Honoring D-Day Veterans 75 Years Later

June 6, 1944 - a day that changed the course of history. We should never forgot those brave soldiers that stormed the beaches that day. So many never made it home.

D-Day History:

The Invasion of Normandy. 

On June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe.

At 10pm on 5 June 1944, troops began departing from British shores to head across the Channel. Five assault groups set sail under darkness in an armada of about 7,000 vessels.

Just after midnight on 6 June, aerial bombardment of enemy positions on the Normandy coast began. That night, more than 5,300 tons of bombs were dropped. Special operations troops were parachuted into the country to attack bridges and secure vital infrastructure targets before the landings. They also sent information about German positions back by pigeon.

After anchoring off the coast of France for a couple of hours, US troops landed on Omaha and Utah beaches at about 6:30am. About an hour later Canadian forces landed at Juno, and British troops landed at Gold and Sword.

US troops faced stiff German resistance at Omaha beach in particular, and were pinned down for several hours, suffering heavy losses. The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2,500 dead. Broken down by nationality, the usual D-Day casualty figures are approximately 2,700 British, 946 Canadians, and 6,603 Americans.

5 June had been chosen as the original date, with the expectation that a full moon, calm waters and a low tide would aid the landing of the troops. But when a storm was forecast, one of the most complex combined air, sea and land military operations ever to be attempted was delayed 24 hours on the advice of meteorologists.

The public had also been kept in the dark until the operation had begun. On the day, at 9am, Gen Dwight Eisenhower issued a communique announcing that the invasion had begun. Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons in London at noon, saying: “So far the commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan!”

At 9pm, King George VI addressed the British public in a broadcast, describing the operation as a “fight to win the final victory for the good cause”. By midnight the allied forces had full control of the beaches, and the push into occupied France was under way.

By the end of the day, the allies had disembarked more than 135,000 men and 10,000 vehicles on to the beaches, and established bridgeheads of varying depths along the Normandy coastline. This came at the cost of 4,400 allied troops being killed, with thousands more injured or missing. There were also heavy casualties among German troops and French civilians.

Fierce fighting continued in the area until August. The ongoing plan relied on landing more and more troops into France, faster than the Germans could reinforce their positions. By 19 August, the allied forces had pushed down far enough to begin the battle to liberate Paris.

D-Day was the beginning of the end for not only the Germans but Hitler most of all. D-Day forced the Germans to fight a two front war again just as they had in WWI. Yet again the Germans could not handle war on both sides of them.

The Allies used their air power to slow the German advance toward Normandy by blowing up bridges, railways and roads across the region. This allowed the Allies to gain total control of Normandy 77 days later and move on toward Paris, which they liberated in August 1944.    German troops surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944, two and a half months after D-day.