On June 6, 1944, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France became the largest amphibious military assault the world has ever seen. The success of the operation, called Operation Overlord and most commonly known as D-Day, is largely credited as being the beginning of the end of World War II. According to the Library of Congress, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and the operation "put the Allies on a decisive path toward victory." An estimated 11,590 aircraft and 6,938 ships and landing craft were part...

This anniversary of World War II’s pivotal battle has a somber tone, as the event disappears from living memory and extremism again threatens Europe. They were ordinary. The young men from afar who clambered ashore on June 6, 1944, into a hail of Nazi gunfire from the Normandy bluffs did not think of themselves as heroes. No, said Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the commanding general of United States Army Europe and Africa, the allied soldiers “in this great battle were ordinary,” youths who “rose to this challenge with courage and...

June 6, 2024 marks the eightieth anniversary of the Allied invasion of France, an event pivotal to victory in the Second World War. The initiative required more than two years of preparation, occasioned much rancor among Allied leaders, and took place at last only because success in other theaters of war, however tenuous, made it possible. By early 1942, the British, Russians, and Americans had forged an uneasy alliance against Germany, Italy, and Japan. The main question that confronted the Allies was whether to assign priority to the European or...

D-Day events marking the contribution of French men and women who worked for the French Resistance seem somewhat muted, compared to the boisterous array of events commemorating Allied soldiers. “I don’t forget them. Please don’t forget them,” urges Catherine Nivromont, an elegant, spritely 81-year-old, as she leans forward, intently, in her chair. Catherine’s brother Pierre was just 17 in 1944. He worked alongside other Resistance members, gathering intelligence on German positions along the Normandy coast, to help Allied forces plan their June assault.

On that day, I took some time to research how many World War II veterans are still alive today. All of those men and women who served during that global war who are still with us are in their 90s or older. The estimate is that only 70,000 to 150,000 men and women WWII veterans are still alive today. Their stories, like the ones I heard about that involved invasions, tanks rolling down country roads, fleeing from approaching planes and the camaraderie that was built in places like the front...