![]() It was therefore of the utmost importance to consolidate the bridgehead and their numerical advantage, by hindering as much as possible the arrival of German reinforcements. On the evening of 6 June, the 156 000 Allied soldiers who had landed in Normandy faced 80 000 German soldiers. The war of attrition that ensued had its balance tipped in favour of the Allies, who, through a formidable logistical effort, succeeded in getting increasing amounts of munitions, armaments, oil and troops through to Normandy. The strategy imposed by Hitler in person consisted of standing firm whatever the cost, in order to hold back the Allied invasion until the hypothetical arrival of secret weapons that were supposed to radically change the course of the war. ![]() This means that the Wehrmacht lost at least half the troops it engaged in Normandy. German losses are difficult to establish, ranging from 300 000 to 450 000, of which 55 000 to 60 000 dead. The Allies lost just over 200 000 men, 37 000 of them killed. Twenty thousand Normans were killed (14 000 in Lower Normandy alone), most of them victims of the Allied carpet bombing, which completely flattened some localities. From the hell of the hedgerows to the suburbs of Caen, they were nearly three months of bitter fighting - often uncertain, always violent - for the soldiers as well as the civilians. From the attack on the landing beaches to the German retreat along the 'Corridor of Death' in mid-August and the liberation of Lisieux on 23 August 1944, the Battle of Normandy lasted approximately 80 days. By the sheer number of German soldiers it mobilised and the losses sustained by a Wehrmacht brought to its knees by fierce fighting that sometimes ended in hand-to-hand combat, this battle played a crucial role in the liberation of France and Western Europe. The Battle of Normandy was one of the major confrontations of the Second World War.
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