JUNE 6

General (and future President) Dwight D Eisenhower had originally selected June 5, 1944, for the Allied invasion of France, known as D-Day. However, the weather was bad, so it was delayed 24 hours. In the early hours of June 6, 1944, over 156,000 troops from America, Canada, and Britain, landed on five beaches over a stretch of fifty miles in Normandy, France. It took over 5,000 ships to transport the soldiers, and 11,000 aircraft supported the mission from above.

The five beaches were codenamed Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and Omaha. The heaviest fighting occurred in Omaha Beach, where over 2,000 American soldiers were killed.

D-Day is considered the beginning of the end of WWII. It was not just a single day of fighting, it took nearly a week for the Allied forces to take control over the beaches. On June 11, when they were fully secured, over 325,000 more troops landed on the beaches of Normandy to help take back France. By the end of June, a total of 850,000 Allied troops would land on the shores of France. They worked their way inland, and reclaimed the land from Germany for France. By the end of August, Paris was liberated.

The fighting in Europe ended on May 8, 1945 - less than a year after D-Day - when the Nazis offered an unconditional surrender.

If you travel to France, you can visit these beaches as well as the Normandy American Cemetery where nearly 10,000 American soldiers are buried or memorialized as missing. They lost their lives on D-Day or in the battles that occurred following the mission. You can also visit the Omaha Beach Museum and the memorial statue Les Braves, located on Omaha Beach. If you visit Washington DC, you can visit the World War II Memorial on the Mall.

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