The Allied invasion of German-occupied France had been planned since 1942 under the codename Operation Overlord. The supreme commander was General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The landing date was originally 5 June 1944 but was postponed 24 hours by weather.
The landings on the morning of 6 June 1944 were across five Normandy beaches over a 80-km front:
— Utah (American 4th Division) — Omaha (American 1st and 29th Divisions) — Gold (British 50th Division) — Juno (Canadian 3rd Division) — Sword (British 3rd Division)
Approximately 156,000 troops landed by sea and air on the day. The Omaha Beach landing was the bloodiest — German defensive positions on the bluffs above the beach had survived the pre-invasion bombardment, and approximately 2,400 American troops became casualties in the first day.
Total Allied casualties on 6 June 1944 were approximately 10,000, including approximately 4,414 confirmed dead.
The Allied breakout from the Normandy beachhead took six weeks. Paris was liberated on 25 August 1944. The Allied advance across France and the Low Countries continued through autumn 1944. The Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 was the last German offensive. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945 — eleven months and two days after D-Day.
The Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer above Omaha Beach holds the graves of 9,388 American soldiers killed in the Normandy campaign. It is one of the most-visited American war cemeteries.