70th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy
On June 6, 1944 the United States along with the other allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. It was the beginning of a battle that would eventually turn the tide of World War II against Nazi Germany. This year marks the 70th anniversary of that landmark action during which thousands of soldiers lost their lives in defense of freedom.
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- General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day on June 5, 1944, “Full victory — nothing else” to paratroopers somewhere in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. (Library of Congress)
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- The eyes of the Maryland 29th men on this invasion craft are on the Normandy beach, which they are approaching and over which hangs a cloud of smoke created by exploding Allied projectiles. (Holbrook Bradley/Baltimore Sun file photo)
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- The Coast Guard LCI(L)-85, battered by enemy fire after approaching Omaha Beach, prepares to evacuate the troops to the U.S.S. Samuel Chase. She sank shortly after this photograph was taken. The LCI (L)-85 was one of four Coast Guard LCI’s that were destroyed on D-Day. (Via Reuters)
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- On June 6, 1944, U.S.S. cruiser Augusta sits off the Normandy shore as landing craft take soldiers of the Maryland 29th division to beaches. (US Army file photo)
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- American assault troops huddle behind the protective bow of a landing craft on June 6, 1944 as it nears a beachhead on the northern coast of France during World War II. The smoke rising in the background is naval gunfire supporting the D-Day landing. (US Army photo)
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- American GIs wade into the Normandy surf on June 6, 1944 during the Allied D-Day invasion. The troops, exiting off a U.S. Coast Guard landing craft, were met by intense German machine gun fire as they began their assault of the French coastline. (Robert Sargent/US Coast Guard file photo)
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- An American soldier wades through water under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire to reach the beach on the Normandy coast of France on June 6, 1944. It turned out to be the biggest and most important Allied amphibious operation of World War II. (Wartime Pool/Robert Capa)
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- In this June 6, 1944 file photo, first wave beach battalion “Ducks” lay low under the fire of Nazi guns on the beach of southern France on D-Day during World War II. One invader operates a walkie talkie radio directing other landing craft to the safest spots for unloading their parties of fighting men. (AP file photo)
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- Canadian soldiers land on Courseulles beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944 as Allied forces storm the Normandy beaches on D-Day. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- Canadian soldiers from the 9th Brigade land on June 6, 1944 with their bicycles at Juno Beach in Bernieres-sur-Mer during D-Day while Allied forces are storming the Normandy beaches. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- Members of an American landing party assist troops whose landing craft was sunk by enemy fire off Omaha beach, near Colleville sur Mer, France on June 6, 1944 in this handout photo provided by the US National Archives. (US National Archives/via Reuters)
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- U.S. reinforcements land on Omaha beach during the Normandy D-Day landings near Vierville sur Mer, France, on June 6, 1944 in this handout photo provided by the US National Archives. (Cpt Herman Wall/US National Archives//via Reuters)
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- The invasion was good news to this group of U.S. soldiers in Jersey City N. J., part of a contingent of 51 American doughboys who were prisoners of war in Germany, as they arrived after an exchange on the Swedish liner Grips-Holm. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
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- American troops of the 4th Infantry Division land on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944 while Allied forces storm the Normandy beaches on D-Day. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- This was the scene along a section of Omaha Beach in June 1944 during Operation Overlord, the code name for the Normandy invasion during World War II. Large-landing craft put troops and supplies on shore at Omaha, one of five invasion beaches. In background is part of the fleet of 2,727 ships that brought the allied troops from Britain. In the air are barrage balloons, designed to entangle low-flying attack aircraft in their cables. (AP file photo)
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- A wounded soldier of the Maryland 29th is helped to the rear during the Normandy offensive. (Holbrook Bradley/Baltimore Sun file photo)
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- Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) shows the strain of his command as he and Britain’s Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (right), his deputy commander, confer on the invasion plans of Normandy in an unknown location in June 1944 after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches on D-Day. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- On D-Day, American troops landed on Normandy beaches (north-west of France), to come as reinforcements during the historic WWII offensive. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- D-Day found these Western High School students, most of them with members of their immediate family overseas, listening anxiously to bulletins in the auditorium between classes. Seated at tables from left to right are Peggy Stacy, Phyllis Braiterman, Elaine Shecker, Nancy Young and Betty Billmeyer on June 6, 1944 . (Baltimore Sun file photo)
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- American assault troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment, injured while storming Omaha Beach, wait for the Chalk Cliffs for evacuation to a field hospital for further medical treatment in this photo taken at Collville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. (via Reuters)
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- German prisoners of war captured after the D-Day landings in Normandy are guarded by U.S. troops at a camp in Nonant-le-Pin, France, on Aug. 21, 1944 in this handout photo provided by the US National Archives. (US Army photo)
To purchase a book dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the U.S. invasion and liberation of occupied Europe during World War II go to baltimoresunstore.com/WrittenUnderFire. This book is filled with articles and photos from the hot spots from which The Baltimore Sun correspondents reported.
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