D-Day Beaches

On the 6th of June 1944 , Nazi occupied France was invaded by the British, American, Commonwealth and Canadian troops , resulting in the liberation of the country.
It was a very well planned executed attack as opposed to the Allies disastrous attach on Dieppe, ( a head on assault on the harbour) in 1942, where there was excessive loss of life for the British and Canadians especially . Nearly one thousand Canadians died and two thousand were taken prisoners.

Normandy was chosen as the best place to attack .Troops trained on the beaches in England a year before. "Mulberry harbours" were fabricated and to be towed across the Channel in sections to be assembled in places such as Arrowmanches and off Omaha beach . According to the book I am referred to no none new exactly the mission they were about to embark upon. The Airborne division of the USA army also played a significant part in the success of the operation.

The beaches they landed on were code named Utah ( American) Omaha ( American) Gold (British) Juno ( Canadian) and Sword ( British) . Out of the 156,000 troops that landed by air and sea , around 10,000 were dead or wounded . By darkness on the 6th of June Anglo- Canadian forces were firmly established on their three beaches .
It took several weeks - months ( August ) after this to liberate some areas - the Battle of Normandy . Many troops lost their lives ( estimated 36,976 and 209,672 casualties) . French civilian deaths numbered in the thousands, villages and homes devastated by the battle. It is estimated that Germans casualties numbered 300,000.