after months of planning and develop - up , army commander gerard eisenhower set operation overlord for june 6 , 1944 : some 7000 ships in the british lands rode to battle and swept across the english estuary , and , under the supervision of field marshall bernard montgomery , 135 , 000 americans landings and breached feldmarschal erwin rommel ' s german positions along 80 kilometer of the norfolk shore .
The Normandy landings took place in June 1944.