The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France, on 6 June 1944. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful “D-Day,” the first day of the invasion.
Allied land forces came from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Free French forces. In the weeks following the invasion, Polish forces and contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece and the Netherlands participated in the ground campaign; most also provided air and naval support alongside elements of the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the Royal Norwegian Navy.
The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks and naval bombardments. In the early morning, amphibious landings commenced on five beaches code named Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah, with troops from the United States landing on Omaha and Utah, Great Britain landing on Gold and Sword and Canada landing on Juno. During the evening the remaining elements of the airborne divisions landed. Land forces used on D-Day sailed from bases along the south coast of England, the most important of these being Portsmouth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Normandy
Photos
A buddy of mine just shared with me a batch of pictures that he took on his recent trip to Normandy. I am sharing the photos in a two part post. In this post (part one), I am sharing the pictures he took at the local museums. All the equipment (except the Hetzer and Easy 8) in the photos was used in Normandy. This being the 75th anniversary of the landings, it is a nice juncture to remember all that sacrificed for their countries. I hope you enjoy them as much as I!
In part two I will show pictures from the beaches!
– Manteuffel