Haunting D-Day Images Commemorate 72 Years Since the Historic Invasion of Normandy

Guest Post

8 years ago

These haunting images commemorate 72 years since D-Day, when 156,000 Allied forces made their daring attempt to invade and defeat Germany on June 6, 1942.

Here are images and facts from that historic day and the invasion code named Operations Overlord and Neptune.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, speaks with Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel, a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, at Greenham Common airfield on the evening of June 5, 1944. Shortly after General Eisenhower’s visit, the men of the 101st boarded C-47 troop transports and departed for Normandy.

Code-named “Operation Overlord,” the amphibious invasion was under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The invasion would include those of five beaches in the Normandy area with the code names of: Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach, and Sword Beach.

Assault troops approach Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. The original caption for this iconic US Coast Guard image reads “INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH”

The average age of a soldier was 22-year-old; college-aged men who stormed the beaches of Germany under heavy fire, witnessing absolute hell as they pushed forward.

Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded, or went missing during the battle. This includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead among the ground forces and additional 16,714 deaths among the Allied air forces.

U.S. Army Engineers of the 6th Engineer Special Brigades tend to a wounded comrade hit by German fire from the bluffs of Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach during the D-Day Landings in France.

A dead American soldier lies on the sand of Omaha Beach, killed by German fire on D-Day, as U.S. troops finally capture and secure the beach. Crossed rifles at his feet form a battle cross.

The majority of troops who landed on the D-Day beaches were from the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Canada. However, troops from many other countries participated in the Battle of Normandy, including: Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland.

Two young German POWs are searched after being captured by British troops during the Battle of Normandy. Both young soldiers claimed to be Polish and had Polish Army badges stuck in the fronts of their field caps. While some Poles did volunteer for service or were conscripted into the German Wehrmacht, it is more likely that the two Germans kept the badges as souvenirs and then used them in anticipation of better treatment if captured, as it would have been unlikely for any Pole serving in the Wehrmacht to keep (or wear) emblems of the Allied Polish Army. Sourcehttp://www.iwm.org.uk/

Ducking for cover during Normandy invasion

On D-Day, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy. American forces landed 73,000 troops in total: 23,250 on Utah Beach, 34,250 on Omaha Beach, and 15,500 airborne troops. In the British and Canadian sector, 83,115 troops were landed (61,715 of them British): 24,970 on Gold Beach, 21,400 on Juno Beach, 28,845 on Sword Beach, and 7900 airborne troops.

11,590 aircraft were also supporting the landings. On D-Day, Allied aircraft flew 14,674 sorties, and 127 were lost.