Today is D-Day

On this beautiful sunny day let us not forget, that 73 years ago, thousands of brave young men were landing along a 50-mile stretch of beach in Normandy, France, to secure our continued freedom. This was the beginning of the largest seaborne invasion in history and would eventually wrest control of Northern Europe from the Nazis and lead to an Allied victory on the Western Front known as D-Day or the Allied Invasion of Normandy.

Planning for this massive undertaking had begun in 1943 and many factors were taken into consideration before deciding on a specific date to begin the invasion including the moon, tides and time of day. This massive undertaking also had to coordinate sea, air and land forces along with working with any resistance groups in the area. When the time came to launch the invasion, the weather turned out to be less than perfect but they could no longer afford to wait or postpone the operation for another two weeks. Despite all the planning the invasion did not go as smoothly as was hoped and thousands of soldiers lost their lives in order to get a foothold along the coast of France.

So while you're out enjoying this wonderful summer day, please remember that sacrifice that was made on this day just 73 years ago, that lead to the eventual toppling of an empire built on hate and allowed future generations to continue living in the land of the free.