The Art Of Tank Warfare - Chris Keeling

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Operation Overlord, the famous landings on the beaches of Normandy in northern France, was the largest
campaign of the Western Allies and the long-awaited opening of the Second Front in Europe. The invasion
fleet numbered nearly 6,500 vessels, of which about 4,000 were actual landing craft. Of 12,000 aircraft
flown into the battle by the Allies, over 5,000 were fighters. More than 10,000 tons of bombs were dropped
on or near the landing beaches the night of June 5th, along with three airborne divisions, which were
dropped on the flanks of the invasion beaches. Five American, British, and Canadian divisions were landed
on the morning of the 6th of June. Although the landing was difficult, the subsequent breakout from the
beachhead was more costly. The Cotentin peninsula with the valuable port of Cherbourg was captured
quickly, however, nearly two months after the landings, the Allies were still being kept on the peninsula and
mostly within 30 kilometers of the invasion beaches. This stalemate was broken when Patton’s Third Army
broke through the German left flank at Avranches, pouring two infantry and two armored divisions through
a narrow corridor in less than 24 hours. This maneuver outflanked the defending German Fifth Panzer and
Seventh Armies, and opened northern France up to continued Allied advances. With the exception of the
short-lived German attempt to capture the port of Antwerp from the Ardennes shortly before Christmas, the
Germans were being pushed back at every turn. This slow, but steady rate of advance held until the Western
Allies joined-up with the Soviet forces at the Elbe river in May. The last holdouts of the Wehrmacht
surrendered on May 11th, 1945 and the war in Europe, for the Allies, was won.