King George VI's Deep Involvement with D-Day

His diaries show an admirable mastery of detail and understanding of the military strategy behind the historic invasion of northern France

In a series of commemorations of the 80^th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, King Charles III invoked the words of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, whose bravery and inspiration played a crucial role in the Western alliance’s defeat of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Charles and Queen Camilla recently met in Buckingham Palace with four veterans aged 99 and 100 who had participated in the massive assault by 165,000 soldiers. At the end of D-Day, there were some 10,000 casualties, including 4,140 deaths.

“The airborne troops had made successful landings”

As the veterans shared memories of their harrowing landing on Normandy’s beaches, Charles showed them a page from the diary of George VI and read an extract from what he wrote on D-Day: “The news was given out at 8 a.m. that the invasion of the continent of Europe had started last night. The airborne troops had made successful landings in the night and had captured their objectives.”

The page in the wartime diary of King George VI on which he wrote about D-Day

On the anniversary of D-Day itself, the King spoke movingly and eloquently about the “remarkable wartime generation” as he stood in the three-year-old British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach, where British forces landed. Charles paid homage to the “vast Allied effort” joining “American, British, Canadian, French and Polish formations” that vanquished the Germans in Normandy after eleven brutal weeks. They “fought together” for what King George VI “described as ‘a world in which goodness and honour may be the foundation of the life of men in every land.’”

On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, King Charles III speaking at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer above Gold Beach, June 6, 2024

While researching George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy, I spent three months in the Royal Archives at the top of the Round Tower at Windsor Castle. The late Queen Elizabeth II gave me permission to read letters and diaries written by her parents, grandparents, and other family members. The most revealing of these documents were the diaries that King George VI kept from September 3, 1939—the first day of the Second World War—until the end of January 1947. On those pages I could see him grow as a leader and fulfill his duty as sovereign to the utmost.

His far-reaching involvement in the planning for D-Day—code-named Operation Overlord—illuminates his style of leadership, his strong views, and his steadfastness in supporting the Allied forces preparing for the unprecedented invasion. He had more than forty briefings from political and military leaders. His tight relationship with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with whom he and Queen Elizabeth met frequently, survived occasional disagreements, but in the tense period before D-Day the King and his First Minister nearly reached a breaking point.

One of the joys of writing Royals Extra is the opportunity to take readers on a deep dive into specific areas of my research. Here are some fresh insights into the thinking and activities of King George VI in the nine-month run-up to D-Day as well as his triumphant visit to Normandy ten days later. I am also including photographs that haven’t been seen in eighty years.