preview

Popular Memory On D-Day Normandy

Satisfactory Essays

The largest invasion fleet ever assembled, before or since, landed 156,000 allied troop on five beach-heads in Normandy on 6 June 1944. Popular memory focuses on D-Day itself. The fighting continued for 10 weeks until 19 August. Some of the close combat, in and around Caen, or at the foot of the Cotentin peninsula, or in the Falaise pocket, was as murderous as anything on the Eastern Front. After their defeat in Normandy, the German forces in western Europe were so reduced that the American, British, Canadian, Polish and Free French armies advanced to capture Paris by 22 August and Brussels by 1 September. Casualties on D-Day itself were lighter than allied commanders had feared. It is estimated that about 4,400 allied troops, airmen or

Get Access