75th anniversary of D Day and Operation Epsom

Date/Time
Date(s) - 13/07/2019
11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Location.
Bourne Hall Park
Spring Street,
Ewell,
Surrey,
KT17 1UF.

Event Description

We’re marking the 75^th anniversary of D Day and Operation Epsom with a special free family day at Bourne Hall Park.

There will be WW2 re-enactors, displays of weapons and vehicles plus music and dancing from the war by Surrey Jive.

Saturday 13 July, 11am to 4.30pm in Bourne Hall Park, Spring Street, Ewell.

D Day

Codenamed Operation Overlord the Allied invasion of France happened on 6 June 1944 after five years of war with Germany. It was a seaborne invasion, the biggest one in history.

By dawn, thousands of paratroopers and glider troops were already on the ground behind enemy lines, securing bridges and exit roads. The amphibious invasions began at 6.30am.

Thousands of ships set out from the south coast of England, in all over 6,000 vessels joined the attack. They were supported by over 11,000 planes. Throughout the day, some 156,000, British, American and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of Normandy.

The ‘D’ in D-Day does not stand for anything, it was just the initial the military used when planning the attack. Planning of the invasion was underway before the date it would take place was known. In order to organise things like when the troop ships should leave England the planners referred to it as D-Day.

Operation Epsom

Operation Epsom (also known as the battle of the Odon), took place at the end of June and was the first major British offensive to be launched after the D-Day landings.

The offensive was intended to outflank and seize the German-occupied city of Caen, an important Allied objective, in the early stages of Operation Overlord.

It was a successful attempt to force the Germans to concentrate their armoured units at the eastern end of the Normandy beachhead and to prevent Rommel from moving any of his panzer divisions west towards the American front, where preparations were underway for Operation Cobra, the main breakout from the beachhead.

 

 

Event Contact Information

Website Address:
Contact Telephone Number: 020 8394 1734