D-Day in Pictures
“We will accept nothing less than full victory” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Today (June 6th) marks the 68th Anniversary of the Normandy landings during the Second World War. The Normandy landings, called D-Day, marks the Allied invasion into German-controlled France. There are two parts to D-Day, the airborne assault and the amphibious landing. Around midnight, American, British, Canadian and Free French airborne troops parachuted into France to help secure the flanks and approaches for the beach landings. At 6:30am, Allied troops stormed the 50-mile stretch of coast which the Germans had heavily fortified. Over 150,000 Allied troops fought with the help of more than 5,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft support. D-Day became the largest amphibious landing in history. The cost of the invasion was high with around 9,000 Allied soldiers wounded or killed. As a military move, D-Day was successful, it allowed the Allies a foothold in France and to the eventual downfall of Nazi Germany.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the Day. ‘Full victory-nothing else’ to paratroopers in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe.
-
- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the Day. ‘Full victory-nothing else’ to paratroopers in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe.
-
- U.S. troops disembark from a landing vehicle on Utah Beach on the coast of Normandy, France. Carcasses of destroyed vehicles litter the beach.
-
- Landing on the coast of France under heavy Nazi machine gun fire are these American soldiers, shown just as they left the ramp of a Coast Guard landing boat.
-
- U.S. soldiers approach Omaha Beach, their weapons wrapped in plastic to keep them dry.
-
- An 88mm shell explodes on Utah Beach. In the foreground, American soldiers protect themselves from enemy fire.
-
- U.S. soldiers rescue shipwreck survivors on Utah Beach.
-
- U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies’ June 1944, D-Day invasion of France.
-
- Allied soldiers, vehicles and equipment swarm onto the French shore during the Normandy landings.
-
- Crossed rifles in the sand are a comrade’s tribute to this American soldier who sprang ashore from a landing barge and died at the barricades of Western Europe.
-
- American soldiers on Omaha Beach recover the dead after the D-Day invasion.
-
- Two U.S. soldiers escort a group of ten German prisoners on Omaha Beach.
-
- Wreckage of a Republic P-47, which crashed during the D-Day invasion, lies on the battle-scarred beach of Normandy, France. June 22, 1944.
Photo Credit: National Archives; Boston.com
Information: The National D-Day Memorial
I simply cannot imagine the fear that must have been with these men. To look at the beach, to see your comrades mowed down by bullets, to know that you might not even make it five feet past your boat…it must have taken unbelievable courage.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I was looking through some recent D-Day anniversary pictures of veterans revisiting the beaches for ceremonies and memorials. Many of the pictures show how emotional it was for them to come back. It struck me then that they were not just courageous on June 6, 1944 (or during World War II as a whole), but in all the years since when they retold their stories over and over again. Whether they were talking to historians or reporters or whether it was to their children and grandchildren. After seeing all the D-Day pictures and imagining what they went though, I don’t think it could be anything other than courage that allows them to continue talking about it. And, as a society, we are that much richer for hearing their courageous stories and seeing the heartbreaking photographs.
Very well done, love all the pictures with captions!! Keep up the good work!!!
[...] D-Day in Pictures: Part I [...]