Normandy Invasion (D-Day)
 Date: June 6, 1944 - mid-July
1944- Location: Normandy, France
- Result: Decisive Allied victory
- Combatant: Australia[1], Canada,
Free France, Norway[2], Poland, United Kingdom, and United
States
- Commanders: Dwight Eisenhower
(Supreme Allied Commander), Arthur Tedder (Deputy Supreme Allied
Commander), Bernard Montgomery (21st Army Group, Ground Forces
Commander in Chief), Trafford Leigh-Mallory (Air Commander in
Chief), Bertram Ramsay (Naval Commander in Chief), Omar Bradley
(U.S. 1st Army), and Miles Dempsey (British 2nd Army)
- Strength: 155,000[3]
- Casualties and losses: United
States: 1,465 dead, 5,138 wounded, missing or captured; United
Kingdom: 2,700 dead, wounded or captured; and Canada:
340 dead; 621 wounded or captured; [5]
- Combatant: Nazi Germany
- Commanders: Gerd von Rundstedt
(OB WEST), Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B), and Friedrich
Dollmann (7.Armee Oberkommando)
- Strength: 380,000 (by July
23)[4]
- Casualties and losses: Nazi
Germany: Between 4,000 and 9,000 dead, wounded or captured
[6][7]
The Normandy Invasion
was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy,
France during Operation Overlord in World War II. It covers from the
initial landings until the Allied breakout in mid-July, 1944.
The invasion was the largest sea
borne invasion at the time [8], involving over 156,000 troops
crossing the English Channel from the United Kingdom to Normandy [3].
Allied land forces that saw combat
in Normandy on June 6th came from Canada, Free French commandos, the
United Kingdom, and the United States of America. In the weeks
following the invasion substantial Free French and Polish forces
also participated and there were also contingents from Belgium,
Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. [9] Other Allied
nations participated by supporting the invasion with naval and air
support such as the Royal Australian Air Force [10]
, Polish Navy,
Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain and the Royal
Norwegian Navy [11].
The Normandy invasion began with
overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval
bombardments, an early morning amphibious landing and during the
evening the remaining elements of the parachute divisions landed.
The "D-Day" forces deployed from bases along the south
coast of England, the most important of these being Portsmouth.[12]
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