Public Lecture – The Miracle of D-Day, 6 June 1944

This year we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944. Operation Overlord was the greatest amphibious assault in history, a crucial turning point of World War II, and a miracle of planning, logistics, coordination and supply.

In this detailed public lecture, Noel Phelan will cover: 

• decisions by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

• strategies by both Eisenhower and Rommel

• complex and detailed planning involving hundreds of thousands of men and their equipment

• myriad of German defences

• deception and confusion of the Germans involving Patton

• clever design of much military equipment

• construction of an artificial harbour

• scuttling of 70 ships to form a breakwater

• towing and sinking of 210 Phoenix caissons to also form a breakwater

• logistics to land the men and their equipment

• aerial support of 1,000 heavy bombers and fighters

• naval support of 28 battleships and 56 destroyers

• industrial might of America to build 1,700 Liberty ships and masses of other military equipment