D-Day
Martyr Village: Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane
By Robert MuellerUpon visiting Oradour-sur-Glane, one finds a quiet, rural French village where the populace carries on about its business much like in any commune in France. Read more
D-Day
Code named Operation Overlord, the D-Day Invasion occurred on June 6, 1944, as elements of five Allied infantry and three Allied airborne divisions assaulted the Normandy coast of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Under the overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the landings on Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and Omaha beaches succeeded in establishing a foothold on the continent. Following an arduous campaign in Normandy and savage fighting across the German frontier, troops of the Western Allies met the Soviet Red Army, advancing from the East, and Nazi Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
D-Day
USS Murphy: Long Service in Wartime
By William B. AllmonEighty miles off the coast of New Jersey and 280 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean lies the forward section of a World War II destroyer, where it came to rest more than 60 years ago. Read more
D-Day
The National World War II Museum
By Peter SuciuOpened on June 6, 2000, on the 56th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the National D-Day Museum, as it was then known, initially focused on the amphibious invasion of Normandy. Read more
D-Day
The Concrete Fleet of WWII
By Brandt HeatheringtonIt is a fact that war has sparked some amazing innovations. It has at the same time spawned incredible desperation. Read more
D-Day
Off to War in a Plywood Box: Glidermen of WWII
By Robert Barr SmithOn June 22, 1940, the British prime minister, the formidable Winston Churchill, directed that an airborne force of at least 5,000 men was to be formed. Read more
D-Day
Underwater Training for Operation Overlord
By Kevin M HymelBritish frogmen were the first ground fighters to engage the enemy on D-Day—and they did it without weapons. Read more
D-Day
Bedford’s Valiant Boys
By Don HainesWhen twin brothers Roy and Ray Stevens of Bedford, Virginia, joined Company A, First Battalion, 116th Infantry of the 29th Infantry Division in 1938, they could not know that their decision would completely destroy their dream of one day owning a farm together. Read more
D-Day
D-Day +12: Assault on Cherbourg
By Arnold BlumbergWhen plans were drawn up for the Allied invasion of France in 1944, one important consideration was securing a deep-water port to allow reinforcements and supplies to be brought in directly from Great Britain and the United States. Read more
D-Day
Airborne Close Encounter
By Chris BlenheimAt midnight, the jumpers of 2nd Battalion, 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, as well as the 596th Parachute Combat Engineer Company, still dripping from the paint-spray line, shuffled across Ombrone Airfield to the waiting C-47s of Serial 6 and climbed aboard. Read more
D-Day
Sergeant Major Stan Hollis: The Victoria Cross on D-Day
By Michael D. HullA chill breeze cut through the early morning haze, and the storm-swollen sea was rough off the coast of northern France on Tuesday, June 6, 1944. Read more
D-Day
The Fight for Singling
By Arnold BlumbergAfter four months and a 600-mile advance from the beaches of Normandy into Brittany and then through eastern France, the spearhead of Lt. Read more
D-Day
Means of Grace, Hope of Glory
By Robert Barr SmithThey carried no weapons, only holy books and rudimentary vestments, a crucifix or a Star of David and sometimes a little Communion kit. Read more
D-Day
Tactical Thunder: The Ninth Air Force
By Sam McGowanAs the landing craft carrying the invading Allied ground forces of Operation Overlord motored toward the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, they were protected and supported by the largest aerial armada the world has ever seen. Read more
D-Day
The Trains That Fueled the Normandy Breakout
By Kerry SkidmoreHistorian Christian Wolmar concludes that the two world wars could not have been fought to such devastation without military railways, in his book Engines of War. Read more
D-Day
Pegasus Bridge: Operation Deadstick’s Glider Assault
By Christopher MiskimonOn a darkened airfield at 2230 hours on June 5, 1944, a reinforced company of British gliderborne infantry, D Company of the Second Battalion, Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Ox & Bucks), boarded gliders, prepared to start the invasion of France. Read more
D-Day
George C. Marshall: Architect of Victory
By Michael D. HullPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt was disturbed in the autumn of 1938 by the Munich agreement, at which the rights of Czechoslovakia were signed away, and by reports of mounting air strength in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Read more
D-Day
WWII French Resistance Fighters: Pearl Cornioley
When Pearl Witherington Cornioley died quietly in 2008 at the age of 93 in a retirement home in the Loire Valley of France, some who thought they knew her well may have been surprised to learn that she had risked her life during World War II as an agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Read more
D-Day
A 101st Airborne Paratrooper’s Combat Journey
By Richard A. BerantyIn one of the most recognized photographs taken by U.S. Army cameramen during World War II, General Dwight D. Read more
D-Day
OSS Bugatti: Fighting Alongside the Maquis
By John ManciniThe tempo of war planning intensified for the invasion of Europe during the early months of 1944. Finally, at daylight on June 6, 1944, Allied infantry stormed ashore along the German-held Normandy coast. Read more
D-Day
“This is London…”: Edward R. Murrow in WWII
By Roy Morris Jr.On the evening of August 7, 1937, two neophyte radio broadcasters went to dinner together at the luxurious Adlon Hotel in Berlin, Germany. Read more
