June 6, 1944: D-Day sets the stage
Invasion resonates 60 years later
By Amy Cox
CNN
 |  Allied troops wade through water and gunfire to storm the beach. |
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 From D-day to Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate, CNN looks back on the week of June 6th to 12th.
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(CNN) -- It began as one of the greatest secrets in history. But by the end of June 6, 1944, the world knew the Normandy invasion was under way, turning the tide in World War II.
More than 150,000 American, British, Canadian, French and other Allied troops arriving via 5,000 ships and 11,000 planes stormed Normandy's beaches in northwest France that day, the largest amphibious invasion in history.
The Allies fought to break through German dictator Adolf Hitler's occupying forces on the coast and move steadily inland, until the Nazi regime crumbled.
The invasion -- code-named Operation Overlord -- had been brewing for more than two years. The battle plans finally took shape in spring 1944 under the direction of U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had become commander of Allied forces in Europe the previous December.
"With the possible exception of the atomic bomb project, the date and place of the Normandy invasion was the most heavily sought after piece of information in the world in 1944," said John McManus, professor of military history at the University of Missouri at Rolla and author of "The Americans at D-Day."
The Allies went to elaborate lengths to maintain secrecy and mislead Hitler, according to the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. They employed double agents, used decoy tanks and phony bases in England to hide actual troop movements and sent out information to make the Nazis think a big invasion would happen at Calais, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) northeast of Normandy.
'It was going to be big and ... bad'
Originally scheduled for June 5, D-Day began a day later in the early hours before dawn, with paratroopers dropping into areas behind the French coastline. A few hours later, naval artillery bombarded German positions along the coast as Allied troops landed on beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Sword, Gold and Juno.
Waiting in one of the transport ships on the English Channel on D-Day, Paul Cagle -- who, as a part of the 2nd Armored Division, would land on Omaha Beach June 9 -- watched the planes soar overhead as the massive invasion fleet assembled, stretched out as far as the eye could see.
"We knew it was going to big, and that it was going to be bad," he recalled. "It was scary -- you didn't know what to do, but there wasn't anything you could do."
Germans rained mortars and artillery down on the Allied troops, killing many before they could even get out of their boats. Fighting was especially fierce at Omaha, where Nazi fighters nearly wiped out the first wave of invading forces and left the survivors struggling for cover.
"Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero," Gen. Omar Bradley, D-Day commander of U.S. ground forces, later wrote.
'D-Day made it all possible'
Allied forces finally secured the beaches by the end of the day, at a cost of about 10,000 casualties, according to the National D-Day Museum. It was the first step in a campaign that later that summer would liberate Paris, which had been under Nazi occupation for more than four years.
McManus, who has visited Normandy numerous times, said the cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach underscores the magnitude of the losses.
 Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 16th Infantry Regiment wait for evacuation to a field hospital. | |
"I think, in particular, in the cemetery there's a common reaction -- an honoring of these guys that did this all those many years ago," he said. "You stand there and look out over these crosses and stars of David, and it gives you a sense of what the cost of this incredible, important battle really was."
Despite the great victory of June 6, McManus said he believes there's a great misunderstanding about D-Day.
"There's a sense that once the Allies got ashore, the war is over somehow and that everything's been won and we can forget about the campaign that comes after it," he said. "[D-Day] was important and a huge step, but the real fighting, as far as [prolonged] fighting, took place after. That's when the Nazi regime began to die. D-Day made it all possible."
Anniversary festivities
Today, the world's eyes are again turned to Normandy as tourists, veterans and leaders descend on its beaches and small towns for summer-long ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the start of the campaign.
The festivities testify to how strongly D-Day and the war overall continue to resonate with people of all generations.
"The war and the people who fought the war have captured the imagination of the American public," McManus said. "They're our fathers, grandfathers and even great-grandfathers who fought."
Cagle, the veteran, said he's also seen an increase in attention, and he attributed part of it to the Iraq war.
"People are more interested than they were several years ago because we've gotten into another war," the 90-year-old said. "You tend to think more about the past and find [other wars] interesting."
'Greatest generation'
Tom Brokaw's best seller, "The Greatest Generation," Steven Spielberg's award-winning film "Saving Private Ryan" and the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" also have stoked interest in World War II and its participants, many of whom came of age during the Great Depression and the war.
|  A monument to a dead American soldier sits on the shore of Normandy. |
"The World War II generation was a generation that contributed as much as or more to their country than any other during American history -- not just the war years but before and after," McManus said.
"This generation has done and seen just about everything that could be," Cagle agreed. "There's so much that has happened that you would have never thought would be done. ... I'm sure it is the greatest generation."
Almost a year after D-Day, the Nazis formally surrendered in May 1945. Japan followed months later, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to end World War II. Yet the conflict continued to affect world affairs and politics for decades, McManus said.
"I think it influenced our history of the last 40 or 50 years -- the kind of Europe that came out of the war, the creation of NATO, the unity of Western Europe with American leadership," he said. "But those days are kind of gone now. We're in a new and more uncertain era.
"So one of my hopes is that the 60th anniversary of D-Day will bring old allies back together a little bit more and make them realize they have a lot in common."
