Will County Gazette

June 6 marked the 79th anniversary of D-Day, and Illinois State Rep. Jed Davis took to social media to honor the veterans who participated in the invasion at Normandy.

“79 years ago today, the D-Day operation took place along the coast of Normandy,” Rep. Davis wrote in a Facebook post. “Let’s take time today to remember the sacrifices made by the Allied Troops to free Western Europe from the evil, tyranny, and oppression of Nazi control.”

According to a release by the Department of Defense on June 6, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Army General and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark A. Milley spoke at a service at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France where more than 9,000 service members are buried. The cemetery is located just north of Omaha Beach.

“To the veterans of World War II: We salute you," Austin said. "You saved the world. We must merely defend it."  

The U.S. Army explains on its website that the beaches of Normandy were chosen for several reasons: proximity to air cover and the lack of heavy defense than another option – the Pas de Calais. And six divisions landed that day: one from Canada, two from Britain, and three from the United States. An additional three divisions were to land in the days to come.

This was the largest use of airborne troops at that time, which included paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne, along with the British 6th Airborne Division and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. In all, there were 13,000 paratroopers who had a night jump behind enemy lines five hours before soldiers hit the coast.  Later there were 4,000 men on gliders equipped with weapons, medical units and signal units who came to reinforce the paratroopers. Many of the paratroopers were injured or killed.

The Library of Congress has a large collection of firsthand narratives of veterans who served in the U.S. military since World War I. The Veterans History Project has worked to preserve the collections of individual veterans since 2000. The collection includes documents and stories from the invasion of both Normandy and beyond the beaches. There is also information about what is referred to as D-Day Plus 1 and Plus 2, which analyzes the waves of troops coming in after the initial invasion.

According to the History Channel, the D-Day invasion at Normandy “was the largest naval, air and land operation in history.” June 5, 1944, was the initial date selected for the invasion, although weather conditions made that impossible. When Eisenhower learned the conditions would be better the next day, he approved the commencement of what they called “Operation Overlord.” By the end of the day, there were 156,000 Allied soldiers and about 4,000 troops were killed by the German soldiers. Over the next several days about 326,000 troops, 50,000 vehicles and 100,000 tons of equipment had arrived at the beaches.