D-Day

Today marks the 66th anniversary of D-Day when Operation Overlord landed 400,000 Allied American, British, and Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy in German-occupied France. After visiting the cemetery at Normandy, I became quite interested in this event. If you are a WWII buff, you will want to read the late Stephen Ambrose's D-Day, written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the invasion.

The blurb from the book jacket reads:

Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, Stephen E. Ambrose's D-Day: June 6, 1944 relies on over 1,400 interviews with veterans, as well as prodigious research in military archives on both sides of the Atlantic. He provides a comprehensive history of the invasion which also eloquently testifies as to how common soldiers performed extraordinary feats. A major theme of the book, upon which Ambrose would later expand in Citizen Soldiers, is how the soldiers from the democratic Allied nations rose to the occasion and outperformed German troops thought to be invincible. The many small stories that Ambrose collected from paratroopers, sailors, infantrymen, and civilians make the excitement, confusion, and sheer terror of D-day come alive on the page. --Robert McNamara

In addition, watch this YouTube clip of D-Day here

Here is the marker where my mother's brother (the uncle I never knew) is buried at the American Cemetery in Normandy. He was KIA on June 10, 1944. I do not know what part, if any, he may have played in the initial invasion.