D-Day was the largest military operation ever in history. Maybe this is not true as regards the sheer number of men involved but more so in terms of the amount of equipment: ships, tanks and aircraft. Not only that but the area into which these forces were operating was a mere 70kms as compared with 1500kms on the Eastern Front.

This was the Second Front that the Russians had been demanding since 1942. Whereas the Americans and the British understood that a naval landing into the heart of German controlled France would result in a titanic struggle which if unsuccessful would set back the Allies plans for the ultimate defeat of the Germans by years, if not forever.

Instead the paranoid Stalin castigated his allies and diminished the impediments encountered for a naval campaign. He belittled their explanations and cast aspersions on their motives referring to the sea crossing as no more arduous than a Russian river crossing.

For the Germans the capture of Normandy would mean the final defeat of the Nazis forces. With their backs figuratively against the wall together with the ingrained military ardour, they would exploit the situation to their advantage. Foremost amongst those was the bocage country.

This was the quilt size fields which centuries of Normans had encircled with stone and sand bulwarks. A thick hedge would then cover this wall. The unintended consequence of this man-made obstacle which had been in construction since the original Vikings had conquered Normandy in 10th century was to degrade the supreme advantage of the Allied forces, their mobility and their weight of numbers.

From the German perspective it was a defenders’ paradise. With their overwhelming aerial superiority, the Allies had largely decimated the Luftwaffe. At no stage did they hinder the Allied enlargement of their front. Hence the saviour of the German Wehrmacht and in particular, their Panzer forces was these copses of trees and overgrown hedges.

Michael Wittmann, the German Panzer ace, was in his element.

View this titanic struggle and the pivotal moments through these photos taken 70 years apart.