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As they prepared for a cross-Channel assault on France, the Western Allies built up on British soil one of the largest and most powerful invasion forces in history. For 2 months before the landing, while troops, equipment, and supplies poured into Britain, the All ....

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.... aircraft operated over the invasion area. More than 150,000 troops disembarked at Normandy on D-Day. Because all major French ports in the north were mined and fortified, the Allies improvised two artificial harbors, with pontoons, breakwaters, and sunken ships. One of the harbors was destroyed by a severe Atlantic gale, but the other worked perfectly. Twenty pipelines below the Channel were used to bring in critical supplies of gasoline for the tanks. The Germans had anticipated an Allied invasion of western Europe at about this time but were surprised by its location. Gen. Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of German forces in the West, had expected t ....