Normandy Campaign

The Normandy Campaign was the Allied invasion of northern France on June 6, 1944, during World War II. It was executed under the secret code name ‘Operation Overlord’, in which five sectors of the Normandy coast had been assigned to land on. From west to east, they were Utah, Omaha, Gold, June, and Sword, with the Americans landing on the first two beaches and the British and Canadian on the other three, respectively.

Once the Allied units managed to break out of their beachheads, they began to push into France. However, the deeper they advanced into French territory, the stiffer the German resistance became, with the city of Caen and the Falaise area being the goriest fields where the most vicious battles were fought in the Normandy Campaign, which was successfully concluded on August 30, 1944.

The rationale for the invasion of Normandy was three-folds: 1) to totally defeat the Third Reich; 2) to open up a third war front in the European Theater, relieving the great military and economic strain on Russia, which, until then, had carried about 60% of the burden of the war; 3) to reestablish the old political systems in each one of the countries that had been occupied by Germany, so that they become open markets for the American products and areas of cultural and hegemonic influence of the US government.

Allied Units Employed

The Supreme Commander of the Allied forces, Dwight Eisenhower, organized the Anglo-American units around the 21st Army Group, which was put under the command of the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The 21st Army Group was composed of the US 1st Army, led by Omar N. Bradley, and the British 2nd Army, commanded by Miles Dempsey. The US 1st Army‘s 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions (V Corps) were given the task of securing Omaha Beach, while the American 4th and 70th Tank Battalion landed on Utah Beach. Meanwhile, the British 2nd Army’s 50th Infantry Division and the 8th Armoured Brigade (XXX Corps) were assigned to establish beachhead on Gold; the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Armoured Brigade went ashore on Juno Beach, while the British 3rd Infantry Division and the Highland 51st Infantry Division (I Corps) secured Sword Beach.

Once they broke out their respective beachheads, the immediate objectives of the British 2nd Army were Caen, with its channel and routes newwork, and Falaise, while Cherbourg, an important city port, would be captured by the US 1st Army’s 4th Infantry Division.

Below, a diagram of the organization of the Allied forces involved in Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, to land and secure beachheads.

German Forces

For the defense of Europe, the Wehrmacht organized its forces around Army Group B, under Erwin Rommel. Army Group B, in turn, was composed of the 7th Army and the 15th Army. These German units were reinforced by powerful battle-hardened Waffen-SS armored divisions, such as the 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Das Reich’, and the 1st SS Division ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’.

Below, map of the Normandy landings and positions of the Wehrmacht’s units