The world is remembering the 75th anniversary of the WWII D-Day invasion that marked the beginning of the end of the war. More than 9,000 were killed or wounded. Tom Rice was there. He was a paratrooper that day and parachuted in again at age 97.
Here are some of the facts:
- D-Day was originally set for June 5th, but had to be postponed for 24 hours because of bad weather.
- The “D” in D-Day actually only stood for Day and was simply used to preserve secrecy.
- On the eve of battle Eisenhower told troops: “You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.”
- American troops went ashore on the landing beaches at 6.31am, followed an hour later by the British and Canadians on their beaches. There were 61,715 British troops, 21,400 Canadian soldiers and 73,000 Americans.
- Hitler was asleep when word of the invasion arrived. No one dared wake him and it’s said vital time was lost in sending reinforcements.
See some photos from that day from photographer Robert Capa who was in the middle of the invasion here. I can't even imagine being in the middle of something like this. Thank you to all of our veterans for your service.