ABSTRACT
The turn of the year from 1943 to 1944 saw the Allied military commanders massing their forces for the invasion of Europe-Operation Overlordintended to drive the Germans from France and the Low Countries and force them, in retreat, into the heart of their homeland and defeat. The most elaborate seaborne assault ever plannedwould be anAllied operation involving three Army Groups under the supreme command of General Eisenhower. British and Canadian forces were combined within General Montgomery’s 21 Army Group, while the Americans formed the remaining two and all would land on the coast of Normandy just north of Caen. The date of the invasion was finally fixed for early June, after the most detailed assessment of every conceivable option ever undertaken for a military operation. The United States 1st Army would go ashore on beaches code-named Omaha and Utah on the Cherbourg peninsula while the 2nd British Army and the 1st Canadian Army would land to the east of them at Gold, Juno and Sword. The sheer size of Overlord necessitated a degree of planning and preparation that greatly increased the demands made upon every arm of the Service in terms of manpower, equipment and, most crucially of all, the use of the most sophisticated technology to outwit and overwhelm the enemy. Science was well and truly at war.
