Though plans for D-Day had been building for years, nothing could quite prepare everyone for the reality of what the Allied takeover of continental Europe would mean for troops. According to the National World War II Museum, the first rumblings of what would be known as Operation OVERLORD, popularly called D-Day, began in 1942 but didn't materialize until the summer of 1944. The German High Command — that is, the Nazis — expected Allied troops to land elsewhere in France from nearby England...
Though plans for D-Day had been building for years, nothing could quite prepare everyone for the reality of what the Allied takeover of continental Europe would mean for troops. According to the National World War II Museum, the first rumblings of what would be known as Operation OVERLORD, popularly called D-Day, began in 1942 but didn't materialize until the summer of 1944. The German High Command — that is, the Nazis — expected Allied troops to land elsewhere in France from nearby England...
While the majority of the combatants at D-Day were just ordinary soldiers who went back to being average citizens after the war ended, there were also several famous people who fought right alongside them. This included famous actors and politicians, sports heroes of the day, and those who had Hollywood in their future. Looking back, these are some of the most notable figures who served on D-Day.
When it comes to history's greatest battles, there are few that can rival the importance of World War II's Allied invasion of the beaches of Normandy: D-Day. Anyone who knows anything about the war probably knows a bit about this pivotal invasion... but The Atlantic says that something strange has happened with the telling and retelling of the D-Day invasion. They say: "[...] the passing of the years [...] has softened the horror of Omaha Beach [...]"
Goebbels set out to inoculate the German people with every possible inverted truth necessary to convince them of the necessity of their country's war. And so, when faced with defeat on D-Day on June 6, 1944, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (RMVP) added some more lies to its endless glut of vile, anti-Semitic rhetoric (discussed on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) and other propaganda. German newsreels depicted triumphant troops set to brassy music, the roll of mighty German tanks, wrecked Allied vehicles, Allied prisoners in tow, and more.
D-Day is remembered as a triumph, as the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. And it's true that less than a year later the Nazi forces had been broken and the Allies were rolling through Berlin, all remnants of the once-terrifying German military machine destroyed. But D-Day was so complex and so logistically complicated it's simplistic to view it as a massive invasion that kicked Nazi butt. The truth is more complicated, in part because any operation the size and complexity of D-Day is going to get messy, and in part because it's become American Mythology that the U.S. led the biggest invasion ever and ended the worst war of all time. But dig a little deeper, and the mythology doesn't always hold up. Here's the messed-up truth about D-Day.
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