The Normandy landings on D-Day -- June 6, 1944 -- began the end to World War II.
The weather forecast was grim over the English Channel. American General Dwight Eisenhower was in his makeshift office in England fighting a battle in his head as the Second World War raged on in its fourth year.
D-Day was supposed to happen on June 5, 1944, but the weather was so bad that Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied forces, had to postpone the invasion of Nazi-occupied France by a day.
Thousands of sea sick troops who were packed into boats, tossing violently in the stormy waters, waiting to land on the French coast were ordered to stand down.
Luckily, there was a brief lull in the storm early in the morning. The window of opportunity was brief because the weather was going to deteriorate again from the next day onwards.
The Allied forces had spent a year planning the invasion. Delaying the attack would ruin the operation that had brought over 2 million troops from 12 countries to Britain.
Eisenhower bit the bullet and gave the go ahead.
The operation was codenamed 'Overlord'. Its mission was to liberate Western Europe.
June 6, 1944. D-Day
Allied forces launched a combined naval, air and land assault on France in the largest ever military invasion in history.
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of defending the French coast did not expect an invasion on such a stormy day.
Known as the 'Desert Fox' for his brilliant victories in North Africa, Rommel was celebrating his wife's birthday.
The Allied forces also carried decoy campaigns to deceive the Germans and divert their attention away from Normandy on D-Day.
'D' in D-Day stands for 'day' and refers to the first day of the big military operation.
In the early hours of June 6, 18,000 Allied paratroopers were dropped into drop zones across northern France.
Aircraft carried out 14,000 sorties.
American soldiers encountered the newly formed German 352nd Division when landing.
During the initial landing two-thirds of Company E became casualties.
Nearly 7,000 naval vessels, including battleships, destroyers, minesweepers were used to land 150,000 troops across five beaches -- Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
The boats bombarded German coastal defences and provided artillery support for the invading troops.
By the end of the day, the Allies had established a foothold along the coast of Normandy and liberated 80 miles of French territory. The operation began the advance of the Allied Forces further into Northern Europe.
The bloody battle of Normandy went on for two-and-a-half months and finally brought victory for the Allies.
The fighting by the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied forces on the western front, and Russian forces on the east, led to the defeat of the Nazis.
4,415 Allied soldiers were killed on June 6. Their plaques dot the beaches of Normandy.
The campaign turned the tide of the war and eventually brought victory to the Allied forces and an end to World War II.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
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