Here are some facts about the Allies' D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6th, 1944. The assault eventually won back control of France from German forces and was a decisive stage in the liberation of Europe in World War Two.
- Ahead of D-Day, the Allies staged Operation Fortitude, which persuaded the Germans the landings were to take place not in Normandy but in Pas-de-Calais, to the east. Dummy tanks, landing craft and planes were set up in eastern England.
- D-Day began in full on June 6th, 1944, and was the assault phase of the Allied invasion of mainland Europe, or Operation Overlord. The Allied Supreme Commander was US General Dwight Eisenhower. It should have started a day earlier but was postponed by 24 hours due to bad weather.
- 23,400 British and American paratroopers were dropped inland. More than 132,000 troops were then landed on Normandy beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
- Total Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated at 10,000, of whom 2,500 were killed. German casualties are unknown but are estimated at between 4,000 and 9,000.
- Soldiers participating in the Normandy landings came from the United States, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand and Australia. Some 177 French commandos also took part.
- The landings, and associated operations, were codenamed Neptune and aimed to establish beachheads in northwest France.
- Nearly 7,000 ships and landing craft deployed in Neptune - of which 1,213 were naval warships - attacked German land and naval positions, landing troops and creating two huge artificial harbours which were towed across the Channel.
- Neptune officially ceased on June 30, 1944, by which time 850,279 men, 148,803 vehicles and 570,505 tons of supplies had been landed.