Victims of Operation Overlord

The Battle of Normandy (6/6/1944 to 25/08/1944) claimed some 425,000 casualties of which 209,000 were Allied with some 37,000 ground troops killed and 16,714 air troops killed. 83,045 of those 209,000 were mostly British, Canadian and Polish troops. 125,847 were American.

The number of German casualties during the Battle of Normandy can only be roughly estimated. One speaks of ± 425,000 victims among which ± 200,000 dead. In addition the Allies had taken ± 200,000 Germans prisoner. During the battle of Falaise (or The Falaise pocket) in August 1944 alone, the Germans suffered some 90,000 casualties including prisoners of war.

Some 15,000 to 20,000 French civilians lost their lives. This was mostly the result of the allied bombings.

If we add up all the victims (wounded, missing and dead), both soldiers, the resistance and ordinary civilians, we can speak of approximately 650,000 to 700,000 victims. The number of victims during the Battle of Normandy can be compared to the number of victims of an ordinary battle during the First World War. In other words, it was one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War.

Today, there are 27 war cemeteries that offer rest to the fallen of both factions: 77,866 Germans, 9,386 Americans, 17,769 British, 5,002 Canadians and 650 Poles.

This article contains an estimate of the number of casualties and dead during D-day and the Battle of Normandy. The figures you can consult here are a collection of several sources and can therefore differ with the reality.