The Battle of Normandy took place in the coastal northern region of Normandy, France, during the Second World War, between June 6 and August 21, 1944. It began when spearhead elements of the Allied forces, under the command of US General Dwight Eisenhower, set foot upon six, foreplanned landing sectors in the Normandy coast, securing six beachheads, through which 3,5 millions troops poured into Western Europe and liberated France, Belgium, and Holland from the Germans.
The forerunners of the Battle of Normandy were the American 82th and 101st Airborne Divisions, and the British 6th Airbone Divisions. Preceded by pathfinder units who marked the drop zones, the American paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines at 01:30 hours on June 6, 1944, on three different zones west of Utah Beach, near the town of St Martin-de-Varreville; their mission was to capture the roads which led from the Normandy coast and obstruct any German advance towards the landing beaches. The British 6th Airborne Division parachuted behind Sword Beach; their mission was to secure the eastern flank, capturing the bridge over the Caen Canal and the bridge over the Orne River.
At 06:30 hours, after heavy naval bombing on the French coast, the US 1rst and 29th Infantry Division landed on Omaha Beach, securing a beachhead but suffering heavy casualties, as the US 4th Infantry Division disembarked on Utah Beach and advanced inland with relatively little resistance. At 07:30 hours, the British I Corps (3rd Infantry Division, the 27th Armored Brigade, and the 79th Armored Division), the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, and the British 2nd Army (50th Infantry Division and 8th Armored Brigade) landed on Sword, Juno, and Gold beaches respectively. Although the British encountered very little oppositions at the beginning, the I Corps was stopped in its track by a fierce German counterattack carried out by the 21rst Panzer Division on the evening of June 6.
As the Allied advanced inland the German resistance became stiffer as several smaller battles broke out in the Normandy region. Having established permanent beachheads, the American forces moved northward along the Cotentin Peninsula and captured the port city of Cherbourg after fierce fighting. Then they moved south and flanked the German 7th Army, reaching Argentan. The US 1rst and 3rd Armies advanced faster, for they met less resistance than the British and Canadians, who had to fight against battle-hardened elite Waffen-SS Panzer Divisions. After capturing Caen, the Allied ground forces commander, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, planned an encirclement to trap the German forces in the area around Falaise. This was what was called the Falaise Pocket. The Germans put up a ferocious fight to keep open a corridor and slip out of the Allied encirclement. When the British and American armies finally managed to close the Falaise Pocket, more than 100,000 Germans escaped.
The Battle of Normandy lasted far longer than the Allied commanders had expected. the Allied forces suffered 220,000 casualties (killed in action and wounded), and the Germans 230,000.
[...] the Battle of Normandy, by the end of August, 1944, the remainder of German forces retreated across the Low Countries and [...]