Fortitude – canvas aircraft

Fortitude- fake radio signals Enormous amounts of ‘fake’ wireless messages were transmitted relating to possible invasion plans in the Calais region in the hope the Germans would believe them.

Agent ‘Garbo’ The British Secret Service (SIS) managed to infiltrate a double agent in to the German intelligence apparatus. Agent Garbo (Juan Pujol Garcia) passed false intelligence to the Germans leading them to believe the invasion would come in the Pas de Calais region of France. Normandy was the best kept secret of the war.

Hitler expected the invasion here in the Pas de Calais Normandy

Hitler’s Festung Europa (fortress Europe)

Despite gaps in the line, the defences were formidable in some places.

Futuristic looking German blockhouse on the island of Jersey.

The remains of a German blockhouse today.

Rommel inspects anti-tank defences on a French beach.

General Eisenhower General Montgomery ‘Operation Overlord’ planning meeting. Admiral Ramsay Leigh-Mallory

Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower gives a pep talk to American paratroopers the evening before D Day.

Southampton docks

Landing Craft

Churchill visits Southampton

The capture of Cherbourg was a key objective. It was not captured until the end of June and was badly damaged. The Allies could not risk launching the invasion without a useable port. They constructed an artificial harbour which could be towed across the channel.

Sections of a Mulberry Harbour today in Normandy.

Towed to France in sections the Mulberry Harbours allowed the Allies to unload supplies until Cherbourg was captured.

Section 2: D day and the breakout from Normandy

The troops spent up to four hours in the landing craft and most were violently seasick.

American troops on Omaha Beach, scene of the heaviest fighting and over 5,000 US deaths on D Day.

British troops approaching Sword Beach

British troops landing at Sword Beach

Secured beachhead area D Day ,000 men ashore on day 1

German POWs arriving at Southampton

French civilians ponder their liberation from Nazi occupation as they survey the ruins of their homes.

Caen was a D-Day objective, but took more than two months to capture, by which time the town lay in ruins.

The capture of the town of Carentan, linking Utah and Omaha beaches, was crucial to the survival of the Allied beachhead

The Mayor of Southampton honours the millionth American soldier to embark for France. D Day + 1 month.

French civilians place flowers at a US cemetery in Normandy.