69th Anniversary D-Day

Today marks the 69th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, or D-Day.

One of the most famous images of WWII, titled Into the Jaws of Death - U.S. Troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire, shows U.S. soldiers of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division landing at Omaha Beach.

 WWII: Europe: France; “Into the Jaws of Death - U.S. Troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire”, circa 1944-06-06. A LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) from the U.S. Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) wading onto the Fox Green section of Omaha Beach (Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France) on the morning of June 6, 1944. American soldiers encountered the newly formed German 352nd Division when landing. During the initial landing two-thirds of the Company E became casualties. - Photo source The National Archives

An A-20 from the 416th Bomb Group making a bomb run on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Source - United States Army Air Force via National Archive

Interested in attending the 70th anniversary ceremony next June? Check out the blog, Return to Normandy: 2014 for a chance to with a trip to 70th anniversary ceremony. The 1941 Historical Aircraft Group is raising funds to send an original C-47 that flew during D-Day back to Normandy for the D-Day reunion.

One of my favorite PBS programs American Experience did a feature on D-Day. Check out the website which has some really nice interactive features.

An excellent history of D-Day, complete with photo and maps can be found here.

D-Day in Photos from CNN