Spring 1942
EARLY INVASION PLANS
Soon after joining the war effort, the US sends representatives to the UK to lobby for two landing plans. Operation Roundup proposes a landing between Boulogne and Le Havre, while Operation Sledgehammer plans to capture Brest or Cherbourg. Winston Churchill resists, preferring to target the Wehrmacht’s “soft underbelly” in the Mediterranean.
April 1942
OPERATION BOLERO
US Army troops first arrive in the UK in January 1942, and their numbers increase substantially with Operation Bolero. The US presence in England swells to 1.5 million in the month before D-Day. They are predominantly housed
