...
International cohesion of allies?
. past : planning and during operation Overlord
. present: at the commemoration ceremonies, the allies meet up to express the need to remember this event. However, tensions occurred at the 60th Anniversary (2004 a year after US intervention in Iraq), at the 70th anniversary over the Ukraine issue)...
Scale of events (logistics,high casualties)
. through the tours (5 beaches, ....)
. cemetaries in Northern France according to nationality (Canadian, British, US cemeteries....)
. vivid personal accounts, films, documentaries...