June 1
Far East, Burma
Brigadier Mike Calvert, commander of the Chindits' 77th Brigade, reaches Lakum near Mogaung.

June 3
Far East, India
The 64-day Battle of Kohima ends with the remnants of the Japanese 31st Division withdrawing in good order. It is the lack of supplies, rather than the attacks of the British and Indian forces, which has forced the Japanese to fall back. The fighting at Kohima has been among the most savage of the whole war.

June 3-4
Italy, Rome
Adolf Hitler reluctantly gives Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the German commander-in-chief in Italy, permission to abandon Rome. Covered by expert rearguard actions of IV Parachute Corps, the German Fourteenth Army pulls back across the Tiber River. US troops enter the city on the 5th - the first Axis capital to be captured.

Soldiers of the US 4th Infantry Division wade
ashore under fire at Utah Beach on D-Day,
the invasion of Northern France

British Horsa gliders litter the fields northeast of
Caen on the morning of D-Day - 6 June 1944

June 6
Western Front, France
The Allies launch the greatest amphibious operation in history. The statistics for the invasion force are staggering: 50,000 men for the initial assault; over two million men to be shipped to France in all, comprising a total of 39 divisions; 139 major warships used in the assault, with a further 221 smaller combat vessels; over 1000 minesweepers and auxiliary vessels; 4000 landing craft; 805 merchant ships; 59 blockships; 300 miscellaneous small craft; and 11,000 aircraft, including fighters, bombers, transports, and gliders. In addition, the invasion force has the support of over 100,000 members of the French Resistance, who launch hit-and-run attacks on German targets.

D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, code-named Operation Overlord, begins with the assault of three airborne divisions - the US 82nd and 101st on the right flank of the US forces, and the British 6th Airborne on the left flank of the British - while seaborne forces land on five beaches. Utah Beach is the target of the US 4th Infantry Division (part of the US VII Corps); Omaha Beach is the target of the US 1st Infantry Division (part of the US V Corps); Gold Beach is the landing site of the British 50th Infantry Division (part of the British XXX Corps); Juno is the target for the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division (part of the British I Corps); and the British 3rd Infantry Division (also part of the British I Corps) is tasked with seizing Sword Beach.

The initial parachute and seaborne landings have mixed results: on Utah resistance is slight and the troops are off the beach by 1200 hours; on Omaha the lack of specialized armor means the Germans can pin down the troops on the beach, with great slaughter; on Gold and Juno the specialized armor of the British and Canadians allow the troops to get off the beaches quickly, and by the afternoon they are probing inland toward Bayeux and Caen; and on Sword the troops are able to link up with airborne units that have been dropped farther inland.

This is fortunate, for it is between Juno and Sword that the Germans make their one major counterattack, comprising a battlegroup of the 21st Panzer Division. However, it is defeated. By the end of the day, at a cost of 2500 dead, the Allies have a toehold in German-occupied Europe.

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