![]() ![]() The models and pictures showed the layout of the Normandy coastline and important landmarks - houses, church spires, headlands - so that every officer and soldier would knowĮrnest Adolphe Côté was a prominent member of the Canadian Armed Forces. As soldiers waited in their camps, they pored over maps, photographs and three-dimensional models of the invasion beaches,Ĭonstructed from information meticulously collected over the previous months. Meanwhile, the real invasion force was assembled in southwest England, and the entire area was sealed off by military authorities. They also broadcast fake radio transmissions about the phantom armies and used double agents to feed the Germans false information. In conjunction with a Soviet attack from the east. In addition, the Allies established a second dummy army (Fourth British Army) in Scotland to create the impression that there would be an assault against Norway The phantom force was composed of inflatable tanksĪnd fake planes, ships, trucks and other equipment made out of canvas, wood and papier mâché. A dummy force (First US Army Group) was built in southeast England, to convince Germany that the invasion was indeed coming in the Pas de Calais. Secrecy was deemed essential to success, as was deception. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 80 vessels, while the RCAF contributed 18 squadrons in direct support of the assault. More than 14,000Ĭanadian soldiers landed or parachuted into France on D-Day. It was the largest seaborne invasion ever attempted in history. On D-Day, they would attempt to land more than 156,000 soldiers - six infantry divisions, plus armoured units - on five beaches along a 100-km sweep of coastline and also behind enemy lines.Īmerican forces would assault two beaches code-named Utah and Omaha, British forces would attack beaches named Gold and Sword, and a Canadian division would assault a beach named Juno.Ī battalion of Canadian paratroopers would also land behind German lines, along with three divisions of British and US paratroopers, on the flanks of the main invasion force. Instead, the Allies set their sights on Normandy, further west. Place being the Pas de Calais, the French coastline west of the Belgian border, which offered the shortest distance across the Channel, and the quickest route into Germany. The Germans knew an invasion was coming, but not when or where - the most likely Many operations, it is now most associated with the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944.įaced with such obstacles, as well as battle-hardened German forces led by the legendary General Erwin Rommel, the Allies decided that surprise would be their greatest weapon. For that reason, the term D-Day was used to refer to the day on which an attack was to begin. ![]() When planning a military operation, the specific date on which the attack would occur was not always known in advance. Strewn with layers of barbed wire, anti-tank ditches, mines and other obstacles designed to obstruct an invading army. In fact, much of the French side of the English Channel had been turned into what was called the “Atlantic Wall” - mile after mile of concrete bunkers, machine gun nests, and other fortifications built by the Germans, overlooking beaches and tidal estuaries ![]() However, the disastrous 1942 raid on the French port of Dieppe, in which 3,367Ĭanadians were killed, wounded or captured, had convinced military planners that a seaborne assault against a well-defended port was folly ( see Dieppe Raid). The Allies needed a French harbour from which to supply and sustain a successful invasion force. For a plain-language summary, please see D-Day and the Battle of Normandy (Plain-Language Summary).) (This is the full-length entry about D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies had suffered 209,000 casualties, including more than 18,700 Canadians. ![]() Including 1,096 Canadians, of whom 381 were killed in action. Total Allied casualties on D-Day reached more than 10,000, The Royal Canadian Navy contributedġ24 vessels and 10,000 sailors and the Royal Canadian Air Force contributed 39 squadrons to the operation. Nearly 150,000 Allied troops landed or parachuted into the invasion area on D-Day, including 14,000 Canadians at Juno Beach. Canadian sailors, soldiers and airmen played a critical role in the Allied invasion of Normandy, also called Operation Overlord, beginning the bloody campaign to liberate Western Europe from Nazi The 1944 Battle of Normandy - from the D-Day landings on 6 June through to the encirclement of the German army at Falaise on 21 August - was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War and the scene of some of Canada's greatest feats of arms. ![]()
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