"You are about to embark on the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you… I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle."
– Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower from National D Day Memorial
– Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower from National D Day Memorial
History On The Net: D-Day; The Invasion of Normandy
The D-Day landing of June 6, 1944, ranks as the boldest and most successful large-scale invasion in military history.
On June 6, as Operation Overlord went forward, roughly 160,000 Allied troops crossed the English Channel, supported by seven thousand ships and boats, and landed on the coast of Normandy. The seaborne invasion included nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers. They established a beachhead from which the Germans were unable to dislodge them. Within ten days, there were half a million troops ashore, and within three weeks there were two million.
Daily Gazette: 43 Photo Image Gallery.
C-SPAN video: U.S. Soldiers on D-Day.
The Times Union: Albany riveted by D-Day.
National D-Day Memorial: The Bedford Boys
Washington Examiner: D-Day remembered: The view from Omaha Beach.
For the final 200 yards on the water, the German machine guns would already have been riddling their Higgins boats. Then, unceremoniously dumped into frigid, churning water, colleagues exploding in blood all around them, they would have found themselves finally on dry ground but without refuge from the Nazi weapons.
Weighted with wet clothes and hefty equipment, they had to make it 400 yards through flesh-ripping fire. In gym shorts and track shoes, most of these men might make it in about 80 seconds after a lung-busting run. Now imagine trying it with 60 pounds on your back or in your arms. And do it while running into the horrors of mechanized firepower.
WBR: 75th Anniversary Of D-Day: Preserving The Stories Of WWII Veterans.
The Telegraph (2013): D-Day Survivors tell their stories.
Eyewitness To History: Invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944; On The Beach.
Time: Five Essential D-Day stories.
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