after months of planning and set - up , lieutenant commander dwight douglas set exercise overlord for june 6 , 1944 : some 7000 guns in the bbc empire decided to sea and sailed across the english waterway , and , under the auspices of field president bernard montgomery , 135 , 000 troops landed and stormed feldmarschal buster rommel ' s german garrison beyond 80 cm of the france mainland .
The Normandy landings took place in June 1944.