Aviation Specials Magazine D-Day Back Issue

The Allied invasion of Normandy, Operation Overlord, was the greatest air, land and sea operation ever conducted. Its success depended on the invading forces gaining a foothold on Hitler’s Fortress Europe on the first day, D-Day. On that single day 150,000 troops, almost 7,000 warships, transport vessels and landing craft and thousands of aircraft, launched the assault that would mark the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.

We reveal the airborne operations as British and American glider-borne and parachute troops landed behind enemy lines to capture vital bridges and gun batteries. Then follows a series of blow-by-blow accounts of exactly what happened on each of the five invasion beaches, as the British, American and Canadian troops rushed from the landing craft to assail the German defences. Tales of courage and hard-won victories intermingle with easy success as the troops pushed through the surf to take the German strong points.

Though not all the objectives were achieved in the bitter and bloody fighting, enough ground had been won by the end of D-Day to enable reinforcements to be landed and the beachhead expanded. Tuesday, 6 June 1944 was indeed the twenty-four hours that changed the course of the Second World War.

This 132-page special from the team behind Britain at War magazine includes:

D-Day: the plans, preparations, aims and objectives
Airborne assault
The Beaches: Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword
The Road to Berlin