Under General Dwight Eisenhower's command, the largest amphibious invasion in history struck Normandy's coast. Paratroopers had dropped inland overnight; at dawn landing craft disgorged troops onto beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Omaha Beach saw ferocious German resistance and roughly 2,000 American casualties, but by nightfall the Allies held a foothold that would never be relinquished, sealing Nazi Germany's fate in the west.
The invasion had been delayed a day by storms, and Eisenhower's decision to proceed on the night of June 5-6 rested on a narrow weather window spotted by meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg. Over 5,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft supported the assault, and by day's end nearly 156,000 troops had come ashore.
At Omaha Beach, the plan nearly collapsed. Naval bombardment had failed to knock out German bunkers, and the first waves of American troops were cut down by machine-gun fire the moment ramps dropped. Colonel George Taylor famously told his pinned-down men, "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach: the dead and those who are going to die. Now let's get the hell out of here." They did, scaling the bluffs by mid-morning.
The human cost was staggering — roughly 4,400 Allied deaths that day alone — but the strategic payoff was total. Hitler had been convinced the real invasion would come at Calais, a deception (Operation Fortitude) so effective that German reinforcements were held back for critical hours. Within eleven months, the war in Europe was over.