
credit: Carol M. Highsmith
Aerial and naval bombardment
156,000 men sent in
Canadian, American and British airborne troops
Free French Resistance and Polish ground forces
Then Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword
Landing craft blown off course
Beaches of wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire
German dead – 4,000 to 9,000 men
Allied dead – 4,414 confirmed – to 10,000 casualties
The Battle of Normandy
Over 425,000 Allied and German troops killed, wounded or missing
209,000 Allied casualties
37,000 dead amongst the ground forces
16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces
Allied casualties
83,045 21st Army Group -British, Canadian and Polish ground forces
125,847 from the US ground forces
German casualties 200,000
200,000 prisoners of war captured
French civilians killed 15,000 to 20,000
27 war cemeteries hold the remains of over 110,000 dead from both sides:
- 77,866 German
- 9386 American
- 17,769 British
- 5002 Canadian
- 650 Poles.
Operation Overlord, from June 6th (the date of D-Day) to August 30th 1944 (when German forces retreated across the Seine)
Lest We Forget

aerial view of the Normandy American cemetery Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
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