77 Years ago today the weather was just right for the largest operation yet was launched to liberate France and then the rest of Europe from the clutches of Nazi Germany. Originally scheduled to go down on June 5, 1944, the day had to be moved due to weather and if it was unable to be done on June 6th then it would have to wait another month due to tides. Many people are familiar with some of the names of locations of this massive landing with names like Omaha Beach and the general location of Normandy France coming to mine.

This is the day we honor those who lost their lives in the assault. Germany had spent over a year building 2,000 miles of fortifications and developing strategies in protecting their grasp on France. During the assault, 150,000 soldiers from the US, Canada, and Britain landed along the beaches by pure grit, and determination the Allies were able to successfully win the battle and secure these beaches. The cost though was high with over 10,000 casualties were reported by Allies with 4,414 deaths. Sadly these numbers are still up for debate as record keeping was not something that was at the forefront of these commanders minds. The goal was to beat Hitler and put an end to the German reign of terror in Europe. 

For surviving veterans in Great Britian today was supposed to be the unveiling of the D Day memoiral that they had worked so hard to get built. However due to COIVD restrictions still in place these brave men in the twilight of their years are unable to be there. Hopefully soon these last remaining British veterans will be able to see this new memorial created for them. As someone who has had both my grandfathers serve and went to Texas A&M where now many of my friends are stationed across the globe this day seems to hit me a little bit differently than other days. 

The operation when launced had a casualty rate of up to 75% of the troops going in. Luckily it was not that high but the fighting was intense and the loss hard to imagine. These men are true heros who put the mission before themselves or anyone else to defeat a true evil that was wreaking havoic upon the world.

Here are osme different photos of the new British D Day Memorial