70th Anniversary of the Liberation of France
70 years ago on June 6th, 1944, the allied forces of several countries landed in Normandy to liberate France from the Nazi occupation.
The operation codenamed ‘Overlord’ remains the biggest military landing in the history which, for the “D-Day” alone, mobilised nearly 156000 men, 12000 aircrafts and 2700 warships of different types. That day marked the beginning of the battle of Normandy which, for two and a half months, was the centre of particularly violent combats that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers.
Through the human and material sacrifice it represented, the allied landings in Normandy was able to open up a second European front and considerably weaken the forces of the 3rd Reich by forcing them to fight in both the East and the West of the continent.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings, there will be an official ceremony to which the President of the French Republic invited several foreign Heads of State, including the Queen of England, the President of the United States of America, the German Chancellor, and the President of the Russian Federation. For this occasion, several museums have taken on a new look and enriched their collections ; a film, D-Day, Normandy 1944, has also been produced as part of the commemorative ceremonies.
More information on the battle of Normandy can be found by visiting the following four websites :
http://www.debarquement-manche.fr/70e-anniversaire-dday-2014, managed by Manche Tourisme, it presents this year’s commemorations.
http://www.6juin1944.com/, is an important data base for the event.
http://www.dday-overlord.com/, a site of the D-Day-overlord association.
http://www.plagesdu6juin1944.com/, contains detailed information on each of the five beaches on which the Allied forces disembarked (Juno, Gold, Omaha, Sword, and Utah Beach)
The websites of some museums dedicated to this event can also be visited :
www.memorial-caen.fr/ : The Caen Memorial website, one of the most visited sites in France and which is dedicated to the entire history of the 20th century, with very rich documentation on the Second World War and the Normandy Landings.
http://www.normandiememoire.com: The Normandy Mémoire site showcases all the museums in the region dedicated to the allied Landings. To see the full list of the museums dedicated to the Landings, click here.
http://www.musee-memorial-omaha.com/index.php The website of the Omaha Memorial.