Normandy Invasion – STUNNING D-DAY FACTS.
- Until the very last minute, the place of invasion – Normandy- was the most heavily guarded secret on the planet
- Even the units conducting the initial assaults did not know the locations of their landings.
- Surprise was crucial since Germany had 55 divisions in France – the Allies could transport no more than 8 divisions on D-Day morning.
- It is estimated that nearly 2 million soldiers, sailors and airmen were involved in Operation Overlord, including S., British, and Canadians who were scheduled to fight after men on the ground secured a Normandy
- The United States contributed 73,000 troops, Britain 62,000 and Canada 21,000.
- 195,000 naval personnel manned 6,939 naval vessels (including 1,200 warships and 15 hospital ships).
- About 17 million maps supported the mission.
- Training maps used fake names.
- The United States shipped 7 million tons of supplies (that translates into 14 billion pounds of material).
- Of those supplies, ammunition accounted for 448,000 tons.
- Air-support operations – often overlooked in the success of D-Day – sustained significant losses: Between the 1st of April and the 5th of June, 1944, the Allies flew 14,000 missions losing 12,000 airmen and 2,000 aircraft.
- 127 more planes were lost on D-Day.
- By the end of the Normandy campaign, 28,000 airmen were dead.
- Of the 1,213 warships involved, 200 were American and 892 were British; of the 4,126 landing craft involved, 805 were American and 3,261 were British.
- Instead of two days, it took Germany’s2nd Waffen SS Division two weeks to reach the front. Allied air power, Eisenhower’s spies and French Resistance contacts all contributed to that result.
- Losses to frontline troops were proportionally worse during the 77-day Normandy campaign than they were during the major battles along the Western Front during World War I.
- There are 9,386 graves in the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. Each grave faces west, toward America.
- 307 of those graves contain the remains of “unknown” soldiers.
- 1,557 names are listed in The Garden of the Missing for those who were never found.
- 4,868 British dead are buried in the Bayeux Cemetery.
- 1,837 British names are listed at Bayeux for those who were never found.
- There were 946 Canadian casualties in the Normandy
- 21,500 German dead are buried at La Cambe.
- By the end of the Normandy campaign the Germans were hemorrhaging men and machines, with two armies all but destroyed. True, a handful of Germans did escape the attempted encirclement around Falaise, but it was still a massive Allied victory.
