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D-Day and the Battle of Normandy
The 1944 Battle of Normandy — from the D-Day landings on 6 June through to the encirclement of the German army at Falaise on 21 August — was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War and the scene of some of Canada's greatest feats of arms. Canadian sailors, soldiers and airmen played a critical role in the Allied invasion of Normandy, also called Operation Overlord, beginning the bloody campaign to liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation. Nearly 150,000 Allied troops landed or parachuted into the invasion area on D-Day, including 14,000 Canadians at Juno Beach. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 124 vessels and 10,000 sailors and the Royal Canadian Air Force contributed 39 squadrons to the operation. Total Allied casualties on D-Day reached more than 10,000, including 1,096 Canadians, of whom 381 were killed in action. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies had suffered 209,000 casualties, including more than 18,700 Canadians. Over 5,000 Canadian soldiers died. (This is the full-length entry about D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. For a plain-language summary, please see D-Day and the Battle of Normandy (Plain-Language Summary).)