The actions on D-Day, June 6, 1944, are some of the most incredible examples of human heroism in modern history.
D-Day Remembrance Day 2024 will mark 80 years since the day of the invasion. The average age of American troops at Normandy was slightly less than 22. Today, their average age is 102.
Who planned D-Day?
Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan (1894-1967) was the principal planner of Operation “Overlord”.1
Who named the beaches?
At the moment when the operations were being named, a general asked the NCOs where they were from. The answers were Utah and Omaha. The British and Canadians named the others after fish: Gold (goldfish), Sword (swordfish), and Juno (jellyfish).2
Omaha Beach was the most heavily defended of the assault areas, and casualties were higher than on any other beach. Preliminary Allied air and naval bombardments failed to knock out strong defense points along the coast.3
Where Are They?
Unlike later wars, where combat fatalities were airlifted back to the United States for burial in family or national cemeteries, the Allied dead of the Normandy invasion were buried close to where they fell.4
Of the 405,399 Americans who lost their lives during World War II, 92,958 are interred at our overseas American military cemeteries, and 78,985 are commemorated on our Tablets of the Missing as missing in action, lost, or buried at sea.5
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1 https://tinyurl.com/mrxkn5vk
2 https://tinyurl.com/4rxvpzma
3 https://tinyurl.com/ynunmpub
4 https://tinyurl.com/3wx7s5kk
5 www.abmc.gov (American Battle Monuments Commission)
