On the morning of June 6, 1944, the largest and most powerful armada of warships the world had ever seen left southern England bound for the beaches of Normandy. The thousands of American, British, Canadian, Polish, and Norwegian soldiers on board had one mission: invade France and liberate it from the occupation by Nazi Germany. Over the course of the next three months, that is precisely what they, and the Free French troops who would later join them, did. From the sands of beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword, through the nearly impenetrable hedgerows of the Norman countryside, and on into the French capital of Paris, the Allied armies drove forward to victory against fierce German opposition.

Illustrated with full-color and black-and-white photographs, and accompanied by a chronology, bibliography, and further resources, D-Day and the Liberation of France, Updated Edition provides a clear and comprehensive account of this remarkable struggle to determine the fate of Western Europe during World War II. Historical spotlights and excerpts from primary source documents are also included.