It started with an Airborne assault, hitting vital defences behind the enemy lines. It was followed by a full scale amphibious invasion on the beaches of Normandy. Operation Overlord was in full swing, with about 160,000 men crossing the English Channel to land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day alone.
Facing the Allied Army was the Atlantic Wall, defensive positions that the Germans had spent years preparing.
Behind this Atlantic Wall, a dozen veteran panzer and parachute divisions, rebuilding after desperate battles on the Eastern Front, prepared to throw any Allied landing back into the sea. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the greatest air and sea invasion of the war crossed the English Channel to land on the beaches of Normandy. Although they were unable to throw the Allies back into the sea, the German forces held back the Allied tide for more than three months in some of the most intense fighting of the Second World War. The battle for Europe had begun in earnest.
