General Dwight D. Eisenhower talks to 1st Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel, Company E, 502nd Parachute
Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and fellow "Screaming Eagles" before they left England to
parachute behind German lines in Normandy, France. The outnumbered 502nd succeeded in
destroying bridges and slowing German troops attempting to repulse the D-Day landings.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Commerce.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, soldiers from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and other Allied nations landed on a 50-mile stretch of fortified beaches in Normandy, France, as part of Operation Overlord. After facing withering fire to defeat the Nazi defenders and establish beachheads, approximately 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel and landed in France by day's end. The success of the D-Day invasion established a foothold in France that allowed soldiers and supplies to begin the task of freeing Western Europe from Nazi Germany's control.
The Allied nations—including Great Britain, Canada, Australia, the United States, Norway, and the French Liberation Army—began planning an airborne and sea invasion of Nazi-occupied France in 1943, with U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. The target of the invasion was the coastline of Normandy, France, lying approximately 20–25 miles across the English Channel from England. Planners chose five beaches on the French coast, codenamed: Gold, Sword, Utah, Juno, and Omaha. Each was defended by underwater obstacles, mines, and the Nazi's "Atlantic Wall" of heavily fortified artillery, mortar, and machine gun emplacements. As soldiers approached the landing beaches, airborne troops would strike inland, destroying artillery installations, disrupting communications, and slowing the arrival of German reinforcements attempting to drive the Allied invaders back into the sea.
The assault on Nazi-occupied Europe began late on June 5 and during the early morning hours of June 6, as more than 2,200 Allied bombers peppered beaches and inland targets with high explosives. At the same time, thousands of American and British paratroopers and glider airborne soldiers landed in northern France to disrupt Nazi defenses and communications and ultimately captured Cherbourg, France—a vital link in the invasion's supply line. Scattered parachute drops, lost troop-transporting gliders, and missing equipment did not deter the airborne troops from wreaking havoc as waves of Allied soldiers approached Normandy's coastline. The airborne's success was not without cost. Between D-Day and the capture of Cherbourg on June 30, American airborne casualties totaled approximately 1,000 dead, 2,600 wounded, and 4,500 missing.
As the airborne assault kept the Nazis busy inland, an invasion fleet consisting of more then 1,200 warships off the Normandy coast pounded German positions. American, British, Canadian, Free French, and other Allied soldiers and equipment boarded thousands of landing craft in the English Channel for a stomach-churning trip to the French coast. The first waves of invaders to arrive at the landing beaches at sunrise on June 6 experienced varying levels of resistance. British and Canadian forces quickly silenced Nazi defenses and captured Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches with fewer than 2,800 killed or wounded. On Utah Beach, American troops suffered just 197 casualties to overcome the reluctant defense mounted by non-German draftees. However, American soldiers at Omaha Beach and Point du Hoc faced much fiercer resistance. Approximately 200 U.S. Army Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs at Point du Hoc—a rocky peninsula between the Utah and Omaha landing beaches—to destroy coastal gun batteries at the cost of 135 dead and wounded. Americans landing at Omaha Beach, were easy targets for determined Nazi defenders as they waded ashore dodging machine gun and mortar fire. Despite more than 2,400 casualties at "Bloody Omaha," the heroic actions of soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st and 29th Divisions captured the beach, stormed inland, and began consolidating the Normandy beachheads for the soldiers and supplies pouring into France in the hours and days that followed.
Seventy-five years later, millions worldwide still pause each June 6 to remember the heroism of the men and women who fought and died so that others could be free. Among the dozens of military cemeteries in Europe, nearly 14,000 American graves and the names of more than 2,000 missing at the Normandy American Cemetery in Collefville-sur-Mer and the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie Saint Martin, France, are reminders of the sacrifice many made during Operation Overlord and battles that followed in the 10 months prior to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
You can learn more about the D-Day invasion and the soldiers who fought and died to liberate Europe using census data and records. For example:
"Jaws of Death," by U.S. Coast Guard Chief Photographer's Mate Robert F. Sargent, is one of the most iconic photographs of the D-Day invasion. Shot from one
of the USS Samuel Chase's Coast Guard-piloted landing craft, the image shows soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st Division, 16th Infantry, Company E wading
toward Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944.
"Omaha" was the code name for one of five sectors along the French coastline invaded by the Allies on June 6, 1944. The U.S. Army's 1st and 29th Division
suffered approximately 2,400 casualties securing the 6 miles of Omaha Beach. Their sacrifice allowed the Allies to land more than 34,000 troops at Omaha
Beach (and 160,000 among all five landing beaches) by day's end.
Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.
U.S. Army General Omar Bradley's headquarters staff may have named one of the five landing beaches in Normandy, France—Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold, and Juno—after Omaha, NE.
Founded in 1854, Omaha grew from 1,883 in 1860 to 223,844 in 1940.
In 2010, Omaha (nicknamed the "Gateway to the West") was home to 408,958.
On June 23, 1944, the Mason City, IA, Globe-Gazette reported that 63 percent of all women in the United States aged 14 years and older were married—an increase of about 2 million since 1940.
The U.S. Census Bureau suspected the increase was due to "war marriages" between couples "tying the knot" before soldiers left for boot camp or deployed overseas and increased economic asa a result of low unemployment and high wages.
War and post-war marriages contributed to a "baby boom" that saw the nation's population grow by more than 71 million between 1940 and 1970.
The United States entered World War II after the Japanese attacked American bases on Wake Island, Guam, Midway Atoll, the Philippines, and Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. In Pearl Harbor alone, the attack killed more than 2,400 people and damaged or destroyed 19 ships and more than 300 aircraft.
In a December 8 address to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rallied the stunned nation and urged Americans to prepare for war. Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan (Public Law 77-328, 55 STAT 795) soon after.
On December 11, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States.
Over the next 4 years, 16.1 million Americans joined the Allied nations to defeat the Axis powers.