The Allied landing in Normandy began on this date in 1944, 73-years ago today.
There is extensive literature about that incredible day, and every year sees a couple more books published about the landing — deservedly so.
Most of the men in this famous picture never made it to the beach; they were machine-gunned and their corpses bobbing in the bloody water as wave after wave of soldiers pushed past them and gained a toehold on the beach. That achieved, the Army Rangers assaulted Pointe du Hoc, a promontory midway between Utah and Omaha beaches. At the top there were guns to be taken out.
They scaled up the 100-foot cliffs using ropes. Many of the first men to the top were shot as they topped the cliff … and then the man behind them would resume the climb upward as the body of their fellow soldier tumbled down.
Nobody will deny the military genius of D-Day, but it was the courage and persistence of citizen-soldiers that pulled it off.