C-SPAN: June 6 marks the 82nd anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy. The C-SPAN networks will have LIVE coverage of commemorative events and feature presidential D-Day speeches and documentaries from our archives.
Codenamed “Operation Neptune,” D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history that began the liberation of France from Nazi Germany and ultimately led to to the Allied victory in Europe.
The invasion began shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, a day later than planned due to bad weather, with the landing of 24,000 airborne troops from the U.S., Canada, and Britain and was quickly followed by amphibious landings along a 50-mile stretch of the French coast, with the goal of securing the five beachheads of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Casualties were high on both sides. German troops, under the command of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, are believed to have suffered as many as 9,000 casualties. The Allied troops, under Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s command, suffered an estimated 10,000 casualties and 4,414 dead, including 2,501 Americans. In the battle that followed, the Allies lost 73,000 and 153,000 were wounded.
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