D-Day Through the Eyes of Those Who Were There

I spent a week in Normandy a few years ago. The beaches are peaceful now. Families build sandcastles where soldiers once crawled through a hail of bullets. Omaha Beach, Utah, Juno, Gold, Sword. Each name carries so much weight. I spoke with an old veteran at the cemetery. He was 19 on June 6, 1944. His job was to drive a landing craft toward the beach. He told me the water turned red before they even hit the sand. Men were screaming, some praying, some crying. He said the only thing that kept him moving forward was the guy next to him. You didn't fight for some grand ideal in that moment. You fought for the person beside you. The planning for D-Day took over a year. The largest amphibious invasion in history. Thousands of ships, planes, paratroopers. It was a logistical nightmare that somehow worked. By the end of that day, over 10,000 Allied casualties. But they established a foothold. That foothold became the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe.