Canadians in Radar

The Normandy Invasion took place between 6 June and 21 August 1944. The goal of the invasion was to open up a western front on the war with Germany and to liberate France from Nazi occupation. The plan was to land in Normandy, allowing allied forces fight their way across France and then proceed into Germany. The invasion began on D-Day, though most objectives in that mission were not met. German positions were very well fortified and German troops were highly skilled and had access to heavy artillery. As a result, it took much longer than anticipated for allied forces to break further into France. Allied forces eventually managed to break through enemy lines and launch a pincer movement. This operation was successful and involved allied troops closing in from the south and the east to surround remaining German forces in Normandy, preventing any further retreat and capturing approximately 150,000 German soldiers. From here, allied forces moved into occupied Holland and Belgium, and then launched a direct attack on Germany. Over the course of the Normandy Invasion, the allies suffered 209,000 casualties out of more than two million soldiers that had landed in France since D-Day. Among those were more than 18,700 Canadians killed and wounded.