D-Day in Numbers: The Key Facts and Figures

Breakdown of troops landed by country:

One of the most famous war photographs ever taken - find out about the men behind the photograph and the battle they faced as they reached Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944.

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Breakdown of casualty figures:

D-Day was the largest naval, air and land operation in history, while the American landings at Omaha and Utah beaches represented the largest amphibious invasion in US history since General Ulyssees S. Grant landed at Bruinsburg during the American Civil War.

Overall, the Americans shouldered the major burden in every department, and subsequently received the greatest number of casualties.

Documentary covering events of June 6 1944 from the airborne drops of the early morning through to the German fightback of the late afternoon.

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Meanwhile, the Allies’ superiority in aeronautical terms accounts somewhat for the relatively low number of planes lost.

There were many confrontations during World War Two that rivalled and a few that superseded the tragedy and scale of D-Day, particularly on the Eastern Front.

But the invasion continues to be one of the best remembered of the war, largely due to the haunting images of infantry mown down on the beaches and because it ended with the Allies regaining a foothold in occupied France. It also constituted a remarkable piece of military initiative which, given its scope and the variety of elements in play, could easily have been a failure.