Battle of Normandy

"It's our history"

With mini-guides, discover the past that made the present.

Whether you are visiting a battlefield or just interested in learning more from the comfort of your own home, mini-guides offer a fresh, new and completely unprecedented visual feast of information, photographs, graphics, maps, uniforms and equipment --- all in full color. Each mini-guide concludes with practical information including suggested itineraries for touring the battlefields as well as monuments, museums and other related sites you can visit.

NORMANDY

First victories

By the dawn of 7 June some 152,000 Allied troops had set foot on the Normandy coast, testimony that the D-Day landings had been a success. But the battle was far from over; beachheads had to be reinforced and troops prepared to face the inevitable German counterattack. The weather, too, added to the uncertainty as it had the power to interrupt supplies and reinforcements. The American's objective was to seal off the Cotentin peninsula, thereby forcing the surrender of the massive port of Cherbourg. For the British, Caen, capital of Lower Normandy and gateway to Paris, was the main target. They prepared to launch a quick and formidable blow to seize it but were frustrated a handful of miles from the city by German panzers. Would the Allies be able to break out and end the campaign with a decisive blow ?