Yes, the geography of the beaches was a major factor in the planning for the landings. This extended beyond simply the material that made up the beaches, through to things like the existence of sandbanks offshore, the slope of the beaches and the ground beyond them.

The make-up of the beach was highly important. To achieve a successful landing, the Allies needed to be able to land tanks, trucks and other heavy equipment. This meant that the beach had to be firm enough to support these. Many of the beaches on the Normandy coast were thought to be supported by soft clay or peat, which would not support tanks. The material of the beach had to be one that tanks and other tracked vehicles could move across with ease. This had been part of the cause of the failure of the Allied attack on Dieppe in 1942. Here, the beach was composed largely of shingle (pebbles) which proved to be of just the right size to disrupt the tracks of the tanks that were landed. This meant that the tanks couldn't move off the beach to support the Canadian infantry that had been landed, resulting in heavy casualties. Avoiding this would be necessary.

There were other concerns, too. The slope of the beach had to be right. A beach with a steep gradient would be easier for ships and landing craft to approach. However, too steep a gradient would make it hard for tanks, trucks and the like to climb it. There had to be easy exits from the beach. For example, a beach at the foot of a tall cliff would be unsuitable; it would be easy for the Germans to defend it. There had to be no sandbanks offshore. Landing craft would beach on these, stranding the troops far offshore. The currents and tides off the beach had to be understood, to make navigation easy for the landing craft crews. All of these, and many more, had to be considered when choosing an appropriate beach.

To ensure that the best possible beaches were chosen, the Allied planners relied on a vast array of information. A public appeal was sent out for postcards and holiday photographs of French beaches. This brought in millions of images, giving an impression of the beaches and the land behind them. Aerial photographs were taken, along the whole length of the French coastline. Old surveys and charts were consulted. However, none of these could give up-to-date information, and a number of key points, such as the soil composition on the beaches, were missing. These had to be gathered by special forces operations.

These operations were carried out by the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP), a special forces units formed from the British Special Boat Service for such operations. The COPP had been formed following a successful ad-hoc beach reconnaissance on Rhodes, in preparation for a cancelled amphibious assault. They had seen work in the Mediterranean, preparing the way for the invasions of Sicily, Salerno and Anzio. The COPP teams made several beach reconnaissance sorties to Normandy. The typical COPP sortie saw them being taken over to the Normandy coast by a carrier vessel. This was usually a landing craft, but for one operation (to the Omaha beach area), was an X-craft midget submarine. They would row ashore from the carrying vessel in folding canoes, and begin a covert survey. Soil samples were taken using an auger, and sketches made of the beach, the defences, and the land behind it. Navigational markers, like churches, were noted, as was the gradient of the beach. Meanwhile, the carrying vessel was making a hydrographical survey of the water offshore of the beach, using echosounders, sounding leads and other instruments to measure the depth of the water and the shelving of the beach. Once the COPP team had made their survey, they would return to the carrier and head home for debriefing.