Normandy Landing Beaches
The Normandy Landings were a pivotal part of Operation Overlord,
the allied invasion of Europe from the UK which took place on 6th
June 1944.
The most famous part of Operation Overlord was codenamed
Operation Neptune and involved a huge flotilla of small ships and
troops crossing the Channel to land on the French coastline in
Normandy. The main beaches used for the operation were Sword, Juno,
Gold, Omaha, Pointe du Hoc and Utah. These names were code for
stretches of the coastline - before the landings the beaches
themselves did not have recognised names, or were simply named
after the nearest town. Today the beaches are generally referred to
by their WWII code names.