D-Day

June 6, 1944 

Normandy, France 

One of the largest amphibious military assaults in history comprised of American, Canadian, and British forces along 50 miles of french coast line. Code-named operation overlord and taking place in the Normandy region it is regarded as the first successful attempt at getting a foothold into Europe. The stretch of beach was fortified against invasion by General Rommel of the German army. The coast line was staged into five groups and split up between the Allies for the attack. The five groups where code-names Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The Americans took Utah and Omaha beach. The British has gold and sword and the Canadians had Juno beach. Months of planning went into the preparations before the attack kicked off. The Normandy region was picked as a strategic location because of how close it is to the English coast. The U.S. even had a ghost army made up of balloon tanks and actors from Hollywood used to throw off German Ariel spying led by General Patton. The invasion started by the American 101st airborne parachuting into occupied France in order to divert attention away from the beach head long enough for allied troops to get close enough for a successful landing. After the landing allied troops drove forward and liberated occupied France and Belgium.