June 6 marks the anniversary of the D-Day Normandy Invasion, when Allied forces launched a major assault on Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944.
Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower told Allied troops that “the eyes of the world” were upon them before the operation began.
Nearly 3 million Allied troops had gathered in England by May 1944 to prepare for the attack on Hitler’s Fortress Europe. The invasion force received support from about 6,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft.
Allied forces landed about 160,000 troops in Normandy on June 6. Hundreds of thousands more arrived in the following weeks and months.
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Years of planning, misdirection and deception preceded the landings. Operation Fortitude helped mislead Nazi Germany’s high command before the invasion.
The Allied “arsenal of democracy” supplied key equipment for the operation, including the Higgins boat landing craft.
Other equipment proved less effective. At Omaha Beach, only two of 29 Duplex Drive Sherman tanks in the initial wave reached shore after rough seas swamped the rest.
The Normandy campaign opened a western front that helped Allied forces push toward the liberation of occupied Europe.
