Actual Footage of the D-Day Invasion

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops, including 73,000 Americans, landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified, German occupied, French coastline. U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was chain-smoking 6 packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day, by then, referred to the operation as a great crusade in which “we will accept nothing but full victory.”

Eisenhower had sole authority to either launch Operation Overlord...or scrap it. Eisenhower knew that it could be a turning point in the war, in either direction. He was fully prepared for the invasion to go down in history as a defeat that could make Custer's Last Stand look.like a victory. He was prepared to own the loss, should it go badly for the allies.

By the end of the day, more than 10,000 allied troops were either dead or wounded...For another 100,000, D-Day was just the start of a long, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Hitler's Germany.

To see this, is to understand just how huge and chaotic the invasion really was: