<P> In 1942, the Western Allies agreed to open a second front (the Western Front) in Western Europe to take pressure off the beleaguered Red Army in the Soviet Union . While Britain and the United States did not yet possess the resources to mount a full invasion, invasion plans that came to be known as Operation Sledgehammer were drawn up, in case the German position in Western Europe weakened or the USSR's situation became dire . In August 1942 Anglo - Canadian forces attempted an abortive landing--Operation Jubilee--at the French port of Dieppe; the landing was designed to test the feasibility of a cross-channel invasion . The attack was poorly planned and ended in disaster; 4,963 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured . Following the Anglo - American victory against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa in May 1943, British, American and Canadian troops invaded Sicily in July 1943, followed by Italy in September . By December the Allies' progress had slowed facing tenacious German resistance and the difficult geography of the Italian Peninsula . </P> <P> After gaining valuable experience in amphibious assaults and inland fighting, Allied planners returned to the plans to invade Northern France, now postponed to 1944 . Under the direction of General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force) and Frederick Morgan, plans for the invasion of France coalesced as Operation Overlord . With an initial target date of 1 May 1944, the infantry attack was conceived as a joint assault by five divisions transported by landing craft, constituting the largest amphibious operation in military history . The attack was later scheduled for Monday, 5 June 1944, and Normandy was selected for the landing sites, with a zone of operations extending from the Cotentin Peninsula to Caen . There were originally seventeen sectors along the Normandy coastline with codenames taken from one of the spelling alphabets of the time, from Able, west of Omaha, to Rodger on the east flank of the invasion area . Eight further sectors were added when the planned invasion was extended to include Utah on the Cotentin Peninsula . Sectors were further subdivided into beaches identified by the colours Green, Red and White . Operation Overlord called for the British Second Army to assault between the River Orne and Port en Bessin, capture Caen, and form a front line from Caumont - l'Éventé to the south - east of Caen, to acquire airfields and protect the left flank of the United States First Army while it captured Cherbourg . Possession of Caen and its surroundings would give Second Army a suitable staging area for a push south to capture the city of Falaise, which could then be used as a pivot for a swing left to advance on Argentan, the Touques River and then towards the River Seine . </P> <P> After delays due to both logistical difficulties and poor weather, the D - Day of Overlord, the largest amphibious operation ever, was postponed 24 hours to 6 June 1944 . Eisenhower and Montgomery, commander of 21st Army Group, aimed to capture Caen within the first day, and liberate Paris within 90 days . </P> <P> Operation Neptune, the landing phase of Overlord, called for a five - division front spread across 50 mi (80 km) of coastline; three airborne divisions (two American, one British, which also included a Canadian battalion) would also land in the pre-dawn hours of D - Day . Eisenhower and General Bernard Montgomery hoped to have eight infantry divisions and fourteen tank regiments in the Normandy beachhead by nightfall on D - Day . The landing zone was divided into five landing areas, with the Americans attacking Utah (the westernmost) and Omaha, and the British attacking Gold and Sword . Juno, a 6 mi (9.7 km) stretch of shoreline between La Rivière to the west and Saint - Aubin to the east, was assigned to the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division (3rd CID), commanded by Major - General Rod Keller . Juno included the villages of Courseulles and Bernières . </P>

Where did troops leave from on d day