📅 On This Day in Military History
1 event across history
The largest amphibious invasion in history. 156,000 Allied troops landed on five Normandy beaches — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword — supported by 11,000 aircraft and 7,000 naval vessels. Omaha Beach saw the bloodiest fighting; American troops were cut down in the surf under withering German fire. By nightfall the Allies had established a beachhead. The liberation of Western Europe had begun.
Opened the second major front that Germany could not survive. Hitler's divided command — he had kept the Panzer reserves under his personal control and refused to release them on D-Day, believing it was a feint — proved catastrophic. The decision to invade and the choice of Normandy over Calais were among the most consequential of the war.
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