History for the day

On 6 June 1944 the Allies returned to mainland Europe. In an attempt to pierce the 2,400-mile fortification of bunkers, landmines, and obstacles along Germany's Atlantic Wall, some 156,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy at five points along a fifty-mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline. It was, in the words of General Dwight Eisenhower, a crusade in which "nothing less than full victory" could be accepted.

Less than a week later, victory had been realized. The coast was secured and reinforced with more than 326,000 troops, 50,000 vehicles, and about 100,000 tons of equipment. And some 4,400 Allied troops— primarily young men from America, Canada, and England— had laid down their lives.