The document provides 70 facts about D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Planning for the invasion began in 1941 under Winston Churchill, with Lt. General Sir Frederick Morgan appointed to prepare plans in 1943. Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower was put in charge of overseeing the massive operation, codenamed Operation Overlord. Despite extensive fortifications by German forces along the French coast, over 150,000 Allied troops stormed five beaches in Normandy on D-Day against heavy opposition, marking a major turning point in World War 2. Casualties were high on beaches like Omaha, but the invasion was ultimately successful in gaining a foothold in continental Europe.
2. The “D” is derived from the word "Day". “D-Day” means the day
on which a military operation begins. The term "D-Day" has been
used for many different operations, but it is now generally only
used to refer to the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944
3. In October 1941 Winston Churchill told Captain Lord Louis
Mountbatten to start thinking about an invasion of Europe.
“Unless we can go on land and fight Hitler and beat his forces on
land, we shall never win this war.”
4. Lt-General Sir Frederick Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied
Commander (COSSAC) and in April 1943 was told to prepare for a ‘…full scale
assault against the continent…’
5. On 7th December 1943 President Roosevelt met with US General Dwight D.
Eisenhower in Tunis and told him he would be commanding the invasion
6. Eisenhower was put in charge of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force)
and started work on coordinating and carrying out the Normandy landings.
7. All information pertaining to the invasion were marked
‘Bigot’. A classification even more secret than ‘Top
Secret’
8. The SHAEF top table:
Standing (left to right) Bradley, Ramsay, Leigh-Mallory, Beddell-Smith
Sitting (left to right) Tedder, Eisenhower, Montgomery
34. Designed to aid recognition, all Allied aircraft except for
readily identifiable heavy bombers and seaplanes were
required to wear invasion stripes.
35. On the eve of D-Day the Allies had
15,766 aircraft available
36. By June 1944 the Luftwaffe were outnumbered over
30:1 in the west
37. Between January and June 1944
British factories produced 7,000,000 jerry cans
in preparation for the invasion
38. During practise landings on Slapton Sands
946 Allied soldiers were killed due
to an attack by German E-boats
39. The Allied invasion force sailed to a rendezvous area in
the middle of the Channel nicknamed ‘Piccadilly Circus’.
From there they would sail to the invasion zones.
68. Within 100 days 2,500,000 men, 500,000 vehicles and 4,000,000
tonnes of equipment and rations had been unloaded
69. In order to continue supplying fuel to the invasion armies a
PipeLine Under The Ocean (PLUTO) was laid that delivered Allied
fuel directly to France.
70. On average, a US tank would consume
8,000 gallons of fuel per week.
71. Only Hitler could order the Panzers to
move out and counter-attack the invasion.
He slept through until Midday on D-Day.
72. Want to know more about
D-Day? Why not download
D-Day: A Layman’s Guide
from Amazon Kindle.
Amazon UK
Amazon.com