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Australia

Virtually all 11,000 Australian aircrew participate in Overlord. Most of the 1,100 officers and men of the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) serve aboard British cruisers HMS Ajax, Enterprise, Glasgow and Scylla, or as commanders of several flotillas of landing craft and MTBs. On Ajax, a RANVR officer commands the 6-inch gun bombardment of the German Naval Battery at Longues-sur-Mer on cliffs 200ft above Gold Beach. Australians also serve aboard destroyers HMS Ashanti, Eskimo and Mackay.

Czechoslovakia

310, 312 and 313 Squadrons (Spitfire IXs), 134 Wing, 84 Group, 2nd TAF, and 311 Squadron (Liberator Vs), 19 Group, RAF Coastal Command.

Belgium

Two corvettes, three merchant ships and three Congo boats. 350 Squadron participate in aerial defence of Gold and Sword Beaches. 349 Squadron provide covering fire for US 82nd Airborne Division.

Canada

About 15,000 troops of the 3rd Infantry Division. RCAF commit 39 strategic and tactical squadrons, who fly 230 sorties of the 1,200 mounted by Bomber Command. Nearly 10,000 officers and men aboard 126 Canadian fighting ships, 44 landing craft among them.

Denmark

800 Danes mostly serve aboard ships.

France

329, 340 and 341 Squadrons, 145 Wing (Spitfire IXs) and 88 and 342 Squadrons, 2 Group, (Boston IIIAs) in 2nd TAF, Allied Expeditionary Air Force, and 345 Squadron (Spitfires) in No.11 Group, ADGB. Light cruisers Montcalm and Georges Leygues, Western Task Force off Port-en-Bessin, and the destroyer La Combattante, Eastern Task Force off the coast of Courseulles-sur-Mer, take part in the naval bombardment. Five frigates, four corvettes, and four submarine chasers perform escort duty. The elderly battleship Courbet is towed across the Channel and sunk off Ouistreham to act as a breakwater for the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches.

Great Britain

Second Army composed of two corps (including three British divisions with auxiliary units and services – some 62,000 men). Provides about 80 per cent of the warships. RAF flies 5,656 sorties.

Greece

Two Royal Hellenic Navy corvettes escort convoys to Juno, Gold and Sword. A number of Greek soldiers, sailors, and airmen serve in Allied Forces.

Norway

Ten warships of the Royal Norwegian Navy in exile and 43 ships of the Norwegian Merchant Navy (two of the cargo ships are scuttled to create a breakwater for landing craft) and three fighter squadrons – 66, 331 and 332, 132 Wing, 2nd TAF, flying Spitfire IXs.

Netherlands

Cruiser, HMNS Sumatra and two sloops, Flores and Soemba, (The latter two fire in support of the landings on Utah and Gold. On D+3 Sumatra, its armour dismantled, is intentionally scuttled near the shore to form part of the breakwater for Mulberry harbour. Nos. 98, 180 and 320 Squadrons, 139 Wing (Mitchell lls), 2 Group, and 322 Squadron (Spitfire XIVs), 141 Wing, all from 2nd TAF.

New Zealand

By June 1944 more than one-third of New Zealand’s overseas manpower, about 35,000 men, are serving in Britain. Of these, about 30,000 are in the RAF or in the six RNZAF Squadrons and they take part in every phase of the operation. 4,000 officers and men of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve are in the Royal Navy. Junior officers of the RNZNVR command scores of landing craft and flotillas of New Zealand-manned MTBs.

Poland

302, 308 and 317 Squadrons, 131 Wing, 84 Group (Spitfire IXs) and 306 and 315 Squadrons, (Mustang Ills) 133 Wing, (all from 2nd TAF) and Lancasters of 300 (Polish) Squadron, 1 Group, RAF Bomber Command. Destroyers Krakowiak and Slazak take part in the Eastern Task Force’s naval bombardment of the coast. Four other Polish warships and eight merchant ships play various roles.

United States

First Army composed of two corps (five divisions with auxiliary units and services – about 73,000 troops). Navy provides 16.5 per cent of the Allied warships and hundreds of landing vessels. 8th and 9th Air Forces (6,080 tactical and strategic aircraft) in Allied Expeditionary Air Force.