Intro Normandy vs. Okinawa

David Rosoff

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Hi, everyone!
I love history. I find military history fascinating. I am particularly interested in WWII, The Civil War, military innovation/invention, espionage, The Holocaust, & the history of genocides.
To start with, can anyone answer something I've wondered for a long time? Both Normandy & Okinawa have been called the greatest amphibious assault of all time. So, which is correct? & why is the other one also called the greatest?
 
Welcome aboard @David Rosoff, enjoy our happy home ;)

IMHO, Overlord dwarfs the invasion of Okinawa, almost 1.5 million troops involved versus 500,000+

I believe Okinawa was the largest amphib op in the Pacific theatre and was certainly one of the largest US operations in WW2.

I have never heard of Okinawa being touted as the greatest and it's possibly a USA thing. Overlord was an allied nations invasion and amphib op in which the US was not the largest combat troop contributor during the initial landings.

Going on purely US forces involved in the initial landing then possibly Okinawa shades Overlord but Overlord was definitely the largest amphib op in history
 
BravoZulu summed it up, Okinawa certainly was huge and with heavy casualties, but liberating Europe was quite the task for the US and all allies involved. Think of the battle of the bulge, too (Ardennes) in winter 1944. Overlord happened on June, 6th 1944, yet it still took almost a year for the Third Reich to finally surrender after the landing.
 
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