80 years of D-Day in Normandy

During that operation, Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and broke through the Atlantic Wall, the German defense line that Germany had erected during World War II to protect the coasts of her conquered empire.

The most impressive relics of the Atlantic Wall

To discourage an Allied attack, the German army built a defence line along Europe's beaches from 1942: the Atlantic Wall. Defending Europe's coasts was a daunting task. From Norway, through Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, the coastline measured almost five thousand kilometres. The German army therefore concentrated on the most likely places for an Allied invasion: Normandy and Calais.

Landing beaches

Between Utah Beach and Omaha Beach, two of the five beaches where the Normandy landings took place, Pointe du Hoc is still littered with craters and concrete casemates, reminders of the heavy battle.

Mulberry harbors

In Arromanches-les-Bains you can see one of the two temporary mulberry harbors, a collection of floating, concrete pontoons through which the troops were supplied.

The concrete caissons were later brought to the Netherlands to repair dike holes at Rammekens.