Operation Overlord In November 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin travelled to Tehran in Iran to make plans for the western invasion of Europe. Stalin hoped that the creation of a western front would take the pressure off the Soviet army on the eastern front. Operation Overlord was planned for June 1944. The day of the invasion was to be codenamed D-Day (June 1944) and was to be led by Generals Montgomery and Eisenhower.
Source B Looking at the evidence
The leaders of the three main Allies met at Tehran in 1943. 1. Name the three people marked A, B and C.
2. State which countries they governed.
3. Explain the principal reason why these countries
became allies during World War II.
4. Write a short paragraph on the contribution one of these people made to their country.
1944
D-Day The invasion force on the first day consisted of 120,000 Allied troops supported by 20,000 paratroopers (soldiers who are dropped behind enemy lines using parachutes). The Allies pretended to be launching their attack at Calais and so Hitler put most of his troops there. The real intended locations were the beaches of Normandy. Each beach was given a code name: Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword. On 6 June 1944, under the protection of aeroplanes, the Allied soldiers landed on the beaches. Hitler had built a line of defences called the Atlantic Wall along the French coast. The Allied soldiers had to deal with heavily mined beaches, heavy gunfire and steep cliffs.
378 Exeter Dartmouth
English Channel
US troops British troops Canadian troops
ENGLAND Southampton
Portland Portsmouth
Dover Shoreham
Strait of Dover Calais
Cherbourg
Le Havre Rouen Falaise FRANCE
Fig 14.17 A map of the English Channel showing the beaches where on D-Day (6 June 1944) the Allies landed in France.