It was the most ambitious military operation in history - the invasion
of Nazi-occupied France by sea. A fleet larger than any ever seen before
was assembled and launched under conditions of utmost secrecy to catch
the defenders of Adolf Hitler's formidable Atlantic Wall by surprise.
At H-Hour on D-Day, British, American and Canadian soldiers landed on
beaches whose codenames have since become a byword for heroism - Sword,
Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. Men waded ashore into a hail of machine gun
fire and fought their way through a tangle of concrete bunkers and
armoured emplacements.
More ferocious combat followed as fanatical Waffen-SS divisions armed
with terrifying new weapons such as the King Tiger tank battled to the
death to contain the Allied advance.
D-Day: Operation Overlord and the Battle for Normandy tells the story
of the most important battle of the Second World War and remembers the
men whose extraordinary courage and sacrifice brought about the
liberation of Europe and put an end to Hitler's tyranny.
