To mark the 80th Anniversary of the Normandy Landings on Tuesday, 6th June 1944 – our Parish council invite all to attend a Service of Commemoration to be held at the new war memorial in Broadwindsor from 10.30am on Thursday, 6th June 2024.
At 6.30pm the Bells will ring along with the rest of the Nation.
At the Allotments (opposite the Primary School) at 9.15pm, there will be a lighting of the beacon .
The largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, the statistics of D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, are staggering. The Allies used over 5,000 ships and landing craft to land more than 150,000 troops on five beaches in Normandy: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Junoand Sword.
By the end of the day, the Allies had established a foothold along the coast and could begin their advance into France, marking the start of a long and costly campaign in north-west Europe, which ultimately convinced the German high command that defeat was inevitable.
Here are a few facts sourced from The Imperial War Museums…
- D-Day required unprecedented cooperation between international armed forces. The Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) was an international coalition and although the Allies were united against Germany, the military leadership responsible for ‘Overlord’ had to overcome political, cultural and personal tensions.
- By 1944, over 2 million troops from over 12 countries were in Britain in preparation for the invasion. On D-Day, Allied forces consisted primarily of American, British and Canadian troops but also included Australian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, New Zealand, Norwegian, Rhodesian and Polish naval, air or ground support.
- The invasion was conducted in two main phases – an airborne assault and amphibious landings. Shortly after midnight on 6th June, over 18,000 Allied paratroopers were dropped into the invasion area to provide tactical support for infantry divisions on the beaches. Allied air forces flew over 14,000 sorties in support of the landings and, having secured air supremacy prior to the invasion, many of these flights were unchallenged by the Luftwaffe.
- Nearly 7,000 naval vessels, including battleships, destroyers, minesweepers, escorts and assault craft took part in Operation ‘Neptune’, the naval component of ‘Overlord’. Naval forces were responsible for escorting and landing over 132,000 ground troops on the beaches. They also carried out bombardments on German coastal defences before and during the landings and provided artillery support for the invading troops.
- Germany tried to defend the northern coast of France with a series of fortifications known as the ‘Atlantic Wall’. However, German defences were often incomplete and insufficiently manned.
- Members of the French Resistance and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) provided intelligence and helped weaken defences through sabotage. The Allied deception campaigns succeeded in convincing the Germans as late as July 1944 that the main invasion force would still land elsewhere. The threat of this larger, second invasion kept German reinforcements tied down away from Normandy.
- ‘Overlord’ did not bring an end to the war in Europe, but it did begin the process through which victory was eventually achieved. By the end of August 1944, the German Army was in full retreat from France, but by September Allied momentum had slowed. The Germans were able to regroup and launched a failed but determined counter-offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944 – The Battle of the Bulge.
The Imperial War Museums and Royal British Legion are excellent resources to read and learn more 🙂
Lest We Forget
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