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The M4 Sherman was adapted to several tasks during the invasion of June 1944. This photograph shows
the version known as Tankdozer M4, equipped with a bulldozer blade for removing obstacles and mines.
A column of British Mk VIII Cromwell cruiser tanks, manned by Canadians, in action in France.
In the armored regiments, these tanks were usually used in conjuction with the more powerful Sherman Firefly in a ratio of three
to one.
Under the new strategy adopted by the Allies in France, in the summer of 1944 an American expeditionary force disembarked on the
beaches of the Provence. In the photograph, some DUKW amphibious vehicles transport to the shore the
first contingent of troops.
This photograph, taken near the town of Montelimar, where the rivers Yser and Rhone converge, shows the remainings of the battle
lived there. After Marseilles and Tolon were conquered by the Allies, the American troops of the 6th Army Corps quickly evacuated
the German resistance in the valley of the Rhone.
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A road junction between Coutances and Bayeux, along the coastal road that goes between Caen and Cherburg. The Allied armies
advanced relatively fast on France and Belgium; the Germans had destined their less effective troops to the Western Front, where
they accounted for about 30 percent of the whole German Armed Forces. Soldiers arrived from the Eastern Front, experienced
but wounded and tired, inexperienced troops that included a large portion of foreign volunteers from Europe and Asia, and
aged soldiers were destined to France. These forces were a far cry of the former Wehrmacht which was responsible of the legendary
blitzs across Europe.
The most acclaimed by the population, the French forces were however only a meager part of the Allied forces that liberated
France. The Leclerc Division had the honor of being the first one that entered in Paris.
The 27th November 1942 the French ships based on the port of Toulon were scuttled by their own crews to prevent their capture
by the Germans.
An American soldier observes in the port of Toulon the remains of the French battleship Dunkerque, one of the ships scuttled by
the very French to prevent their capture by the Germans.
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