page_title: Operation Overlord
section_title: Campaign close
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Overlord / Campaign close
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Des Français posent des fleurs sur des corps de soldats américains.
context_page_description: Operation Overlord was the 1944 campaign for the invasion of continental Europe in World War II. It was fought by the Allied forces against German forces. The most critical part was the Normandy landings, which were to get the Allied armies onto the continent of Europe. This might have failed. Heavy casualties were expected, even if it succeeded. It was successful. The Battle of Normandy raged until German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944. This marked the close of Operation Overlord.
  The main Allied forces came from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Nine other nations also sent units, the rest being Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland.
  Preparations were large and complex. Operation Overlord was the largest and deadliest amphibious assault in the history of warfare. Almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in then German-occupied France.
context_section_description: The campaign in Normandy is considered by historians to end either at midnight on 24 July 1944 (the start of Operation Cobra on the American front), 25 August 1944 (the liberation of Paris), or 30 August 1944, the date the last German unit retreated across the River Seine.
  The original Overlord plan was for a ninety-day campaign in Normandy with the ultimate goal of reaching the Seine; this goal was met early. American forces were fighting in Brittany as anticipated by General Montgomery during the latter weeks of the campaign. Historians consider the Normandy campaign to have ended with the massive breakout of Operation Cobra.
  The US official history describes the fighting beginning on 25 July as the "Northern France" campaign, and includes the fighting to close the Falaise Gap, which the British/Canadians/Poles consider to be part of the Battle of Normandy. Volume I of the Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War by C.P. Stacey, published in 1955, as well as the Canadian Army's official Historical Summary of the Second World War, published in 1948, define the Battle of Normandy as lasting from 6 June 1944 to 1 September 1944. The definition of the Battle of Normandy is also evident in another publication by the Army's Historical Section entitled Canada's Battle in Normandy.
  There were reports of Eisenhower requesting Montgomery's replacement in July. The lack of forward progress was caused by the rough land. However, as at the battle of El Alamein, Montgomery kept to his original attrition warfare strategy, reaching the objectives within his original ninety day target.
  Victory in Normandy was followed by a pursuit to the French border in short order.  Germany was forced once again to reinforce the Western Front with manpower and resources from the Soviet and Italian fronts.
  By September, Allied forces of seven field armies (two of which came through southern France in Operation Dragoon) were approaching the German frontier. The Allied battle plan was good, drawing on the strengths of both Britain and the United States. German leadership was often faulty, despite good fighting by German units.
  In a larger context the Normandy landings helped the Soviets on the Eastern front, who were facing most of the German forces. It shortened of the conflict there.
caption: French civilians placing flowers on the body of a dead American soldier, 1944
exif: {"Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "44", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8035"}