Factbox: Key facts about the Allied landings at Normandy on D-Day
03/06/2024 14:49
(Changes headline)
PARIS, June 3 (Reuters) - American, British, Canadian
and French leaders will commemorate the 80th anniversary of
D-Day on Thursday.
Here are some facts about the Allies' D-Day landings in Normandy
on June 6, 1944. The assault marked a decisive stage in the
liberation of Europe from German forces in World War Two.
* Before D-Day, the Allies staged Operation Fortitude, which
persuaded the Germans the landings would not take place in
Normandy but in Pas-de-Calais, to the east. Dummy tanks, landing
craft and planes were set up in eastern England.
* D-Day began in full on June 6, 1944, and was the assault
phase of the Allied invasion of mainland Europe, or Operation
Overlord. The Allied Supreme Commander was U.S. General Dwight
Eisenhower. It should have started a day earlier but was
postponed by 24 hours due to bad weather.
* In total, 156,115 Allied troops either landed by sea, onto
beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, or were
airdropped behind German coastal defences. They included 83,115
British and Canadian troops and 73,000 U.S. troops, according to
the United States European Command.
The Allies took approximately 10,250 casualties on D-Day - a
number that includes killed, wounded and missing servicemen,
according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. About 4,440
were killed.
German casualties are unknown but are estimated at between
4,000 and 9,000.
* Soldiers participating in the Normandy landings came from
the United States, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Poland,
Luxembourg, Greece, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand and Australia.
Some 177 French commandos also took part.
* The landings and associated operations were codenamed
Neptune and aimed to establish beachheads in northwest France.
* Nearly 7,000 ships and landing craft - of which 1,213 were
naval warships - were deployed in Neptune and attacked German
land and naval positions, landing troops and creating two
artificial harbours which were towed across the Channel.
* Neptune officially ceased on June 30, 1944, by which time
850,279 men, 148,803 vehicles and 570,505 tons of supplies had
been landed.
(Editing by Richard Lough and Andrew Heavens)
((Email: richard.lough@thomsonreuters.com; Tel: +33 1 80 98 12
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