Do You Know What Today, June 6th Is?

Today is D-Day, the day U.S. troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, France. The battle lasted until August of 1944 and resulted in the liberation of Western Europe.

More than 150,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a stretch of the coastline which was heavily fortified by Germany.

U.S. forces faced heavy resistance at Omaha Beach, where more than 2 thousand Americans died.  In all, more than 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives in the D-Day invasion, with thousands more wounded or missing.

During the entire invasion, more than 400,000 allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with 53,000 of them killed.

Only a week after the landing, the beaches were secured and more than 300 thousand troops had landed at Normandy.