I n what remains the biggest amphibious assault in history, some 156,000 Allied personnel landed in France on June 6, 1944. An estimated 10,000 Allied troops were left dead, wounded, or missing, while Nazi Germany lost between 4,000 and 9,000 troops, and thousands of French civilians were killed.
The 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings will fall on June 6. Here, we take a look back at iconic images of the day and at modern photos related to the day’s events.
Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower (center) gestured as he gave the order of the day to US paratroopers on June 6, 1944, just before they boarded their airplane to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe on D-Day. AFP/Getty Images Canadian soldiers ran ashore as they land on Courseulles Beach in Normandy as Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images Allied ships were attacked by German fighters as the operation began to land men and supplies on the coast of northern France. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images Pontoons from the World War II Allied temporary Mulberry harbor built during the D-Day invasion lay on the beach at Arromanches-les-Bains, France. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/2019/Getty Images American troops supported those already on the coast of northern France waded shoreward carrying equipment on Utah Beach, Les Dunes de Madeleine, France. US Army/AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images Bill Sisk was barely 17 when he landed in Utah Beach and had just turned 18 when he faced the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. Yet the ex-GI does not consider himself a hero. "I was too young, I did not do anything," said the quiet retiree, 92, at his home in Lynchburg, Va. "If you were looking for a hero, you did not find him." Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images/2019/AFP/Getty Images Allied Naval forces engaged in the Operation Overlord landing at Utah Beach while Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches on D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/file/AFP/Getty Images A concrete bunker was covered by the rising tide along a stretch of coastline that was known as Utah Beach in Audouville-la-Hubert on the Normandy coast in France. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images/2019/Getty Images American assault troops in a landing craft huddled behind the shield approaching Utah Beach while Allied forces are storming the Normandy beaches on D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images French and US flags fly over a US Navy D-Day memorial at Utah Beach in Normandy near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, France. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/File 2019/Getty Images Soldiers unloaded equipment on Omaha Beach, Normandy, northwestern France after the initial D-Day invasion. National Archives/AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images The Brave, a monument dedicated to the American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, stands in Normandy, western France. Thibault Camus/Associated Press/2019/Associated Press US troops and crewmen aboard a Coast Guard manned landing craft as it approached Omaha Beach in northwestern France on D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images World War II and D-Day veteran Charles Norman Shay from Indian Island, Maine, stood on a dune at Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. Shay was a combat medic on D-Day, assigned to an assault battalion in the first wave of attacks on D-Day. Virginia Mayo/Associated Press/2019/Associated Press British troops took positions on Sword Beach during D-Day after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images British D-Day veteran Frank Mouque landed on Sword Beach as a 19-year-old corporal with the British Royal Engineers. Matt Dunham/Associated Press/2019/Associated Press Canadian soldiers from the Ninth Brigade landed with their bicycles at Juno Beach in Bernieres-sur-Mer as Allied forces stormed Normandy beaches in northwestern France on D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images British D-Day veteran Leonard “Ted” Emmings was a naval coxswain serving on a small landing craft that landed 36 Canadians on Juno beach in France. The map behind him was used to plan the Normandy D-Day landings at Southwick House near Portsmouth, England, a headquarters of the allied forces preparing for the invasion. Matt Dunham/Associated Press/2019/Associated Press US soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Corps stood guard on a beach after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches during D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images The remains of a German defense bunker on Juno Beach that would have been used during the D-Day landings in Courseulles-sur-Mer, on the Normandy coast of France. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images/2019/Getty Images US soldiers dried their clothes in a German bunker near the front line after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches during D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images Visitors walked among former German artillery bunkers that pointed toward the English Channel at Longues-sur-Mer, France. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/2019/Getty Images French commandos equipped with bikes disembarked from landing craft after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches on D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images Bomb craters lay at La Pointe du Hoc, site of a World War II-era German bunker system and the objective of US Rangers during the D-Day invasion near Cricqueville-sur-Mer, France. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/2019/Getty Images British paratroopers, their faces painted with camouflage paint, read slogans chalked on the side of a glider after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches during D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images Allied paratroopers landed on La Manche coast after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches during D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images The mannequin of a US World War II paratrooper hung from a parachute from the church tower in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France. The memorial commemorates US paratrooper John Steele, whose parachute got caught on the tower when he jumped during the D-Day invasion. He was taken prisoner and later escaped from the Germans to rejoin US troops fighting in Normandy. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/Getty Images A Normandy farmer offered a glass of Calvados to a British paratrooper from the Sixth Division's Hampshire Regiment near the villages of Ornes and Dives in northwestern France, where the British were dropped in the first hours of Operation Overlord on D-Day. AFP/Getty Images George Skipper, a Chelsea pensioner who is a World War II Battle of Normandy and D-Day veteran, posed with fellow veterans for a photograph at The Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. Ben Standall/AFP/Getty Images/2019/AFP/Getty Images Joseph Vaghi (center), a US Navy ensign, chats with residents of Colleville-Sur-Mer after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches during D-Day. AFP/Getty Images/File/AFP/Getty Images Crosses stood over graves at Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The cemetery contains the remains of 9,380 US soldiers killed during the Allied Normandy invasion. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/2019/Getty Images