D-Day: How the battle to liberate Europe began
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00:00 D-Day was the largest naval, air and land operation in the history of warfare.
00:06 It kicked off Allied operations which would liberate Western Europe, defeat Nazi Germany
00:10 and end the Second World War.
00:18 In November 1943, at the Tehran conference in Iran, Allied leaders Churchill, Roosevelt
00:23 and Stalin decided to organise a vast operation to create a second front in Europe.
00:29 This time in the West.
00:31 Codenamed Operation Overlord, the aim was to weaken and eventually defeat Nazi Germany.
00:37 On the continent, including in France, many people suffering under the Nazis were looking
00:41 forward to a major Allied operation.
00:44 The Soviets too were paying a heavy price fighting Hitler's troops in the East.
00:49 A command team, led by the American General Eisenhower, was formed.
00:54 Normandy was chosen for its long wide beaches and two deep water ports, Le Havre and Cherbourg.
01:00 It was also easily in range of fighter aircraft based in Great Britain.
01:04 And German defences were weaker in Normandy than in the North East of France.
01:09 The Allies tried to create an element of surprise by making the Germans think the invasion would
01:14 take place in the North East of France or even in Norway.
01:18 They invented ghost units, used double agents and spread false information.
01:23 Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force, you are about to embark
01:29 upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months.
01:34 The eyes of the world are upon you.
01:36 During this time, the real D-Day was being planned in secrecy.
01:41 On June 6th 1944, an armada of 6,939 vessels crossed the English Channel to Normandy.
01:48 11,590 aircraft were in the skies.
01:53 Within hours, 156,000 Allied soldiers, the majority American, British and Canadian, as
01:59 well as a handful of French troops, landed by sea and air between the eastern coast of
02:04 the Comté-en-Terre peninsula and Istres.
02:06 The losses were significant but fewer than feared.
02:09 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed or injured on D-Day.
02:13 It had been expected that 25,000 could be lost.
02:17 Some 3,000 French civilians were killed during the bombings.
02:20 D-Day was a success.
02:22 The Allies broke through Hitler's Atlantic wall of coastal fortifications and defences.
02:28 But the road to liberation was still long.
02:30 D-Day marked the start of the Battle of Normandy, which lasted for three months.
02:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]