160,000 troops on beaches, but D-Day wasn’t history’s greatest invasion

I’ve just spent a great afternoon in lockdown watching a DVD of The Longest Day, about the D-Day landings in the Second World War.

Now, I knew that the invasion of Europe that fateful day in 1944 was the largest amphibious operation in history, but now I would like to know about the second largest – probably also during the same conflict? – and which was the largest in ancient history? – B.

D-Day – June 6,1944 – was codenamed Operation Overlord, when almost 160,000 British, Canadian and American forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast.

It eventually resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control.

However, I believe this was actually the second largest invasion ever.

The largest also took place during the Second World War, however it was in the Pacific theatre of operations. On April 1, 1945, the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and more than 180,000 US Army and US Marine Corps troops descended on the island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan.

It became the last major battle of the war, but also one of the bloodiest.

12,520 Americans were killed, but Japan’s losses were put at 110,000 men, and up to 150,000 Okinawa citizens also perished.

As for ancient history, the largest invasion was probably when the Persians landed in Greece in 490BC.

The Battle of Marathon was fought between the citizens of Athens, a Persian force of 20,000 commanded by Datis and Artaphernes under the rule of King Darius I.

It was the largest invasion for 2,400 years until the disastrous Gallipoli landings in the First World War.