Operation Overlord

This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

Operation Overlord
Part of World War II
Tank landing ships unloading on Omaha Beach
Date 6 June – 30 August 1944 Location Normandy, France Result Decisive Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom  Canada France  Poland  Australia  Belgium  New Zealand  Netherlands  Norway Free Czechoslovak Forces  Greece	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Arthur Tedder (Deputy Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (21st Army Group, Ground Forces Commander in Chief) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (Air Commander in Chief) Bertram Ramsay (Naval Commander in Chief) Omar Bradley (U.S. 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (British 2nd Army)	Gerd von Rundstedt (Oberbefehlshaber West) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B) Friedrich Dollmann (7.Armee Oberkommando)  †
Strength
1,332,000 (by July 24)[1]	380,000 (by July 23)[2]
Casualties and losses
July 24: ~120,000 casualties[1]	July 24: 113,059 casualties[1]

Operation Overlord was the 1944 campaign for the invasion of continental Europe in World War II. It was fought by the Allied forces against German forces. The most critical part was the Normandy landings, which were to get the Allied armies onto the mainland of Europe. That might have failed, and heavy casualties were expected, even if it succeeded.

The Battle of Normandy raged until German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, which marked the close of Operation Overlord.

The main Allied forces came from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Nine other nations also sent units: Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Poland.

Preparations were large and complex. Operation Overlord was the largest and deadliest amphibious assault in the history of warfare. Almost three million troops crossed the English Channel from England to Normandy, in German-occupied France.^[3]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Tamelander, M, Zetterling, N (2004), Avgörandes Ögonblick: Invasionen i Normandie. Norstedts Förlag, p. 295
2. ↑ Zetterling 2000, p. 32 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFZetterling2000 (help)
3. ↑ Three million by the end of August 1944 but only 160,000 on D-Day itself. One-and-a-half million were landed by the end of Operation Overlord.