# Battle of Normandy / D\-Day How the Allies planned, landed and fought their way ashore in Normandy, from the night drops and the beach landings on 6 June 1944 to the breakout that led to Paris\. By PETE\! Topic: History [Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/kenuqMnxxYel) ## Transcript ### 1. 1943 to 5 June 1944: the plan In May 1943 the Allies agreed to cross the English Channel in 1944\. Ships and soldiers gathered along the south coast of England, while a deception plan made German commanders expect the landing at Calais\. After bad weather forced a one\-day delay, General Eisenhower confirmed the go\-ahead on 5 June\. Blue shading marks ground held by the Allies\. Drag the table to look around\. ### 2. After midnight: paratroopers go first Hours before any boat reached the shore, about 1,200 aircraft carried three airborne divisions across the Channel\. At 00:16 British gliders landed beside the Bénouville bridge, now called Pegasus Bridge, and took it within minutes\. American paratroopers came down scattered around Sainte\-Mère\-Église, guarding the western end\. The airborne landings protected both ends of the 80 km invasion coast\. ### 3. Dawn: the fleet opens fire More than 5,000 vessels crossed the Channel during the night\. From about 05:30, battleships, cruisers and destroyers fired on the coastal defences\. Waiting for them were about 50,000 German soldiers and 170 coastal guns\. ### 4. 06:30: Utah and Omaha The Americans landed first, at 06:30\. At Utah the US 4th Division got ashore with about 200 casualties\. At Omaha the 1st and 29th Divisions faced steep bluffs and strong defences, and about 2,400 men were killed, wounded or missing there, more than at any other beach\. ### 5. 07:25: Gold, Juno and Sword Further east the tide came in later, so British troops landed at Gold and Sword about an hour after the Americans, at 07:25\. The Canadian 3rd Division landed at Juno around 07:45, delayed by offshore reefs\. Just after midday, Lord Lovat's commandos reached the paratroopers holding the Bénouville bridge\. Sources give Juno's landing time as roughly 07:35 to 07:45\. ### 6. Nightfall, 6 June: a foothold By midnight about 156,000 Allied soldiers were in France\. Gold and Juno had joined up, but the other beachheads were still separate, and Caen, a first\-day objective, stayed in German hands\. More than 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed, wounded or missing on D\-Day\. ### 7. June and July: the bridgehead grows Drag the slider to move through seven weeks\. On 12 June the capture of Carentan joined the American beaches\. A storm from 19 to 22 June wrecked the artificial harbour off Omaha, but the one at Arromanches survived\. Cherbourg fell at the end of June, Saint\-Lô on 18 July and Caen, after weeks of fighting, in July\. ### 8. 25 July: Operation Cobra West of Saint\-Lô, a huge air bombardment opened a gap in the German line\. American armoured columns broke through, reached Avranches by 31 July and then swung east, taking Le Mans on 8 August\. After seven slow weeks, the battle suddenly became a war of movement\. ### 9. August: Falaise and Paris Canadian and Polish troops pushed south and American and French troops pushed north, trapping German forces near Falaise\. The pocket closed at Chambois on 21 August and the German 7th Army was destroyed\. Paris rose up on 19 August and was liberated on 25 August, the usual end of the Battle of Normandy\. By the end of August more than two million Allied soldiers had landed in France\.