The prelude to Overlord
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 Landing craft LCM73 ferrying troops ashore during Operation Torch. © NMM |
By the second half of 1942, the tide of war was turning. The Soviet Union's Red Army had stopped the German advance in Eastern Europe, and the Japanese had been halted in the Pacific.
With the huge build up of American military and industrial power, it became possible for the western Allies to consider combined operations on a larger scale.
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| An armoured vehicle landing in Sicily. © NMM |
An exercise attack on Dieppe in August 1942 was a costly disaster, but by early 1944 successful landings had taken place in North Africa, Sicily and mainland Italy. Planning Operation Overlord – the invasion of France - was well underway.
The build up to Overlord
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| LCMs in a major exercise off the French coast. © NMM | With the Germans fully prepared for an invasion in the west, it was clear that Overlord needed to be far larger than any previous amphibious operation.
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| Review of the invasion fleet by the king. © NMM |
Once Normandy had been chosen as the assault site, much of southern England became an assembly point for troops and equipment.
Naval forces carried out elaborate exercises in preparation for the landings.
Fooling German Intelligence
Although the invasion force was concentrated in southern England, London and the Thames played many important roles in the campaign.
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| Invasion shipping in Portsmouth Dockyard, 26 May 1944. © NMM | Before D-Day, it was important for the Allies to deceive the Germans into believing that the main attack would happen in the Pas de Calais, rather than Normandy.
In Kent, canvas and plywood barracks and inflatable tanks were used to create a dummy army, and hundreds of rubber landing craft in the Thames acted as a phantom fleet.
The deception was successful. On D-Day many senior Germans – Hitler included – refused to believe this was the real invasion. They lost valuable time by holding back troops and tanks that could have counterattacked the Allied positions on the beaches.
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