World War 2
Operation Overlord
Anxious to deploy their massive resources, the Americans had urged the invasion of north-west Europe as early as the spring of 1943. The British, fearful of heavy losses, sought to postpone a landing until Allied air power had weakened the Germans.
In the summer of 1942 the British headed off an American plan for a 48-division invasion of northern Europe planned for April 1943. Thereafter, Britain and the US focused their immediate attention on clering North Africa, and the invasion of Italy, which the British believed would draw German troops away from France and pave the way for their planned cross-Channel invasion.
The Russians, suffering terrible casualties, wanted an immediate invasion - Stalin's 'second front'. In early 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to accelerate the build-up of US troops and supplies in Britain. However, to Stalin's displeasure, the operation was not to be launched before the middle of 1944.
The invasion - which became the largest sea and air invasion of all time - was codenamed Overlord, it began on the 6th of June 1944. After a month-long-air offensive and an Allied deception plan which convinced Hitler that the main attack would come in the Pas de Calais, where he held back a powerful armoured reserve, and where the Nazi fortifications of the Atlantic Wall (Atlantikwall) were at their strongest. The largest amphibious operation in history got underway. There were nearly 7'000 vessels packed with 150'000 Allied troops, on their way across to Normandy. Land forces used on D-Day set sail from bases along the south coast of England, the most important of them being Portsmouth.
In the early hours on the 6th of June 1944, Allied airborne troops landed behind enemy lines to seize bridges and coastal batteries on the flanks of the planned invasion zone. The first Allied troops came ashore at 6:30pm. The codenames for the invasion beaches were; Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. With Allied troops from the US landing on Omaha and Utah, British troops landing on Gold and Sword, and Canadian forces landing on Juno. Only one of the five invasion beaches did the Germans mount fierce resistance; on Omaha Beach, the US V Corps took heavy casualties from experienced and well-dug-in German infantry groups. When The US soldiers broke out of their beachhead on 'Bloody Ohama', V Corps left some 2'400 dead behind them.
Developed by the British, Mulberry harbours were used to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches during the invasion. Mulberry harbours were temporary portable harbours sailed over from English southern coastal ports. The Mulberry harbours were to be used by the Allies until major French ports could be captured and brought back into use after the repair needed of the inevitable sabotage by retreating German defenders.
By midnight on the 6th of June some 57'000 US and 75'000 British and Canadian troops had been landed on the beaches. it took six weeks of hard fighting before the Allies were able to fight their way into Normandy and trap 50'000 retreating Germans in the Falaise pocket.