D-Day


June 6 - 1944

WW2 - D-Day: Normandy landings

When the Allied Commanders looked at ways of defeating Nazi Germany, the Americans always felt that the only way was to land in France, and follow a route via Belgium and Holland in the heartland of the Third Reich. Landings on the French coast were not possible until 1944 as there were insufficient landing graft and more importantly insufficient troops trained for seaborne operations.

D-day assault routes into Normandy

D-day assault routes into Normandy

U.S. assault troops move onto Utah Beach

U.S. assault troops move onto Utah Beach

The Facts


  • Date: June 6 - 1944
  • Location: Normandy, France
Countries Involved
United Kingdom
United States
Canada
Australia
Belgium
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Free France
Greece
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Germany
Countries Commanders
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bernard Montgomery
Omar Bradley
Miles Dempsey
Trafford Leigh-Mallory
Bertram Ramsay
Arthur Tedder
Gerd von Rundstedt
Erwin Rommel
Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg
Friedrich Dollmann
Hans von Salmuth
Wilhelm Falley
Number of Casualties
Over 10,000 Between 4,000–9,000

Battle result: Decisive Allied victory

Preparation and Planning were the two keywords for D-Day: almost nothing was left to chance: special weapons were devised to get through the German defences, special equipment to get men onto and then off the beaches, and inland. In addition special tactics and the coming together of experience from previous amphibious. Yet despite all this, heavy losses were predicted. When D-Day dawned on 6th June 1944, a huge armada took more 156,000 men ashore on the first day. Hitler’s Atlantic Wall had been broken, and D-Day marked the beginning of the end of the war in the west, with Victory achieved eleven months later.

US troops on D-Day landing craft

US troops on D-Day landing craft"

U.S. troops wading onto Beach

U.S. troops wading onto Beach

D-Day Landings

D-Day Landings

Learn more about this battle on the following Leger Battlefield tours

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