On 6 June 1944, shortly after midnight, D-Day, a huge military operation, began. Over 5,000 ships transported 150,000 allied soldiers and 1,500 tanks to the coast of Normandy in France.
For two years, the Allies had been preparing for 'Operation Overlord'. The purpose of the operation was to set up a landing base on the European mainland. From there, the Allies would be able to liberate the countries that had been occupied by Germany and move on towards Berlin. And if Germany also had to fight in the West, it would make things a bit easier on the Soviet Union.
The Germans were expecting an attack at Calais, not Normandy, for at Calais, the English Channel (the sea between England and France) is at its narrowest. The Wehrmacht had stationed half a million troops all along the French coast. They had also set up the Atlantikwall, a solid line of defence.
The Allies landed in a few places along the coast of Normandy. The attack was backed up by bombardments and paratroopers. In some places, they were easily able to push back the German defence, but in others, resistance was fierce. On ‘Omaha Beach’, the American bombers did not manage to hit the German line of defence well. There, German troops shot down the soldiers trying to land. Some did not even get that far and drowned as soon as they left their ships.
By the end of D-Day, the Allies had established a base on the mainland. The Germans tried to hold out as long as possible It took another two months of fighting in Normandy before the Allies succeeded in moving further into France. On 15 August, the Allies also landed in the south of France. Paris was liberated on 25 August and by mid-September 1944, the German army had almost been forced out of France.