"Operation Overlord" was the codename for the Allied invasion of Hitler's Fortress Europe on the beaches and fields of Normandy, France. Otherwise known as "D-Day", the invasion was, and still is, the largest sea borne invasion in military history. Over 850,000 troops were landed in the months following the day of the invasion, June 6th, 1944.
The objective of this invasion was to gain a foothold in Europe so the Allied Expeditionary Force could land and fight the Axis forces in northern Occupied France. The Allies already had forces in Southern Europe and Italy, but the extremely heavy fighting at Monte Casino and the inability to pass through the Italian Alps halted their advance. The plan was set in motion in late 1943 by COSSAC (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander).
The landings took place along the beaches of the Normandy coastline. These beaches were at the heart of Fortress Europe. The name was given to the extremely fortified emplacements and defenses along the coastline. The "Atlantic Wall", as it became to be known, was thought to be impenetrable by people on both sides of the fighting. The wall consisted of a massive, World War I like trench system, concertina (barbed wire entanglements), beach obstacles, hundreds of machine-gun nests and pillboxes, minefields, bunkers containing mortars and concrete bunkers containing heavy artillery including 66mm, 75mm, 88mm, 115mm, and 155mm gun emplacements. The wall was manned by troops of the Ost (East) Battalion. Fifty percent of the battalion was made up of captured Polish and Russian soldiers that fought only so they would not be shot by the sergeants holding guns to their heads. Behind the wall, hundreds of fields of farmland were flooded to prevent airborne landings. The armored units, anti-aircraft emplacements, and reserve troops were uncoordinated, and disorganized. These and other mistakes made by the German military gave the Allies several advantages.
After much planning, operation "Overlord" was put into effect by President Dwight D. ... The Allies made many preparations for operation Overlord. Operation Overlord was commandeered and planned by the United States and the British. ... Eisenhower felt that operation overlord sounded like a good attack plan. ... Overall, without operation Overlord, WWII would have been much more difficult a war to win for us....
There was many things the Allies had to do to prepare for operation Overlord, so they organized them as different operations. ... Operation Bolero went on for 2 years. ... Then it was renamed to Operation Overlord. ... By Spring in 1944 the plans for Operation Overlord were finally complete. ... There was many different events that lead to the success of Operation Overlord. ...
Although fewer Allied ground troops went ashore on D-Day than on the first day of the earlier invasion of Sicily, the invasion of Normandy was in total, history's greatest amphibious operation, involving on the first day 5,000 ships, the largest armada ever assembled, 11,000 aircraft and approximately 154,000 British, Canadian and American soldiers, including 23,000 arriving by parachute and glider. The invasion also involved a plan on a scale the world had never seen and the secretive operations of tens of thousands of allied resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied countries of Western E...
Axis's land operations continued in North Africa and in the Balkans, where Greece and Yugoslavia were occupied. ... The invasion was code named "Operation Overlord". This operation would come to be known as D-Day. ... Eisenhower began working with a group of high-level British and American leaders to execute Operation Overlord. ... The planning for "Operation Overlord" included millions of details. ...
Soon Operation Overlord was in full affect as the Allied Forces pushed the Germans back towards the Russian forces coming in from the east. ... Operation Overlord was in no way a last minute operation thrown together. ... Overlord was supposed to go according to General Sir Bernard L. ... His plan was initiated by a command system that connected the U.S. and Britain and helped them jointly run the operation. ... The operation was also coordinated with various French resistance groups called the "Secret Army." ...
In the early hours of June 6, 1944, American, British, and Canadian troops landed on the coast of Normandy to begin Operation Overlord. ... The plan called for almost 6,500 ships and landing crafts, which would land nearly 200,000 vehicles and 600,000 tons of supplies in the first three weeks of the operation. ... General Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander with General Montgomery as land force commander of Operation Overlord. ...
The operation that finally made an attack on France was dubbed "Operation Overlord."Operation Overlord was setup to totally defeat Germany in the European Theater. This operation was to move weapons and equipment to Uk to mount a sea to land attack on German controlled France. The plan was to make a dent in France's coast line so that if more operations needed to be carried out they could be. ... (Encyclopedia: Operation Overlord.)The operation had 2 phases. ...
Covering not only the events of the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach of Normandy during Operation Overlord, a compelling search for one soldier in the midst of many dead, wounded, and missing men scattering the countryside, as well as the efforts of the U.S. to stop the Germans at any cost. ... The viewer is now transported back in time to June 4, 1944 and is now in the midst of the attack waves at the Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach during Operation Overlord, the code name for the cross channel invasion of France at Normandy. ... The original plan under Operation Overlord was to begin on June ...
